Reddit is making one mom feel just about as welcome on the internet as she made her daughter feel in her childhood home. She misguidedly took to the Reddit AITA thread on Thursday, and is now paying the price for asking her daughter to pay rent.
Let us set the scene (or stage the listing): This mom has three children, and her oldest, age 25, asked to move back home for “6 months tops.”
“Our oldest moved out 3 years ago with her boyfriend, and got an apartment,” mom said in the original post. “The issue is rent in our area has more than doubled on average since. Their landlord raised the rent 40% in the span of 3 months, and they couldn’t afford to stay there anymore.”
The couple planned to move to the boyfriend’s parents’ house for a bit to save money while they figured out their next move. Unfortunately, the boyfriend’s mom and dad didn’t want his girlfriend staying there.
“So they proposed an idea, she’d move back in with us, him with his parents,” OP said.
Reasonable enough, right? The internet certainly seems to think so. But — of course there was a “but” coming — the mom and her husband “don’t feel that’s appropriate.”
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“She’s an adult now, and she needs to learn to take care of herself, not relying on handouts from her parents,” she said. “She offered to pay rent, but we would only do that if she agreed to pay the market average plus her share of utilities, which would mean she couldn’t save up like she wants to.”
“Because we aren’t doing that, she’s been force to share a 2 bed apartment with 6 other people, some of whom she finds ‘sketchy,’” she continued. “I feel for her, but I still think it’s her responsibility. At this point she doesn’t call much anymore and I’m worried this may have impacted our relationship.”
“YA THINK?!” the audience cried in unison.
Of course it’s going to “impact your relationship” if you ask your daughter to pay utilities plus “the market average” *eye roll* just to teach her a lesson. Especially if she now has to live in a 2 bedroom apartment with 6 other people. TWO bedrooms. SEVEN people. All in the name of Mom’s holier-than-thou “she’s an adult now” gospel.
Come on, Mom. How did you not know more than 4,300 commenters on Reddit would steamroll over you? Users are almost always pissed at the parents.
“Seriously? Your daughter is an adult, but she’s still your daughter? She’s not relying on handouts. She’s offered to pay rent. You’re really gonna charge her the market average to live at home? She even gave you a timeline. I think you’re being unreasonable. You completely acknowledge that she was screwed over, but yet you’re willing to let her struggle when you presumably have the space? There’s wanting for her to learn to be an adult, and there’s being unreasonable jerks.” said one commenter.
“And then she has the gall to wonder if it impacted their relationship. Lady, how would you feel if the situation was reversed? You’d better pray nothing similar happens to you cause she’ll probably leave you in the street,” said another.
Not only has this affected the relationship between Mom and her eldest, but commenters point out that this isn’t good when it comes to the other children, either. They watched this happen and have likely internalized the not-so-subtle message: If you need help, don’t turn to your parents.
“They’re willing to let their kid be homeless to teach her a lesson? About what? The economy being a joke and workers being underpaid?” said another fed-up Redditor.
A screenshot of the post blew up on Twitter, and commenters were repulsed by the fact that mom wasn’t excited to have her daughter at home. And how in the world, they asked, did she miss the memo that being a parent doesn’t end once a child turns 18?
It’s also pretty telling that she was more worried about how this would affect how the daughter’s opinion of her, rather than being worried about her daughter’s living situation.
“A TWO BEDROOM APARTMENT WITH [7] PEOPLE,” said one shocked commenter on Twitter. “Oh you could be on fire and she probably wouldn’t spit on you.”
The masses agree that this little “lesson” will come back to bite this a*hole mom in the … well, you know.
“I hope OP enjoys the retirement home when they hit that age and might need their daughter to help out. Because unless you are willing to pay the market rate to her I don’t think she’ll help out, cuz you know, you need to learn to be an adult then too. Don’t come looking for hand outs.” one Redditor said, echoing a sentiment both Reddit and Twitter users agreed upon.
We just can’t get over how poor this mom’s decision making is. Parenting problems aside, why did she think she would find sympathy for her reasoning on the internet? You were barking up the wrong tree, Mama. Or should we say, knocking on the wrong door?
“Should have left this in the drafts,” one person said.
And she should have done the same with the lease she was writing for her daughter.
Before you go, check out some of Reddit’s wildest baby name dilemmas.
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