Mom Bills Son For His Monthly Expenses After He Asks For New Gaming System

In a post shared to the subreddit r/AmITheAsshole, she began by explaining that her 17-year-old son recently asked for money to buy a new gaming system, but she refused.

"He already has plenty of gaming systems and games and doesn’t need more," she wrote. "If he wants one he can save up and buy one."

As the mom explained, he returned to her with a budget he had calculated, insisting that if they followed it, they would be able to “afford” to buy the system.

"It was mostly just that if I buy nothing for myself for 2 months, we’ll have enough for the system," she wrote. "I told him hell no, it’s offensive and if he wants the system he has to save up for it."

This time, he'd gone to his dad for a solution, and the pair came up with yet another "budget" idea to present to his mom.

As she wrote, "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."

Naturally, this mom was not about to let her ex convince their son he could ask for whatever he wants, and expect to get it, just because his dad gives her a bit of money to raise him.

"I told [my son] 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."

"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 wrote. "Child support doesn’t even cover 30%."

So she posed the question to Reddit: Was she right in showing him how much he costs, or was she being an asshole?

"The son probably went to the Dad asking for the system and his response was 'isn't that what I pay child support for?'" one user pointed out. "And that's when the whole the game system is just a drop in the bucket conversation started."

"The father stuck his nose where it didn't belong and got bent out of shape when OP slammed the door shut on it."

"Young me was quite outraged that my mom was withholding ‘my money’ from me and ‘spending it on herself,’" this user wrote. "I fully thought I should be getting it directly to be able to spend on things I wanted."

After their own mom showed them a detailed outline of their expenses month-to-month, they realized, "what my dad was paying ‘for me’ was just a drop in the ocean of what I actually cost."

"This is the perfect time to have the budget talk," one person pointed out. "If this is something he really wants, cool, let's sit down and seriously discuss how we can achieve it."

Should the mom have shown her son how much he costs her every month, or could she have found a better way to teach him the value of a dollar? Let us know!

h/t: Reddit