27-year-old daughter starts charging her live-in stepdad $400 rent after he tries to dictate what she wears and who can visit her home: ‘He can't tell me what to do in my house’

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Mar 1, 2025 4:00 PM EST

As children, we waited for the day we could live in a place of our own without our parents breathing down our necks and dictating what we could and couldn't do. Being a child means abiding by your parents' rules. Fine, I'll take it. Once we move out, however, it's free reign. We can throw parties, have potential romantic partners over for a candlelit dinner, and walk around in any kind of clothes we want. Living alone is beautiful for a multitude of reasons. That's why sacrificing our bachelor(ette) pads is so difficult when family needs to stay with us for a while. When said family starts acting like they own your house, especially when they're not paying anything to live under your roof. In this next story, a 27-year-old woman decides to start charging her stepdad rent after he tries to start dictating what she wears and when her boyfriend can come over "their" house. The daughter makes it known that she's had enough of his tyranny.

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  • Step family is still family, but that's only if you choose to claim them as such. Nobody is entitled to special treatment because they share DNA or a legal relationship with you, so the stepdad in this story has a lot of nerve to think he can tell a grown adult woman what to do under her roof. What's worse is that he isn't giving her any money toward household necessities, and the mother refuses to back her up. So, she gets creative in her payback.

  • "If he continues to make comments [...] he'll be out of the house as soon as I am able to make it happen.” 100 THE UNITED STAT IN GOD ONE HUNDE
    via Kateryna Hliznitsova For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "AITA for putting my foot down and charging rent when my stepdad started trying to tell me what to do in my own house?"

    My stepdad (55m) has been married to my mom (52f) about 5 years. They were doing alright but hit hard times and eventually had their house foreclosed on.
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  • So they moved in with me (27f). They've been living here for about 2 or 3 months now. And it's been going ok until last week ish.
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  • Also, my stepdad has been working a part time job but has not had full time employment since then.
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  • Anyways, I feel like some of the issues started since I've been on vacation, which I have for 2 weeks.
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  • Sometime during the first few days, he saw me heading out and made some sort of comments regarding my outfit. He said the shorts were too short and that I should reconsider. We fought about it back and forth until I just decided to leave because I was tired of reasoning with him anymore.
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  • He's been making a lot of these commments in various times and various different ways (eg skirt or shorts are too short, your belly is showing etc etc).
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  • I've told him to stop and he says ok and then starts up again. I can't say I understand. I think the straw that broke the camel's back for me was when I had my bf over.
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  • Cheezburger Image 10474243072
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • I've told my mom about it as well and she said that she doesn't support it but that this is a dispute him and I need to solve.
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  • He stayed til maybe 10:30 - 11 pm and left. My stepdad didn't say anything while he was here, but he emotionally imploded after he left.
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  • He said that it's wrong to have guys over this late and to be in my room with them alone. He said that we don't stand for these things in our house.
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  • I responded to him that he can stand for whatever he wants in his house, maybe even in a hypothetical our house, but he can't tell me what to do in my house.
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  • I told him that the days of him making unsolicited comments at me need to end. On top of that, I told him that from here on out I'm charging $400 a month rent with a month to month agreement. On top of
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  • that, if he continues to make comments, this agreement is over and he'll be out of the house as soon as I am able to make it happen.
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  • My mom was upset at first about it but I was able to calm her down. First, I told her that she told me that it was up to us how to solve this dispute and this is how I've decided to solve it.
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  • Secondly, I told her that he's been staying a while and starting to charge rent would make my life a bit easier for as long as he stays. She was a bit more amenable to that second point.
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  • Stepdad is just overall quite pissy. He hasn't told my mom or I his thoughts on the arrangement since he yelled at me about it the night of our big argument but he is just generally ignoring me when he can.
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  • SuperSherry813 NTA- I think your BF needs to come over A LOT more. I think you need to assert your dominance over YOUR home each & every day. If they get too comfortable, they won't be incentivized to get their own place.
    via SuperSherry813
  • Similar_Dig2585 That's actually a good idea. Maybe he should move in because if the threat of eviction doesn't stop him, maybe seeing my bf will haha. Bf hasn't been over since the incident but he hasn't made any comments on my clothes at all so maybe he's improving. Or maybe he just doesn't want to get evicted who knows.
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  • Artistic-Tough-77... Sounds like you found a good solution. NTA
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  • kdnona The comments on your clothes is really offensive. I'd have a hard time not answering, "Guess it's a good thing you're not wearing them!"
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  • yakkerswasnev... I couldn't live with that. Hard times for them doesn't equal hard times for you.
    via yakkerswasneverhere
  • fiestafan73 He's acting like the dad of a teenager, and not only are you not a teenager, he is not even your dad, nor is in he in his house. This is a great solution. I think you need to start talking with them about their plans to move back out on their own. This can clearly not be a permanent situation. NTA.
    via fiestafan73

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feud family drama aita entitled parents rental kids parenting entitled people karma entitled family renting stepdad daughter Reddit Parenting Fail karma parents entitled people
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