'Spoiled' Teen Refusing to Share Birthday Gifts With Twin Sister Cheered

A teenager has been backed for refusing to share her birthday gifts with her twin sister.

In a viral Reddit post that has received 5,900 upvotes, with the top comment getting 9,700, u/gala_lala wrote that friends bought her presents to celebrate her 16th birthday.

She wrote: "Recently I and my twin sister both celebrated our 16th birthday and we both got the same amount of presents from our parents and family members but this year I got quite a bit of presents from my friends, including jewelry, candy, makeup, clothes and more but my sister didn't get anything from her friends."

The user wrote that her twin sister, who is part of a different friendship group, didn't receive any gifts from her pals.

The Redditor posted: "She started crying to my parents saying how it was unfair that I had got so many and she had got nothing, her friend group never buys each other gifts for their birthdays and that's fine but my friend group does obviously not as much as this year since it's our sweet 16 and I had done the same for my friends but my sister still complained even knowing this.

"My parents had come to speak to me privately asking me to share them with her and I said no, when I refused my parents started getting angry and took some of them to give to her I started arguing and shouting at them and my sister started crying even more saying that I'm a spoiled brat and always get everything while she gets nothing.

"This isn't true at all growing up we were always treated the same and had had most of the same or similar stuff," she wrote.

The Parents Are Sending 'Harmful Messages'

Karen Pavlidis, founder and clinical instructor of Child and Teen Solutions in Seattle, told Newsweek: "It sounds like the parents of the 16-year-old twins have a hard time tolerating distress in their children. They seem to be under the impression that they have to 'fix' the distress in the daughter who complains about her lack of gifts.

"What does insisting that the twin with gifts share really accomplish? By taking such a stance, the parents send harmful messages."

"The twin without gifts learns that others are supposed to fix her emotions and disappointments, especially if she wails loud enough," Pavlidis said. "The twin with the gifts is taught that her feelings don't matter and that she is not allowed to be an autonomous person.

"A better response from the parents would be compassion and validation of difficult emotions without intervening. Let the twins navigate this between themselves."

What Did Redditors Say?

Hundreds of people have backed the original poster, with the top commenter writing: "It's not your fault your sister doesn't have those kinds of friends. Nope nope nope."

Another posted: "Original poster if she wants some, she can pay some portion of costs you invested into gifts for your friends. This is stupid. She sucks and your parents too, at least in this case."

"I'd just pack my gifts and store them at grandma's house. This is too much crazy for me," wrote another Redditor.

Newsweek reached out to u/gala_lala for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.