A mother decided to give her son a lesson when he bragged about his new “income” on Facebook.
Heidi Johnson was trying to teach her 13-year-old son, Aaron, a lesson in home economics, but her post went viral.
Her letter to him starts out, “Since you seem to have forgotten you are only 13 and I’m the parent, and that you won’t be controlled, I guess you will need a lesson in independence.”
Johnson says in the letter that her son is making his own money now and throwing that fact in her face. She says it will be easy for him to buy back all the items she’s bought for him in the past. She goes on to say, “if you would like your lamp/light bulbs or access to the internet, you will need to pay your share of costs:”
Rent – $430
Electricity – $116
Internet – $21
Food – $150
The mom says she will also charge him a $30 maid fee if he doesn’t start cleaning up after himself.
Johnson received a lot of mixed reviews on her post, so she wrote a follow-up letter.
“I see that a lot of people have varying opinions on my letter to my son. It was originally intended for friends, but I clicked public on accident. It’s out there; and I am not ashamed of what I wrote. I am not keeping it out for likes, dislikes, or anything like that. People can feel free to read and take whatever they like from it.”
“I wrote him a ‘bill’ to make a point. Nothing comes free. Someone is making a sacrifice somewhere down the line. When I realized he had lied to me about homework, I put time constrictions to his internet access. He, then, informed me I couldn’t control him. He was a free person. How dare I think I had any right to tell him what he could or could not do. He then decided to barge out of my room stating, ‘Well, I am making money now.’”
Johnson goes on to clarify that her son makes some money off of the YouTube videos he creates.
“This came down to a 13-year-old telling his mother she had no right to enforce certain rules, and had no place to “control” him. I made the point to show what life would look like if I was not his “parent”, but rather a “roommate”. It was a lesson about gratitude and respect from the very beginning. Sometimes, you have to lose it all to realize how well you really had it,” said Johnson.
Johnson says since she posted the letter, her son has apologized and is trying harder.