Family Feuds·
ROOM RENT RIVALRY
A mother's home-office swap splits a teen and his sister, sparking a family blowup as a $60 weekly arrangement exposes favoritism and stubborn pride.
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The son got told he was "shit out of luck" after refusing the only room that could earn his sister $60 a week.
That was the family blowup at the center of a post from a 45-year-old mother with two kids: a 17-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old son. Earlier this year, the family moved closer to the parents because the grandparents' health was declining. The daughter was excited about the change. The son was not.
Then the mother's job switched to hybrid, and she needed a proper work-from-home setup. Her own bedroom was too small, so the choice came down to the lounge or one of the kids' rooms during school hours.
She started by asking both children if she could use their rooms.
The son said "no way in hell."
The daughter, by contrast, offered her room and even joked about charging rent.
So the mother made it a deal: if she could set up a small office in the daughter's room, the daughter would get the $20-a-day work-from-home allowance. That came to $60 a week. In practice, it meant the daughter usually did her homework right after the mother finished work, while the room doubled as an office during the day.
The son saw the arrangement and lost it. He complained that his sister was getting $60 while he got nothing. The mother said she doesn't give regular allowances anyway, just about $10 a week for canteen money and whatever else the kids need as it comes up.
That only made him angrier. He complained about the move, saying he never got to see his friends. The mother answered that she drove them back every two weeks.
The argument snapped from there. The son called his sister an "opportunistic bitch." The sister shot back that he was a "whiny little asshole."
To cool things down, the mother offered to let one of them spend the night at their grandparents' place. The son took the option and went.
But the fight wasn't over. While dropping him off, the mother's own mother said she was favoring the daughter and "should be paying them equally." The father disagreed.
In an edit, the mother added one more detail: the son had been offered the deal first and turned it down. She also explained that her bedroom is the smallest room in the house because of dampness from poor insulation in the ceiling and floor, so neither child was being sent there for winter.
"AITA?" she asked.