Parenting as an only parent can get tricky especially when you’re also on a budget.

While some parents do great with tackling their kid’s needs, others still struggle to find a middle ground.

This mother gave in to her son’s needs, but is wondering whether or not she was right to charge him money for a room.

Check out the full story.

AITA for making my son (16) pay for his own room?

I’m a single mom of 5 (16M, 14M, 10M, 9F, 7M) renting a 3-bedroom house.

Up until 2 months ago the 2 eldest boys shared a room, the 3 youngest shared, and I had the smallest room.

The eldest son wanted his own privacy…

For the last few years my eldest complained non-stop about having to share a room with his little brother. Most of his friends’ parents are wealthy so he’s constantly comparing our situation to theirs.

He started working when he was 14 (a few hours a week) for a little extra money, now at 16 he works a lot (more than I would like) and this summer he has been working basically full-time.

She’s satisfied with the way his son deals with his earnings.

He’s not too bad with his money and actually saves some of it, but the rest goes to video games, clothes/shoes, and junk food.

2 months ago, my son and I were discussing his distaste for sharing a room with his brother and he said he’d drop out of school now if it meant he could move out into his own space.

They simply couldn’t afford to get a bigger place!

I told him I had looked at 4-bedroom rentals in our area, but they were just too expensive. He asked if he could pay the difference if we did move.

I told him no because during the school year all his money would be going to rent not his savings and his spending money.

That obviously wouldn’t sit right with me.

They ended up finding a way around their situation and she made the sacrifice.

However, we did come up with a compromise. For $50 a month he could have my bedroom and my 10-year-old could move in with 14-year-old and I would sleep in our living room (our couch is already a pull-out).

This was 2 months ago, and we already made the switch, and everybody is happy with the new set up.

All the money my son is paying me is going straight into my Christmas savings and then after Christmas will go into a summer trip savings.

Her friends were totally against the arrangement.

I recently told some of my friends what I was doing and they’re against it.

They think I’m wrong for taking any amount of money from my kids and a couple of them said I should have just given him the room without making him pay for it.

They make some good points, and I don’t totally disagree, and it makes me feel like I’m the bad person..

They had more than one problem at hand.

My 14-year-old son is also unhappy about the arrangement, he thinks its unfair older brother is getting his own room and that middle brother should have stayed in his old room.

I can see how he feels it’s unfair that older brother has the chance to pay for his own room when he (or the other kids) don’t have the same opportunity.

She’s wondering if she made the wrong decision.

It seems bad to renege with my oldest now, but I’m not sure if I made a mistake agreeing to this. AITA?

That’s rough! This single mother seems to have a lot on her plate!

Let’s find out what the Reddit community thinks about this story.

This user thinks the mother is at fault for not saving up for the son.

That’s true! This person wants to highlight the difference between to opposing situations.

Ouch! This user believes the mom won’t have a choice when another kid demands privacy.

Makes sense. the friends don’t have a say in this girl’s life.

Another problem! This user comments on how the mother needs to figure something out.

That’s a lot of opposing comments to the situation!

Maybe the mother needs to think of a permanent solution to the issue!

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.