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AITA for charging an 8 year old rent? In a Reddit post that stirred up a lot of debate, a stepfather suggested charging his 8-year-old stepson rent from his weekly allowance. The boy gets $25 a week for doing chores, which adds up to $100 a month. The stepfather’s idea was to take $20 as “rent,” leaving the child with $80. He thought this would be a good way to teach the boy about managing money.
The boy’s mother wasn’t on board with this plan. She felt that at such a young age, the child should be able to keep all his allowance. The stepfather admitted he hadn’t considered what would happen if the boy couldn’t pay the “rent,” but he didn’t think it would be a big deal.
After getting a lot of feedback from Reddit users, the stepfather changed his mind. He realized the plan might be too harsh and could upset his stepson. Instead of taking rent out of the allowance, he decided to put the money into savings and plan future talks about financial responsibility.
The disagreement with the boy’s mother was eventually smoothed over. The stepfather took the criticism to heart and looked for better ways to teach his stepson about money, reflecting on his parenting choices and how to approach financial lessons.
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AITA for charging an 8 year old rent?
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A stepfather proposed charging his 8-year-old stepson $20 in “rent” from his weekly $25 allowance.
His goal was to teach the child about money management.
The boy’s mother disagreed, believing the child should keep all his allowance.
After receiving strong feedback on Reddit, the stepfather realized the plan might be too harsh and reconsidered.
He decided not to implement the rent charge and instead put the allowance into savings.
He also planned future discussions on financial responsibility.
The situation was resolved when the stepfather acknowledged the criticism and looked for better ways to teach his stepson about money.
Let’s swiftly assess a handful of the top comments: AITA for charging an 8 year old rent?
my parents did shit like this to teach me money management
guess what it taught me instead? that all interactions with my parents are monetized, that they did not actually care about me, and that i cannot trust them. that the only thing they understand is money.
my father is now dead, and i barely talked to him when he was ill. i essentially do not speak to my mother. she only initiates conversations with me at this point about, shocker, money.
YWBTA. i can see how you think this is well-intentioned, but please reconsider and think about other options for helping him learn.
YTA. This is completely inappropriate for an 8 year old. If you want to teach him the value of money and saving, continue paying him for his chores and teach him how to save and budget for things he might want.
Show him how to save a percentage of his allowance and track it. There are so many more age appropriate ways to teach your child how to manage their money.
Illegally charging them rent should never be considered one of them.
ETA: Thanks so much for the awards!
YTA
He is 8. He won’t take any life lessons in money management from that. He will take away the life lesson that the adults in his life are fucking greedy and he can never rely on them for even the bare fucking minimum.
YTA. That’s not an age appropriate lesson. It’s also illegal.
YTA for charging “rent”, however, having him put that money into a savings account – where he could see it grow – would be a better lesson. And $25 a week? At 8? Lucky kid.
Edit: is this your stepson?
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