Parents take 60% of their 21-year-old son's paycheck, eat all of his food, and ban him from cooking after 7:45 PM: 'My dad has been unemployed since January.'

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

Aug 18, 2026 12:30 PM EDT

They are taking advantage of him, and he needs to leave them behind.

If your parents are asking you to pay rent to live in your childhood home, there's a good chance they don't even want you to pay rent and just want you to move out. Many parents are willing to be a soft place for their adult children to land when they're going through hard times, so they allow their adult kids to stay at their home rent-free as long as they need. That works well if their adult kids desire to be independent, and would only move home in the worst-case scenarios. That works less well if their kids are willing to leech off of them for their entire adult lives and don't feel a need to support themselves.

The period between graduating from high school and attending college is usually when parents are most comfortable with their adult children living at home. After all, it takes income to support oneself, and a high school graduate will have a more difficult time supporting themselves than a college graduate or an adult with a couple of years of work experience. However, an adult child needs to leave the nest at some point. Many young adults leave their parents' homes because they can't stand living there anymore. Saving money on rent comes with the stress of being treated like a teenager when you're in your early 20s.

The young guy in this story doesn't have peace or the ability to save money while living at home. His parents are making sure he is uncomfortable while living at home.

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Asian couple eating noodles — *Parents eating their son's food.*
*_{Featured likenesses do not identify those mentioned}*

My parents eat all the food I meal prep, ban me from cooking after 7:45 PM, and take 60% of my paycheck.

I (21M) work a physically demanding job and come home exhausted. My mom goes to sleep early and banned cooking past 7:45 PM because of food smells. To adapt, I started meal-prepping on Sundays.

His parents don't know what they're talking about regarding food safety

However, my parents eat my prepped meals by Tuesday. When confronted, they claim food stored over two days is "unhealthy." I asked my mom to save a portion of her lunch for me instead, but she never does.

Buying takeout daily is draining my bank account - especially since I give them 60% of my paycheck to cover bills while my dad has been unemployed since January. To make matters worse, they constantly criticize me for wasting money on fast food, even

Spoiler alert: you can't control your parents!

though they leave me no other choice. I'm paying their living expenses while they eat the food I prepare and restrict my cooking. How can I handle this situation or set firm boundaries while still living under their roof?

Even living with strangers would be better than this.

GenoFlower Move out already. If you have to get an apartment with friends, do that. Just move out.

Do you think his parents would tolerate him keeping a mini fridge in his bedroom?

isimplysay Stop subsidizing their lives. If you can't move out, at minimum buy a mini fridge (or tiny chest freezer) for your room to store your prepped meals and lock your room. You could also install a lock separately on said appliance in your room for extra security.

Tup1000 If you don't have it already, get possession of and secure all your IDs, Social Security card, birth certificate , and any other personal papers. Make sure their names are not on your bank accounts, changing banks if you need to. Then get a plan in your head about how soon you can move out. Don't tell them. Just do it.

Savбge Geezus, why do people have kids if you don't plan on taking care of them. Instead they use them as bank accounts and secondary parents. Im sorry OP

madmaxturbator adding to this: OP based on what you've written, your parents are bad people. you cannot fix this level of horrible people. what kind of sick mongrels take food from their own kid? after taking their kid's money?

Chicago Dash And they will likely try to guilt you into staying longer and continuing to support them. Those are selfish, empty words. Ignore them and move on with your life.

Lumsy Toaster_402 your parents eating your meal prep while calling food stored over two days unhealthy is genuinely impressive circular logic

Joy2b A small chest freezer is more reliable and cost efficient than a mini fridge. You can keep one in your room. Hungry people are less likely to impulsively go for frozen food, especially you make something that takes a long time to fully defrost. Start shopping for rooms and flats near you, it's harder to negotiate fairly with family than acquaintances.

magicke2 How much you wanna bet that they'll demand more money for electricity since it costs a fortune to run that freezer? LoL

I doubt they will accept that they're wrong.

Joy2b That'd be an amazing gimmick. Offer to pay more rent if they go through the electricity usage together and find out who's using more. Trap them into doing some real math and playing fair. Practically anything uses more electricity than a small chest freezer obviously. The microwave, the hair dryer, lots of things.

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