Dad teaches daughter who used college fund for a trip that she can't 'pay her way out of messes'

Financial Management is one of the biggest learnings parents need to impart to their children. In the real world, individuals should understand how to spend money in such a way that it does not pose a significant danger to their future. Parents want children to achieve this balance before they are thrust into the real world. One such parent, u/Beneficial-Bottle693, wanted to teach their daughter a valuable lesson in handling money when they found out that their child had dealt with her college fund irresponsibly. 

The father started the post by introducing to the readers, the root cause of all the problems- the college fund. He explained how his entire family had been pulling in savings for many years to set up this fund so that his daughter could get a college education. After being at it for years, the fund had grown considerably with all of the family contributing to it periodically, including the daughter.

The father shared how he had made it abundantly clear to his daughter that "the money in there is for college only." Despite being aware of the same, the daughter wanted to visit a 'Supernatural' convention in Australia with her girlfriend and therefore, withdrew money from the fund without letting anyone know. While trying to deposit money into the fund, the father realized it was $10000 short and found what the daughter had done. This pushed him over the edge. 

The daughter had used the money to make purchases for "plane tickets, her girlfriend's plane tickets (other end of the country), both of their con tickets as well as booking a hotel." She made a one-week vacation out of it. He wanted to cancel the bookings himself but hesitated as all of them were not completely refundable. The thing that bothered the father the most was how casual his daughter was about the money for her college. She claimed that it was her money and, "she still has enough for college and this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience." He believed that this was not a good sign for the future if she had such ethics when it came to money. Therefore, he decided to lock the account and not give her access to the college money.

The daughter promised that she would return the money, however, the father did not believe her, given her casual attitude. The mother thought, that the father was being harsh as the daughter herself had contributed $5000 into the fund. She communicated to her husband that in reality, this meant that their daughter took only $5000 which his mother-in-law was willing to pay. This was something that he disagreed with as he believed it would spoil the daughter and teach her that she could "pay her way out of messes."

He wanted to be firm on his call despite his family disagreeing. The family, on the other hand, was ready to excuse the daughter, believing that she should be allowed to explore the world. People on Reddit had views similar to the dad's. 

The comment section believed his call to be right agreeing that the daughter should grow up understanding the value of money. u/pnutbuttercups56 believed that the money should stay locked for the daughter's benefit, "The money was set aside for school not just for whatever she wanted. I think the rest should stay for school only she's lost the privilege of unrestricted access to the account."

Editor's note: This article was originally published on October 25, 2023. It has since been updated.