It’s always sad to hear stories about people who never really got to enjoy their childhoods because of family obligations.
The young man you’re about to hear from has been helping to support his family for years but he’s finally about to break out on his own because he’s done his time, so to speak.
Is he wrong?
Read his story and see what you think.
AITA for implying to mom I won’t help her and my siblings out after I turn 18?
“My mom is a single mom and we struggle. I’m (17M) the oldest and I have four younger siblings (14F, 12F, 9M and 8F).
This sounds like a bad situation.
We have two different dads. Me and my 14 and 12 year old sisters share a dad and he walked out on us while mom was pregnant with my 12 year old sister. A year later she found another guy and he was bad news but my mom was so desperate for a guy and overlooked a lot of red flags.
She had two kids with him and then he stole from my mom and left without ever looking back and left us in a really tight position.
After that my mom would lean on me a lot and she asked me to step up and be there for my siblings and help more around the house and I did it because I wanted to help my mom.
I hoped it would mean she wouldn’t rush into another relationship with another dude who was bad news.
It was tough, though. Like having to help with homework and feeding my siblings and being responsible for most of the cleaning was a lot. My mom still did stuff it was just she had to work and couldn’t be there all the time.
He’s had to deal with a lot.
But after a year or so of that she started to take her frustrations out on me verbally. She’d complain about calls from my school (I struggle in school even still). Or if I forgot to do something. She’d tell me I couldn’t let her down and I needed to act more like an adult and do better.
When I was 14 she asked me if I could start making money and I did. I helped around the neighborhood for some extra money and I got a part time job a year later and gave mom the money from that. But it was like she’d take it all out on me more.
If I got home late from work or school she’d tell me to cut it out and I needed to be more responsible. If a bill wasn’t paid on time she’d tell me to be less useless or be more useful. If I couldn’t do something she’d ask me what good was I doing.
She is really hard on him.
She’d tell me I wasn’t a kid anymore and needed to stop expecting the life of one out of nowhere sometimes. Eventually I got so tired of it and it became so constant that I started saving money so I can get away ASAP.
Mom doesn’t know about it and I still give her the rest of what I make, because it’s really the only way to save without her knowing.
He has other plans.
My mom expects me to stay here and help for the next several years until my siblings are all older. I’ll be out of the house as soon as I turn 18 and I won’t consider staying for anyone, not even my siblings.
Mom has been extra nasty lately to me and she was saying I should start looking for a full time job now so I can be a full second income.
I was like “bold of you to assume I’ll be getting a full time job to help out more” and mom was then even more upset and she told me I need to get over myself and accept it.
She told me I was such a jerk for implying I could abandon my siblings like that. She was so loud my siblings heard and they were upset at me too.”
Check out what people had to say.
This person said he’s NTA.
Another individual agreed.
This Reddit user said he needs to just leave.
One reader shared their thoughts.
This person nailed it.
I think this kid is completely justified.
Get out of there, fam!
If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.