My second uncle has been going on and on nonstop lately to the rest of our family about how disappointing his daughter (24F) is for not being “a real adult” and being a lot less successful than her friends.
My cousin has a group of friends his age, whose children his daughter grew up with, and their kids have all been close friends with his daughter forever.
My cousin strongly believes children shouldn’t receive any help from their parents in life once they turn 18 and parents have no responsibilities once their kids are legal, so he cut his daughter off on her 18th birthday and refused to pay for her school fees or anything, even though he had plenty of money for it.
She went to an average school and still lives with a rented HDB with friends after graduating, and she has an average job. She has no savings or investments since she’s paying off tens of thousands in student debt.
Meanwhile, all of her friends who she grew up with and had good parents who paid for their degree and helped them financially, and they’re all vastly more successful than his daughter.
They went to high-ranking schools since their parents were actually supportive financially, graduated debt-free, and they all have well-paying jobs now. They’re all living in nice condos without roommates and are starting to do “adult things” like putting down mortgages on homes.
Most of them have a lot of savings and investments already since they have no student debt.
My uncle is furious with his daughter since she’s in crippling debt and still has roommates, and he always hears from his friends about all the great things their kids are doing. He calls her his greatest disappointment and a failure, and they aren’t talking because they hate each other. He constantly whines about what a “useless child” he has.
I told him to just shut the f up already. If he wanted his daughter to be successful, he would’ve been a good parent and financially supported her.
He clearly wanted her to fail, so he can’t play victim now that she’s doing much worse in life than all his friend’s kids.
Editor Notes: Your uncle had the means to give his daughter a massive advantage in life. He chose not to. Now he’s comparing her to kids that did receive that advantage and is disappointed. Like dude you’re comparing apples to oranges here.