One student loan borrower has recently taken to the internet to express his frustrations stemming from what he describes as a betrayal by parents spanning more than several years. Posting under the username, Fit_Excitement_7359 in the r/StudentLoans forum of Reddit, the borrower explained that his parents had long promised to cover tuition costs to attend college. Instead, they encouraged him to attend and borrow for loans while assuming contributions to the family’s bills would come at a later, unspecified date. Fifteen years have passed, and he is still digging out of that debt while his parents haven’t provided a cent toward paying it.
Growing up my words were go to college, take loans, they’ll pay for it,” he wrote. “They never paid a penny.”
Politics add salt to the raw wound
What is worse, as the borrower explains, is that politics played a role in changing parents in the course of years. Now, they are all-out MAGA supporters posting in social media, blaming student borrowers for their financial woes.
“Borrowers’ fault,” they say, even as they pushed their son into the same system they now snarkily criticize.
The borrower claims he tries to maintain a good relationship with them, but it becomes more and more difficult. “Almost everything about economics or politics needs to be avoided now,” he wrote, “just to be able to talk to them.”
He added, “I don’t even care that they won’t help me get out of the mess they talked me into… but hurling insults at me and others like me as stupid for going to school is getting to be too much.”
Very familiar story among borrowers
That post got a lot of traction, upvoted by over a thousand users as it resonated and found itself being shared among close kindred spirits. One commenter recalled their own father never paying child support, yet criticized people on government aid, as “others described the family members who took in those huge pandemic business loans, only to later decry student loan forgiveness programs.
A friendly fellow commenter : “They’re always putting themselves out.”
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Other borrowers add voices
User shakti7777 accounts a near identical betrayal: “My parents promised nonstop, ‘Don’t worry, we will pay for all your loans.” But then the loan notifications were sent to the parent’s house and never opened. That very time, a lender would contact the borrower directly before they could realize that payments had already been missed-and their credit score had taken a beating.
“I sorted that all out,” the commenter said, “but it ruined my credit score for years. My parents haven’t paid a single dime.”
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“It’s not about the money anymore”
For a lot of borrowers, this has gone beyond money; it has now turned into emotional distress. The fact that one is misled by family, coupled with the public shaming they receive by those who encouraged them to go to college has bred a very deep well of resentment.
“I guess I just needed to rant,” the original poster concluded.
And going by that volume of replies, he was not the only one who did.
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