📝 AITAH for continuosly reacting poorly to an expensive gift by my family?

By Istomponlegobarefoot • Score: 1 • April 22, 2025 1:32 PM


On my birthday in autumn last year, I (24m) received tickets for the Formula 1 Grand Prix (which is this year) in my country, as well as, what was said at the time, was a hotel stay for the three days of the Grand Prix. I was very grateful for that, since I like watching the F1 a lot even if I had only seen the races a couple of times at that point. The gift was paid for by my brother (23) and my father (61) and after receiving it, I worried that I had underreacted, since they pranked me by giving me a lego set of a F1 car at first, but when I voiced my concern over my underreaction to them and they both insisted it was fine.

Fast forward to this year I discovered that there was no hotel stay, but instead they had booked me a car parking space for RVs near the Grand Prix. The issue is that I, like my brother and father, neither have a car nor a license, nor a friend with either, since I live in a city with excellent public transport. I have to pay for the tickets to get there and back, as well as food and drinks there and I need to buy a tent to sleep in there, which I don't have since I don't go camping.

I felt kind of deflated, because they had both told me before that they had booked me a hotel with food accomodations, just for me to find out that this wasn't the case. In fact my brother didn't even (and still doesn't) have the ticket, but instead a digital voucher which I could redeem for a ticket 2 weeks before the event, which sounds sketchy as hell to me, as my brother already let himself get scammed for several hundred dollars previously.

When I voiced my concerns about everything, my brother brushed me off, but my father really wasn't a fan of me sleeping in a tent, as he apparently hadn't known about what they had booked, instead leaving it all to my brother. I complained that I hadn't gotten what they had said that they got me, even though they both received the exact gift they wanted (which had a similar price tag to the tickets and reservation), as I couldn't even be sure if that voucher was legit, since there was no way for me to check until I would actually receive the tickets. This urked my brother quite a bit and he insisted that it was fine and there was no problem.

Fast forward to today, I once again voiced my concerns over the legitimacy of this voucher and over everything I would have to pay for and organize to actually use that gift, mentioning that I was thinking about just selling the voucher. This really ticked off my brother as he called me ungrateful, when I mentioned that if was kind of a mess up that he didn't properly check what he had booked. He proceeded to throw in my face how much money he had spent on that gift (They both refuse to tell me how much it cost in total). This took me for a surprise since I always offer to invite him to eat out when we work together and he always takes that offer despite never offering himself (which is fine, I just want to point out that I'm spending more on him than he does on me, which I have no issue with, since he has more monthly expenses than me).

My father was also unhappy with that idea citing my lack of motivation, though he was calmer about the whole thing, offering to help me organize everything, which I gladly accepted.

I'm genuinely looking for feedback.

Am I the asshole for continuosly reacting poorly to an expensive gift by my family?

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