Parental Discipline: How This Mom Dealt With Her 17-Year-Old Son’s ‘Excessive’ Request Is Apt!
A mother’s attempt to teach her 17-year-old son a lesson about excess and finances has upset his father. She went on Reddit’s “Am I the A******” forum to settle the dispute with her ex.
The mom says her son insisted she buys him another video game system when he already has plenty. After she refused out of principle, the teenager persisted. But his method of persuasion left him with results he didn’t quite expect. She wrote:
“My son asked me for a new gaming system and I said no because he already has plenty of gaming systems and games and doesn’t need more. If he wants one he can save up and buy one.
He then comes to me with a budget on how we can ‘afford’ the system. It was mostly just that if I buy nothing for myself for two months, we’ll have enough for the system. I told him hell no, it’s offensive and if he wants the system he has to save up for it.”
He then came back with another budget. This time his father helped him out. The mom explained further:
“He and his father calculated how much I’ve been paid in child support over the years and they decided it would be a good idea to let me know how little a drop in the bucket the gaming system would be.
I told him I spend that on his expenses every month but he didn’t believe me. So I told him that if he doesn’t think so, he can pay me for his expenses every month and I’ll give him the child support.”
Naturally, the plan backfired on the teenager.
“Surprise surprise, when I gave him the bill, it showed that when you factor in all of the things I pay for in a month, it’s much more than child support,” she added.
“Child support doesn’t even cover 30 percent. Now my ex is yelling at me for making our son feel like an expensive burden. But I think I was teaching him a lesson about money and unteaching him some of what my ex says about support.”
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Reddit users were as very supportive of the mother’s methods and not so supportive of the dad.
“I think showing her son the household expenses is a good learning lesson and should be continued,” one user wrote.
“He’s mad because you showed his son that he isn’t pulling his weight in supporting the kid,” someone added.
“If dad thinks that the new game system is so affordable, why doesn’t he just buy it for his son?” another said.