A lot of us grew up hearing some variety of “chores build character” from our dads.

Pretty unconvincing stuff when you’re a kid, though most of us do eventually understand the value of being willing and able to put in a little hard work.

But what if you’re a parent to one of those kids who thinks a little differently?

Who uses their resources to find a loophole?

Is that commendable, or to be discouraged?

Reddit user Ok-Nectarine791 took to the forums to get a vibe check for his situation.

AITA for lecturing my daughter for paying someone to do her chore?

I’m a single dad to a 15 year old girl.

We live in an area where we get a lot of snow every winter.

Around the time she was 11, I taught her how to shovel and usually, we do it together.

We have a decent sized driveway and walkway.

Sometimes, if it’s too icy, I’ll do the whole thing myself.

So far so good, until one particular storm…

Over the weekend, we got some unexpected snow while I was at work.

I called my daughter and asked that she shovel out a bit of the driveway so I’ll have room to park and get out the next day, as well as shovel the walkway and steps.

She said yes.

When I came home, the entire driveway was shoveled and the walkway and steps were cleared perfectly.

I thanked her and said she did a good job.

She then told me that when she went out to shovel, she saw our neighbor (who’s a couple years older than her) was shoveling his walkway.

She offered him $40 of her own money to shovel for her and he accepted.

This little bit of subcontracting did not go over well.

I told her that I had asked her to shovel, not the neighbor and it was something assigned to her.

She asked what the big deal was, as it got done.

She also pointed out when she has her own house some day, she can easily just pay someone to do it so she doesn’t have to do it.

I told her she wasn’t in trouble but next time it snowed, she was helping me shovel and going forward if I asked her to do it, she was expected to do it.

She seemed a little disappointed but didn’t argue.

Unsurprisingly, Grandma comes to the rescue.

I was talking to my mom about the situation and she told me I completely overreacted, and pointed out my daughter has a point.

The job got done and it shouldn’t matter how it gets done, as long as it does, and the neighbor kid willingly did it (which I confirmed with him later that he was happy to do it for the extra cash).

My mom said I should’ve praised my daughter’s initiative.

So, now I’m left wondering if I was the ******* for lecturing my daughter on this.

So, did dad overreact?

Or is grandma being over-protective?

You can bet the internet had opinions.

@pottersquash believes the expectations were unclear:

@due_stranger_9057 says the money angle should be taken seriously:

@dncrmom has a bit of a different take on the cash:

In the end, Reddit was pretty solidly on Grandma’s side. @Sami_George had the closest thing to a supportive comment in the bunch:

Everyone loves a good mama and grandmama.

Money can’t buy happiness, but it can save you a serious back ache and some cold fingers.

And that’s not nothing.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.