Stepdad forces kids to pay rent and bills while living under his roof, stepkid does to same to him years later after stepdad loses his house: ‘Now he lives under my rules’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Mar 10, 2025 9:00 AM EDT

We all heard our parents tell us that the rules and restrictions they forced us to live by were there for "our own good", that everything they made us go through was for a reason, to help us prepare for adulthood and what they called "real life".

Even though I would agree that teenagers, and even young adults, do need rules to help them prepare for life outside the comfort of our parents' home, many parents tend to take it too far. They like the power they have over their kids, and they lose sight of why the rules are there in the first place, and end up losing their kids in the long run. If you keep pulling the reins too tight, the strap is bound to break, and when it does, kids do not forget it, and definitely do not forgive.

That is what happened to the stepfather and his kids in the story below, and unfortunately for him, not only did his stepkids not forget his too strict house rules, they also got payback years later. Keep scrolling to read how that happened.

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    via studioroman

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

  • "If you could do it to me, I can do it to you"

    When I was 20, I lived with my mom and step dad in his mom's house. I paid 400.00 in rent and paid for my own groceries and covered one bill. This was to "set me up"
    via Tmarie02
  • for being an adult. I shared a room with my sister (18). Later I shared a room with her fiancé/husband. She also paid 400. The room was a small 11x11 foot with a small closet.
    via Tmarie02
  • My sister and I were both in college and worked full time. My step dad would get mad because we would be on the computer until early morning hours doing homework or on
    via Tmarie02
  • social media. He got a device and it turned off the internet (which we paid for), at 10:00 via remote. If he got a wild hair, he would keep it off.
    via Tmarie02
  • Now he lives with me and my mom because he lost his house with get rich quick schemes. He started staying up late watching tv. I pay for all of the streaming that he
    via Tmarie02
  • watches and I pay for the internet. He pays for no bills other than rent. Well, I put a limit on the internet, so now he has to go to sleep at 12:00 and can't watch anything until
    via Tmarie02
  • after 6:00am. He's upset his tv no longer works past 12am. He doesn't know I put a limit on it and on his tv solely and the rest of the devices in the apartment work perfectly fine.
    via Tmarie02

  • You know what, I can get on board with some parents' decision to charge their kids' rent, and as I claimed above, I also believe it's important to set some ground rules. 

    However, if you do go down that path, don't act surprised if when the time comes, your kids decide to do the same thing to you. 

    I only hope the kid who wrote this story will decide to reveal their actions to truly teach their stepdad a lesson.

  • spaced2259 I hope he is paying 400 in rent, buying his own groceries and paying 1 bill as he is an adult
    via spaced2259
  • Tmarie02 OP 800 and no bills. He doesn't buy groceries only snacks and keeps them in his room.
    via Tmarie02
  • Pay Bills! Amount Due L PAYMENT The 4444444 $31.31
    via JannHuizenga
  • mtngoatjoe Play this as a long con. Let him stew on it for as long as possible. Then someday when it comes up in a random conversation just say, "Oh, yeah, I programmed the TV to do that."
    via mtngoatjoe
  • When he asks why, say, "Well, you taught me to be an adult. And you taught me that as an adult, I can run my home how I see fit, including, turning off the TV at 10 PM. Just like you did with me when
    via mtngoatjoe
  • I was in college and trying to use the internet to study. You showed me that adults don't have to have good reasons to do things." Say it all mater-of-factly, and then just walk away.
    via mtngoatjoe
  • Tmarie02 OP This is exactly my plan. I want to know but don't want him to know.
    via Tmarie02
  • Canine0001 Yeesh. We charged our kids rent, banked it, then gave it back as a moving out gift.
    via Canine0001
  • Tmarie02 OP This would have been awesome, but my step dad has a spending habit. He cannot save any money ever.
    via Tmarie02
  • Visible_Barracuda_93 I'd change the limit to 10pm if it was me!!
    via Visible_Barracuda_93
  • Tmarie02 OP I decided to stagger the time to mess with him. So some days it will work perfectly and other times it will opt out earlier. This was my sister's idea. She said so that way he can't tell what's fully going on with the internet because he would do the same thing to us.
    via Tmarie02
  • Hiker2190 Nice. But I would've made the same time restrictions he made on you, AND I would have told him WHY nothing works after 10pm.
    via Hiker2190
  • PsychologicalRun7444 I'd go a little worse... Don't turn it on and off on the hour. Turn it on at 6:10 AM and shut it off at 11:50 PM. In the morning he might be a little late for morning news. At night, he'd never see the end of shows that start at 11:00
    via PsychologicalRun7444
  • Excellent_Ad1132 You pay for the wifi, get the password from your provider and you change it and take over the wifi. I have full access to my router and can do whatever I need to with it, but I don't have a problem with my family using it.
    via Excellent_Ad1132
  • 9lobaldude What goes around comes around
    via 9lobaldude

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family drama aita kids house mother siblings reddit story petty revenge parenting rent bills family sister stepdad Reddit money parents children Father
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