quote:
I'm feeling old as dirt as I read this thread (and I'm really not, chronologically speaking). In my view, a kid doesn't have separate possessions. Everything belongs to the parents...yes, even those gifts. If OP's pops needed the money to pay for (whatever; family expenses, son's expenses), he's well within his legal rights to use his son's savings. Who knows what sort of circumstances existed in this family to send pops into his son's birthday money? Life is long & complicated, and his father used the funds as he saw fit at the time.

It is beyond petty to call a parent's use of a kid's savings as "theft". I can see that many of you did not grow up in a household where kids' earnings (however meager) were turned over to mom or dad to help pay the household bills. A family is a group enterprise, and at times, one individual's capital can be needed to benefit the whole.

If anyone is at fault, it is the judgey-uncle who planted this seed of "if your dad had invested, you'd have $XX". He's just trying to stir up shite. That's the guy I would scratch from the Christmas card list. So dad made different choices--he's not a criminal, nor does it sounds like the OP was economically neglected. If Uncle Superior really wanted OP to have investments, he could have bought the stocks/mutual fund shares himself and gifted them to the child, rather than simply turning over cash.

Barring disastrous unforeseen health issues or extreme financial ruin from something out of the parents control, parents that have children without being able to provide basic necessities for their family without siphoning the children's birthday money are almost certainly devoid of decent decision-making abilities.

Not particularly relevant to the thread as it doesn't fit OP's circumstances, but I don't agree with your post.

This post was edited on 5/23/16 at 7:46 pm