AITA for returning Christmas gifts I ordered?

A Redditor (28F) shared how they’ve been handling Christmas gift shopping for their younger cousins. One cousin (15M) sent a wishlist, but later demanded an eBay gift card instead, claiming he never sent the list and was too old for presents. After returning the gifts they ordered and purchasing the gift card he requested, the Redditor now wonders if they are being unreasonable, especially as the cousin will only receive one gift while the younger cousins get multiple. Read the full story below to decide if the Redditor’s actions were justified.

‘ AITA for returning Christmas gifts I ordered?’

I (28F) have been buying the Christmas presents that are given by my grandparents for their 6 other grandchildren for quite some time now. I am the oldest by 10 years and most of them are 12-15. We built a house together and now living with them it’s been a lot easier coordinating presents this year. The kids pretty much caught on that I pull the work for Christmas and mostly send links in a group chat with me and my grandma.

One cousin in particular (15M) sent me his Amazon wishlist that was pretty close to the dollar amount budget per kid. I went ahead and ordered everything on the list and thought he was going to be easy this year. A few days later my brother (17) let me know that the cousin showed him how to check what has been bought off an Amazon wishlist.

Few more days later and cousin sends a text to our grandma explaining that he is too old for sitting around opening presents and wants an eBay gift card of the shopping budget amount instead. He also basically said that he never sent a list and I must have bought him random stuff. At first I was pretty annoyed but whatever, he was going to be getting stuff he really asked for.

I’ve been dwelling on this for a few weeks now and was thinking about returning everything, which is really simple with Amazon. Talking to my mom and my grandma about it and we have a theory that perhaps he was attempting to blindside each of us to get double Christmas, something I would totally believe this kid would come up with since he has masterminded things in the past.

So today I returned everything and bought him the gift card. I sort of don’t care if this makes me the a**hole, I mean, the kid is getting exactly what he asked for. What may make me the a**hole is being a little interested in his reaction on Christmas to getting basically 1 present and his younger sisters getting a basket full.

Here’s the input from the Reddit crowd:

Influenxerunderneath −  Definitely not the AH. He is 17 and lucky he still gets anything for Christmas that isn’t from immediate family. And you are right he got exactly what he wanted! Let it ride.

peetecalvin −  Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.. NTA.

hadMcDofordinner −  Kids these days. They control the adults around them. It just blows my mind. They ask, the adults bow and give. NTA Keep proof of his demands to be shown as needed on the day when he complains and makes more demands.

kurokomainu −  NTA Whatever the smaller details are, the fact is that he lied to get his way. He either wanted the gifts *and* the money, or he thought that lying would be the easiest way to get the money instead even after already having sent his list. He’s lucky he is getting anything. This wasn’t an honest mistake.

Malibu_Cola −  NTA. He is a spoiled b**t, and honestly doesn’t even deserve the gift card. He’s lucky that he’s getting that.

FanSea8588 −  HAHAHAHA.. NTA. Kid gets what he asked for.

Appropriate_Art_3863 −  NTA-Update us with his reaction.

blueswan6 −  NTA I think you are right and that he did it intentionally to get more gifts. When the time is right maybe you or one of the adults should have a conversation with him about it. At his age he should know better and that what he did was try to take advantage of his grandma. That’s pretty crummy. Maybe talk to your grandma and ask if she’d be okay just doing gift cards/money for everyone moving forward to get this chore off your back and to avoid grandkids trying to s**m her.