Living with stepchildren can be hard, especially when they don’t see you as a parent. For one man, things got so bad that he felt he had to take drastic action.
Here’s his story:
My wife died in November 2022. She left me with three adult stepchildren, who have always made it clear that I am not their parent, even though I’ve been in their lives for over ten years. Their father has moved to the Philippines.
The stepchildren are 21, 22, and 25. My wife and I let them live with us because our city is expensive. The youngest is still in school, but the other two have jobs.
After their mother died, they stopped helping around the house. We didn’t charge them rent so they could save money. The older two paid their own bills, but I paid for power, water, internet, and all utilities. We even provided food for the youngest. Now, they do nothing to help, so I had to hire a cleaning lady.
I decided to sell the house. The price had gone up a lot since I bought it, so I could retire if I wanted. The house sold quickly, and I’m moving to my cabin. I gave each stepchild $10,000 and told them the house was sold. They saw the for-sale sign and knew about the open houses.
Now they are upset with me for making them leave their home. They grew up there, but they never treated it like more than a place to sleep.
I think their mom would be disappointed in how they treated me and our home.
They pooled their money and got an apartment, but if they only use the money I gave them, they will run out in a year.
People stood on his side.
- “Raise your hand if your parents gave you $10k when you moved out? No hands? You separated from leeches.
- “They were disrespectful to you and your home, and you weren’t obligated to continue providing for them, especially after they became adults.
- “You gave them nearly two years to start picking up after themselves and acting like they wanted to live there. They didn’t. If seeing for sale signs and open houses didn’t get them to realize that that’s not really on you. You also didn’t have to give them money to be on their own, but you did.
You’ve done enough, considering that they’re adults. It sounds like if they had been picking up after themselves, you probably wouldn’t have wanted to sell.
