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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To have promised a grand?

28 replies

Aprilshowersinaugust · 29/08/2018 13:08

Dc 3 is looking to buy a house imminently, I have promised a grand towards deposit, def def not well off but feel able to manage it and not be skint! Dc 1+dc 2 rent, have spoken to dc 1 and after initially being miffed, accepted the cash would also come their way when the house purchasing time came to them
Now I am worried that dc 2 - who is crap with cash and is on a debt management plan - isn't going to be so accepting of my plan. I have paid bills /food shopped and emotionally supported each and every dc as /when necessary, at the expense of my own mh and purse many times.
Should I have just not bothered and booked a spa week end with my cash instead?

OP posts:
dingdongdigeridoo · 29/08/2018 13:10

Why even tell the other two? I don’t know if my parents have helped my siblings with cash. It just doesn’t come up in conversation.

Fishface77 · 29/08/2018 13:10

Nope.
Draw your line in the sand.
Advise they can have the money when they purchase a house or (depending on the age) when they are 30/40 if they haven’t.

kaytee87 · 29/08/2018 13:12

The money is for a deposit for a house, not for anything else. If your kids complain about it then they're ungrateful wretches.

TrappedByATurtle · 29/08/2018 13:13

Why tell the others? In my opinion, if you do it for one then you do it for all.
BUT It's your money, so if you want to make it contingent on something then that is ok too. So I will give you this for a house deposit is fine if you do the same when the others are at that stage too.

Di11y · 29/08/2018 13:14

If you're feeling generous maybe £1k to dc2 if he's buying a car or something. But buying your first house happens once and fair to offer cash for that milestone.

My dad did with first house, wedding (further education for my brothers) and children (No alternative for probably forever single brothers). It's up to you.

Aprilshowersinaugust · 29/08/2018 13:15

Thanks!! The thing is dc 1+2 have both had 3 rentals each that I have helped with decoration and moved them all so in terms of cash spent they have actually had more than that each already!! Cold cash always seems so much more appealing though!!
Dc 1 was in on the mortgage appointment discussion but dc 2 may not hear about it at all!!
Yikes my adult dc may be flying the nest at bloody last!!

OP posts:
BlackrockMum · 29/08/2018 13:25

no you know this is the right thing to do, and you are only assuming dc 2 will object, so why discuss it with them, its between you and the one buying the house? we all want to be fair with our kids but we have to decide how that's best achieved, what you could possibly do is say to DC3 that that you are really happy you are in this position now to help them and you don't expect the money back for yourself but you would hope that if one of their siblings is lucky enough to buy in the future that they might be in a position to help them, and in turn they might be able to help last sibling, if you are not in the same position. you'd know how best to word it.

TakeMeToKernow · 29/08/2018 13:26

Is the grand a gift or a loan? My parents "loaned" £3k for my deposit and didn't ask for it back (I saved up and offered it, but they said "you hang on to it for now"). If my DB hadn't needed help really quite suddenly to purchase a house, I don't think they would ever have asked for it back. As it is, both me and my DPs have "loaned" my DB in excess of £5k each. I know my DPs will make sure that I actually see my "loan" back, but I'm sure they won't...

My point being, I may have been upset at my DB getting a bigger "gift" than me, but I really can't feel upset about a "loan" (that will never be paid back...). There's genuinely no hard feelings. For context, my DPs are NOT well-off.

Your DCs sound very lucky to have you, in any event :)

Aprilshowersinaugust · 29/08/2018 13:28

It will be a gift, can't imagine taking cash back off a dc!!
Thanks for all the advice.

OP posts:
KitKat1985 · 29/08/2018 13:41

Personally I think giving money to one DC and not the others is asking for family resentments. What if DC1 or DC2 never want to buy a house for whatever reason?

WhyIsntGeorgeCalledPeterOrPaul · 29/08/2018 13:46

What if DC1 or DC2 never want to buy a house for whatever reason?

Then they don't need the money for a deposit!

My parents gave me and all my siblings some help with cash for house deposits. None of us ever would have asked for money for no reason just because an older sibling was buying a house at that moment.

TrappedByATurtle · 29/08/2018 13:47

What if DC1 or DC2 never want to buy a house for whatever reason?

That's their choice. What if they say they never want to buy a house and in 5 years time, they change their mind?

My IL's loaned us some money for our house. BIL doesn't want to buy. They've written it into their will that if they die, the loan is wiped and their estate will be split equally after the amount of our loan is deducted for BIL.

dreamingofsun · 29/08/2018 13:48

as long as you give each of them 1k when they want to buy a house then i think thats fare. what wouldnt be fare is to give one 1k and then when any of the others came to buy didnt/couldnt do the same.

Bluebell9 · 29/08/2018 13:49

My parents gave me £5k as a deposit when I bought my house. 6 months later they gave my sister £10k for her deposit as she needed more help. When I moved house a few years later, they gave me another £5k to make up the difference between me and my sis and put £10k aside for my brother for when he bought a house.
None of us would ever complain about how much was given to who and when.They explained to us all that they would help us where they could. We know we are lucky to have the support of our parents.

PieAndPumpkins · 29/08/2018 13:49

Just make it perfectly clear it's to help them buy a house only. It's not cash for the hell of it. DC2 might strop if she feels she'll never get to buy a house, but i'd stick with tough luck. She's presumably just as capable as anyone else in this country to save up and buy a house if that is what she really wanted.

Fireworks91 · 29/08/2018 13:52

This is the way our families have always worked. We both had money for a deposit, one a few years after the other but the money was for a house purchase and nothing else. We both knew the other had had it.

DH's mun often lends/gives to the 4 sons, but keeps a note written in a little book for the eventual day of Reckoning so it can be made fair. All the brothers know that they get help at various points and joke about it with her, but amounts are never discussed.

NewName54321 · 29/08/2018 14:17

There is a difference between fair and equal.

(I'm beginning to sound like my mother.)

So long as you have treated all three fairly, then, if there is an issue, it is of their making not yours.

StartingAgain1 · 29/08/2018 14:25

Don't feel the need to hand out cash to the others. My parents gave me money because I was the first to buy, the others have had money at different times for different things. You don't need to tell them or if it comes up say I have helped you with x,y,z and now it's "bobs" turn for help.

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 29/08/2018 14:30

If the other two children were close to buying a house then id hold off and give it to them closer to the time. If they may never buy then I'd, if able, give them all 1k at the same time. Giving to one and not the other is asking for trouble.

sophisticatedsarcasm · 29/08/2018 14:33

I really don’t care about anything like that. My mum lends my bro money all the time. He’s the sort of guy who has money that burns a hole in his pocket, he recently got money from our dad to fix his car, about £3000 I think, my dad had took redundancy so got a fair whack.
He never gave me anything but I didn’t actually care, my mum and Nan were pissed off, saying it wasn’t fair. I earn my own money which I’m quite content with. I guess it depends on the person.... money can be a very strong impulse.

Sophiesdog11 · 29/08/2018 14:34

Please keep it fair Op – either giving it to each when they buy a house – or making amendments in a will to even it up (but if you feel DC1 and 2 have had equivalent already, state that).

I bought three houses alone in my 20s/early thirties then a joint one with DH in mid thirties - with not a bean of help offered at any point. It was the days of 100% mortgages, so didn’t need a deposit for first one, nothing was offered, even to help with furniture/fees etc, but I had a job so could pay my way.

DB has not worked for most of adult life, pure laziness, always had to rent – he asked (or rather bullied) our mum and got a huge deposit (about a third of mum’s cash savings) when his wife wanted them to buy their rented house a few years ago (they got a mortgage by other means)

I found out by accident, also found out she was giving them a large part of her pension each month.

It wasn’t about the money, DH and I have enough – it was the secrecy and overwhelming feeling of him being the favourite. “But you never asked” was what I was told. No, but she could have told me and attempted to make things right in the will. Other members of the extended family knew and were sworn to secrecy, which made my hurt even worse.

I was NC for a while, trying to process my feelings but she was by then terminally ill so I couldn’t sustain the NC.

She did give us some money before she died, but it felt like an afterthought. I knew it would never have been given if I hadn't found out, and DB would no doubt have gloated when she died (she had kept the transfer paperwork!).

Unfortunately it sullied my memories of her last years, and more importantly, those of my kids. They adored her but as young adults, saw the hurt and upset that her actions caused me. I have vowed to treat my two the same at all times.

BitterAndOnlySlightlyTwisted · 29/08/2018 14:45

Fair does not always have to mean equal

caliroll · 29/08/2018 14:47

There will be resentment. It’s never that simple. If there was a huge difference in ages - maybe but DC3 is presumeably the youngest. Inevitably, by gifting this sum, he is able to buy a house earlier than the others and potentially profiting from house inflation earlier. By gifting DC3, the £1k now - that may actually be worth thousands more by the time your next DC is ready to buy.

This has happened in DH’s family except the sum involved was in the tens of thousands more and the other 2 siblings received nowt. The discrepancy is supposed to be accounted for in the parental will - except that it hasn’t. They’re not holding their breath. Causes family strife. I wouldn’t do it unless you are in a position to gift the same amount to each of them.

Again, the favoured sibling was the youngest - no disabilities or special needs involved - just clearly the golden child! Don’t do it!

kaytee87 · 29/08/2018 14:52

My mum bought db, sil & nephew a house in order that they could live in a nice area with us.
I don't resent it at all, I'd much rather my nephew could go to a decent school and live near us than be petty and demand things from my mum too. I don't need financial help, my mum loves me just as much and is as generous with time as she is with money.
I'd feel terrible if i was living in my lovely house in a nice area and other members of my family weren't.

DontCallMeBaby · 29/08/2018 14:53

The only reason I know my DB has had various cash handouts from my parents over the years is that my dad’s told me. And he’s told me specifically because he wants to make it fair - there’s a provision in their wills that means I get more because to make up for what DB has had while my parents are alive (I don’t fully understand it, which is kind of awkward as I’m executor’. I’m actually not bothered - DB has needed it, I haven’t. Broadly though, I think if you give one child something for a purpose, it’s a good approach to mirror that for other children - and if the need never arises, make provision in a will.

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