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AIBU?

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AIBU to want our wills to prioritise children over grandparents and siblings

227 replies

LauraTheExplorer89 · 22/09/2026 11:38

My DH and I are writing our wills. We have a 3.5 year old and 1 year old and have decided that the best parental guardian for our children would be my mum. She already lives a 2 min walk away, has the kids a few times a week and is an excellent grandmother. My husband's parents are 10 years older than my mum and live 3 hours away and although they love the kids and are great at reading to them and playing, they are not as engaging/hands on with the tougher routine stuff and we agree that they would not be the obvious choice compared to mum. Despite this, husband has said he feels guilty and wants them included in the will as wouldn't want them to feel left out. What do people usually do here? I've explained to him I feel like it's better to be as clear as possible as we don't want all of the grandparents debating who will be responsible for the children if the worst were to happen to us. Further, I definitely feel like what is best for the kids would be to have my mum care for them with her being much closer to them, logistically and in relationship.

In addition to this, he's said he thinks he wants to leave some money to each of his 3 older siblings in our will. For context, my husband is only one with children and it's likely this will remain the case. All of his siblings work and now have decent jobs, although, none own a house and his oldest sibling actually still lives at home. My husband and his siblings are all very likely to inherit a decent amount of money from his parents (probably £200k each) so at some point hopefully they'll all be able to get on the property ladder if that's what they want to do. My husband and I own our house with a mortgage and took out life insurance policies when we had children. We would not have as much money as his parents in comparison to pass on and I would like all of what we have to go to our two children. Is it normal to leave money in your will to siblings? I also have a younger sibling who with his wife (they don't have children yet) is in a similar financial situation to me and my husband and I told my husband that we would definitely expect to be included in each other's wills to which he agreed that we shouldn't leave money to my brother as he doesn't need it. I think I reacted quite strongly which upset my husband but I'm just not sure where he's coming from on this one.

OP posts:
onewayanyway · Yesterday 18:55

I would leave all money to your children but also your mother can access it for the children’s expenses (unless she can afford not to) I would leave mementos/ belongings to parents/siblings if you want to include them

Itsthewoluff · Yesterday 23:55

Tbh your mum is probably too old to take on two young kids full time, let alone your pils in their 70’s. It would be madness to name them.

His siblings don’t want kids of their own so certainly won’t want yours, so by default that leaves your mum or sibling.

Money goes in trust for your kids with people from both sides of the family as executors, so that there is someone from his side having to oversee money being released for their upbringing to avoid it all being spent recklessly, and to ensure they have an appropriate amount left when they are adults. Obviously some will need to be released for their living costs. Anything left I would say minimum of 25 years old for them to access the trust as you don’t want your kids pissing an inheritance up the wall at 18.

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