A woman has taken to social media to reveal that after buying her nephew a "life-changing" winning lottery scratch card, she believes she's entitled to 75% of the winnings.
Sharing her story to Reddit's 'Am I The A**hole?' forum - where a user shares their personal dilemma and other Redditors vote on who is in the wrong - the woman states that despite buying the scratchers as a gift for her nephew, he doesn't need the money and she does.
Writing under the username 'accountforaita33', the woman writes: "I have had a really rough year, laid off from my job and I'm out of unemployment options."
She adds that she has been able to scrape together enough money to own her home, pay her property taxes and insurance - but is "eating ramen just about every meal."
After declaring that she loves her nephew and would be able to get by "on the thought that I wouldn't be able to get him a birthday present", she scraped together some loose change and "bought him some lottery scratchers". To her surprise, he won on two of the cards.
The aunt continues: "One was for about $50 which was cool enough but the second one was actually into the middle 5 figures. I mean life-changing money (I can't say exactly how much because in our state lottery winners are all public record)."
However, despite winning the money, the aunt proclaims that he doesn't need it.
"His parents (my sister and her husband) are very well off. My nephew has a fully funded college fund and every material thing he could ever want," she writes.
Therefore, comparing his situation to her own, she told her sister - her nephew's mom - that it would be "really cool" if he gave her "at least 3/4 of the winnings".
"She asked if I was serious," the aunt writes, adding: "I said I felt I was being very generous because I really need all of it. She actually hung up on me. I texted my nephew and I think he actually blocked me."
The aunt concludes her post by explaining: "Here's the thing, I NEED this money. It's a matter of me eating or not eating. He doesn't. Am I the a**hole for thinking he should share the winnings of the gift I gave him?"
And over in the comments section, people sadly weren't sympathetic to the aunt's personal situation.
One person commented: "It was a gift. You don't get to ask for part of someone's gift. It sucks you're having it tough but still doesn't mean you're 'generous' for asking for only part of the gift. Sure ask them for help, but don't ask for his gift."
A second added: "If he hadn’t won you’d have been out the same amount of money. You were gifting him the chance to win more and guess what? He did.
"If he decides to give you some that’s an awesome, heartwarming gesture - which you’ve totally ruined the chances of by demanding 3/4s. Just try and be happy for him. And reach out to local agencies for help."
And a third Reddit user wrote, agreed, writing: "I feel for your situation, and if I was your nephew, I might have even opted to help you out. However, your expectation of help, 3/4 no less, and subsequently asking your sister for it is super off-putting."
What do you think of the aunt's plight? Let us know in the comments section.
