AITA for letting my little brother pay me back with his birthday money?

A Reddit user recounts a situation where their 15-year-old brother paid back a small debt using his birthday money, a decision that sparked anger from their parents. While the user asked multiple times if their brother was sure about using his birthday cash, the parents still found the act unfair. Were they wrong for accepting the repayment? Read the full story below.

‘ AITA for letting my little brother pay me back with his birthday money?’

For some context Today, is my (19M) little brothers 15th birthday and in his cards he got some money, ending up with about £15, a few months ago I let him use my card to buy a subscription for his xbox, we forgot to turn off recurring payments so at the end of the month the £6.99 got taken from my account and it wouldn’t let me refund it, I told him to keep it but I wanted to be paid back (I was thinking he just save up to pay me back as he sometimes gets given £1 or £2 when he goes to the shop) and he agreed to eventually pay me back, I then ended up forgetting about it.

Cut to today, he asked to use my card again because his xbox had an offer for a £1 month gamepass, I agreed and he gave me the £1, he then offered to pay me £6 for the money he owed and I mean… the £6 is from his birthday money so I asked him if he was 100% sure he wanted to now and I saw him thinking about it, he confirmed but I asked him again if he was DEFINITELY sure because he doesn’t have to use his birthday money, I won’t lose sleep over £6 and again, he said yes and gave me the money.

Our parents knew he owed me the money and our mum even said she’d pay me back herself (never did) and he just told them that he’d paid me back and now they’re mad at me for accepting the money but like… I did ask him MULTIPLE times if he was sure that he wanted to do that.

Here’s the feedback from the Reddit community:

Dittoheadforever −  You’re NTA. Neither is your brother. Your parents need to b**t out of this transaction. Your brother sounds remarkably responsible considering his parents don’t seem to think he should pay back money he borrowed.

apothekryptic −  NTA. Good on your brother for paying you back, he seems like a solid dude.

Such_Talk_8731 −  … be a big brother and find a way to give it back to him. Make a small bet with him that you know he can win. You’re not the ahole, definitely sound like a decent brother with telling him you aren’t worried about it right now. That was dope of you. But if it’s really not a big deal, give it back some how.

That’s just me being a big brother myself. He’s learned the responsibility and he’s shown you that. Giving it back or simply forgiving it would teach him the wrong lesson, but furthering the lesson by letting him EARN it back would be really good of a bigger brother.

TogarashiAhi −  So your parents are upset that you let your brother do the good and respectful thing? They should be grateful that you did their job for them.

knit-a-bitch −  NTA because he agreed he owed you and had said to you he’d pay you back. Then he had the thought to use his birthday money to pay you back he took that initiative you didn’t expect him to not did you ask. Your parents don’t have a say in how he spends HIS birthday money he had a debt to you and he paid it so they should be proud that their son solved his debts. That shows he had thought about it before he spent the money towards something else.

Literally_Taken −  Tell your brother you’re proud of him for honoring his debts! He’s growing up to be an honorable man.. NTA.

Important_Sprinkles9 −  NTA because paying back debt and being responsible is such an important lesson that many of us aren’t taught when young.

DARKWULFS −  NTAH he wanted to give you your money back that he borrowed you did good for taking the money not because you need it or anything but because from that experience your little brother learnt that when he borrows money or stuff from someone he has a responsibility to return it.

The same thing happened with my little nephew he gave me back some money he had borrowed from me to go and play with his friends on an internet café. When he told me that he has the money he borrowed I was dumbfounded I didn’t believe he would actually give it back when he had it. So I took the money and a couple of days later I gave it back to him as a gift to do whatever he wanted with it.

FyvLeisure −  NTA. Admittedly, the amount of money is so small that I wouldn’t have cared, but it’s honestly really respectable that your brother was so insistent on paying you back.

Somythinkingis −  They’re upset he’s met his obligation to repay a debt? I must be missing something!!??