collections
This Divisive Reddit Story Has Everyone Questioning If It's Wrong To Sell Gifts You Were Given
When it comes to giving out gifts, what are the expectations around that gift? Are there any? Giving someone a gift always feels good, and receiving a gift is a nice feeling too. Do some people have the wrong intentions when giving a gift though? Do some people see gifts in the wrong light? It's one of those moral dilemmas that might not have a concrete answer but feels a little weird to think about.
This Redditor was helping out his family by gifting unwanted kids and baby items to his brother. They accepted many gifts over time graciously. It was only during a family get-together when the user's sister-in-law commented on selling baby items they did not need, calling it a "side hustle."
When asked, she admitted she likely sold some of the stuff the user had given them. This did not sit well with the user and an argument ensued. Now the user is looking for input on whether or not they are in the wrong.
The comments on this post were quite split with people on each side of the situation. Here is the original story along with several relevant comments outlining why this situation is a tricky one.
Here's the original story
"AITA For telling my sister-in-law that her "side hustle" makes her a bad person My brother (33M) and his wife (30F) have 2 young boys (3 & 1). My wife and I have a 5-year-old son so over the years we have given them quite a few items that we no longer used/needed. Crib, clothes, toys, various baby items, etc. Most of the things were just taking up space in our house and we knew they would put them to use so we had no problem giving them away.
We visited them a couple weeks ago for their 3-year-old's birthday party. During the party, SIL mentioned that she has been selling off a bunch of baby stuff as a "side hustle." Both she and my brother are the youngest of their families and she said that they get so many hand-me-downs from their siblings that they couldn't keep track of them all.
Her solution was to start selling these gifts off online to make a few extra bucks. She was basically bragging about it. I told her that is a pretty c thing to do considering that these items were given to them as gifts that they willingly accepted and were expected to use. I asked her if they had sold some of the things we have given them and she laughed and said that she was sure she did because we've given them a lot of stuff.
I told her that if I had known she was going to sell those items off, I would have given them away to someone else or donated them to a local non-profit that helps young mothers in need. She got defensive and told me that it's not like she's making a lot of money off these things, just a few bucks here and there. I told her that the people buying those items are probably the same people who would benefit from getting them for free and that she's taking advantage of them.
She went off about how hard things are with the economy right now and how they need all the help they can get financially. Mind you, both she and my brother have college degrees and work full-time. I know raising kids is expensive, but they aren't in dire straits.
I told her that she probably shouldn't expect us to give them anything else in the future and I would probably suggest to my other siblings that they refrain from doing so as well and look into other options for donating things. She got defensive again and told me that she doesn't feel like she's doing anything wrong.
I told her she's entitled to feel that way, but my opinion of her as a person is now lesser because of this. She said that selling things they don't use to make a few bucks doesn't make her a bad person and I told her that considering they were given these things for free, it kind of does.
By this point other people had noticed our conversation and my brother stepped in to end the conversation before things got too heated. He told me I should mind my own business and that if I don't want to give them anything else in the future, that's my choice. But that I took this too far by calling his wife a bad person for selling things they don't use."
(Source: Reddit)
