<prompt> Human: This is a serious question about the financial fairness of a gift, and its made complicated by family and favoritism. Its also long. Sorry. Thanks in advance.Please no replies about how I just need to be grateful to get gifts. I am grateful. But theres a lifelong history here and Im starting to wonder how fair this all is. Thats where you come in. BackgroundMy sister and I are both in our thirties, both with decent household incomes. Neither of us needs handouts, but we accept what we get. My parents are financially stable, comfortable; they give us gifts from time to time. This is very generous of them. I am also more independent than my sister, and my parents tend to shelter her, give her more help and handouts, etc. Example of material favoritismMy sister and I both have kids. My parents and sister are next door neighbors. I live in a totally different state. For years, theyve given my sister full time childcare at like 2hr. Theyre retired, so theyll also come spend maybe two months a year staying with us, and in that time we get free childcare. Usually not for fully 40 hours, but its still free. My sister gets super-cheap childcare for 9-10 months, and I get it free for about 2 months. For easy math, say babysitting two young children is 10hr. Theyre effectively giving her a gift of 8 40 hrs 38 weeks 12,160, versus my gift of 10 40 hrs 10 weeks 4000. The above is probably the strongest example of their favoritism but its hardly the only one. Please keep in mind the difference between our gifts. Im not saying that my parents arent generous to me - they are. However, its pretty easy to quantify how theyre more generous to my sister. Theres a history of materialfinancial favoritism that is in play here. The current issueThis one below might be fair... or it might be another example of things leaning toward my sister. My spouse and I cant agree. One of us thinks its fair, the other does not. I love this sub and all the well-reasoned financial advice, so I thought Id check with you all. If I sound a little schizophrenic, its because Im trying to fairly represent both of our perspectives.My sister and her husband have two cars. My spouse and I have one car; weve been looking to get a second beater, something ok to drive around town when the other person has the good car. Mom had been wanting to trade in her old SUV for a newer car. My sister had been thinking about trading in her old sedan for an SUV. Mom saw an opportunity here.Instead of trading in her old SUV, my mom is giving it to my sister. Moms SUV is worth about 5000. Then my sister is in turn giving me her old sedan. My sisters sedan is worth about 3000. For the sake of this argument, please assume that all parties are trustworthy and these figures are correct. Last - and heres the part Im having trouble with - I pay my sister 500.Now, first of all, big picture, Im happy about this. Im getting a 3k car for 500. Sweet deal! But the thing that I cant quite reconcile is this: my sister is getting a better car for free, and she also gets a check. Im getting a better car in a way, but I have to pay for it.Now a big wrench in all this is that in the above childcare example, my sister is easily getting the better shake. But shes not writing me a check. What do you all think? First of all, do you agree that the financial math here checks out, or no? Is this fair, or is this one more thing skewed toward my sister?  <response>: What are you talking about? She lives next door to them. You dont.Of course they are going to spend more time with her and her family. Get over it. Meanwhile, youre getting a 3000 car for 500. That sounds like a pretty good deal, yes?Edit: and adding that the sister doesnt get the mothers car free...it costs her the 3000 car. 