Those first few years of adulthood are a weird time.

The line between independent and not gets fuzzy.

And it can lead to problems.

WIBTA for changing the locks on my parents apartment?

Backstory, I (19M) and my best friend (21M) are both in graduate school and dirt poor.

Housing had cost us an arm and a leg and we simply couldn’t afford it anymore.

I just want to take a moment and reflect that these two are 19 and 21 and going to GRADUATE SCHOOL?

As in, the school you go to after you already have a college degree?

Surely I’m misunderstanding something here.

My childhood home (which is around 30 minutes from our university) is a 3 story house, the third story being a separate apartment but still attached to the house.

My parents paid off their mortgage and own the house so they’re not paying extra for it, they use it for renters and whatnot but the apartment had been vacant for around 2 years so me and my friend decided to live there.

My parents agreed to let us stay for free, in fact they kinda forced us not to pay rent but we insisted on paying utilities.

My parents had a constant issue with crossing boundaries, so the only thing I asked of them is that they not to go up there since I HAVE A ROOMMATE…

You can see where this is going, right?

Now fast forward 5 months later, my parents had been coming into the apartment unannounced, and doing creepy things like analyze my roommates room, judging the fact he’s messy and picking apart my room trying to find drugs or something.

I don’t understand it.

I’d come down to say hi to them and they’ll be like “we were in your apartment, messy as ****.”

And I’m like dude you swore to me you wouldn’t go up there.

I argued with them and said I’m changing the locks and they bugged out said I hate them and “they’re my parents they deserve to know my life and see how I’m living”

So, what’s the right thing to do?

I understand we don’t pay rent but truly we’re broke and have no other option but I still want privacy not just for myself but for my roommate, wibta for changing locks?

Let’s see what the comments had to say:

Maybe scale it down a little?

You could try a different tactic.

THANK GOD I’M NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO NOTICED THIS:

This sounds like a controlling situation to me.

Like maybe the reason they insisted you not pay wasn’t so much to save you money as it was to have leverage.

Deal with this for as long as you have to but start looking for another option ASAP.

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.