Rebecca Meyer
He and his wife agreed that when his stepson moved into his apartment before the new school year started, they would pay the rent and groceries while his stepson would cover the utilities.
His stepson had a job on campus, so he would be making enough money to pay the utilities he was responsible for, as well as for having fun going out or saving up. He co-signed on his stepson’s apartment.
“A week before he moved into his apartment, he secretly went and upgraded his entire computer system and spent almost half of his earnings this summer on parts and components that he did not need,” he shared.
“He had always had a nicer system than all his friends, and he said that when he went with his friends, and they were upgrading their computers, he got caught up in the moment and didn’t want to be outdone.”
His stepson’s friends all worked close to full-time hours this summer, so, naturally, they had more money to spend than his stepson.
But his stepson still decided to upgrade from his two fancy 4K monitors to a huge, curved monitor. Obviously, this upgrade was purely aesthetic and unnecessary.
After this, he was furious and sick of his stepson’s lack of financial responsibility. The amount of money his stepson spent on these computer upgrades was six months’ worth of rent.
This is also keeping in mind that he and his wife were still paying his stepson’s phone bill, car insurance, and college tuition.
Now, both he and his wife believe they should stop paying his stepson’s expenses. They realize upon reflection that his stepson has a more abundant life than they both did growing up, and they think that his stepson needs a bit of a wake-up call.
He believes that now they need to allow his stepson to “sink or swim” and learn what it’s like to work hard and maybe “struggle a little bit to start appreciating everything we’ve done.”
When he and his wife told his stepson that they were cutting him off financially, he was angry with them. He told them that he is free to spend his own money how he wants to.
