Mom has the perfect response to teen son who refuses to do 'girl' chores
What exactly are "girl" chores, anyway?
A 41-year-old mom with 3 boys, 12-year-old twins, and a 10-year-old, pays them $10 daily to do their chores. However, their pay is deducted $10 if they miss a day. The boys have to do their tasks 5 days a week, although it doesnāt matter which days they choose to work.
āThis system has worked swimmingly for us since it started, the boys have always complied with completing their chores,ā the mom wrote on Reddit.
Her 12-year-old son was getting ready to play Fortnite with a friend and told him heād be ready in 15 minutes once he finished his chores. When the boys started playing the game, he told the friend he was in charge of dusting and sweeping the stairs, to which the friend responded, āItās a good thing my parents donāt make me do girl chores.ā
After learning what the friend said, the mom told her son thatĀ chores are genderless.
silhouette of man standing near glass window during daytimePhoto by Gil Ribeiro on UnsplashāI spoke with my son and explained to him that knowing how to clean was not specific to any gender, that it was a life skill everyone needed to know. I also told him that I understood that other families functioned differently; however, in our family, everyone did an equal share,ā she wrote.
Over the next 3 days, the boy refused to do his āgirlā chores. So, when allowance day came, the two brothers who did theirs received $50, but the 12-year-old who refused only got $20. The mom and the boy's father are divorced, so the 12-year-old called his dad to complain that he got $30 less, and the dad took his side.
āMy ex-husband then proceeded to call me and tell me that Iām in the wrong for only giving him $20 and to imagine how it makes him feel that his brothers got more than he did. I explained to him that our other sons actually did their chores for all 5 days, so they were rewarded accordingly,ā the mother wrote. āAnd assured him that if he had decided to start giving the boys an allowance, then he can run allowance however he wanted, but this was ultimately the system I had come up with.ā
She added that her husband said she is being āinsensitiveā and āhumiliatingā their son.
The mom asked Redditās AITA subforum if she was in the wrong, and the commenters unanimously agreed that she was right. Other commenters noted that she made a smart decision leaving her ex-husband because he took the side of his child, who refused to do work for sexist reasons.
The only problem the commenters had was that the mom was being a little too generous by giving them $50 a week. Thatās $600 a month for 3 kids.
"Itās the real world, you donāt do your job, you donāt get paid, and I actually think $10 a day is pretty generous for allowance," Longjumping-Gur-6581 wrote. "$10/day is insane for that age,ā fIumpf added.
āYouāre not taking money out of your sonās allowance, youāre not paying him for services not rendered,ā Excitedorca wrote. āThe sexist, misogynistic reasons behind not completing the chores need to be corrected and that wonāt happen by rewarding it.ā
This article originally appeared on 9.22.23