Imagine living in a family that consists of a mom, dad and three teenage children. It seems fair that the household chores would be evenly distributed, but in this story, that wasn’t the case.

This mom kept the house running for years, doing the majority of the cooking and cleaning while juggling a full-time job and raising three teens.

But when this mom went back to school for her master’s degree, her ability to keep up with every chore slipped—and so did her family’s appreciation.

After one too many complaints, she finally snapped.

AITA for telling my family if they don’t like the way something is, they can take care of it themselves?

I am married and have 3 kids, all are teens. My husband and I both work and my kids are in school and do sports or clubs after school.

I recently hit a ceiling in my field and in order to continue to grow professionally, I had to get a graduate degree, so I started my masters degree.

In the past, I usually did most of the chores. My husband does the typical “man” chores” my kids have some of their own chores like doing their own laundry, taking turns sweeping/vacuuming, cleaning their own bathroom, etc. I did a majority of the rest and all of the cooking.

The house isn’t as clean as it used to be.

I am a year into my degree. At the start I was keeping up with the chores I did before, but it quickly wasn’t possible.

I asked for help and was told “everything is fine, you’re being too picky.” But over time, my family seems to be getting fed up.

They’ve been complaining about things a lot lately. From eating frozen meals (I make them myself in a large batch and freeze them for later), to the floors having stains (if you cleaned up skills, they wouldn’t be there!), the stairs have dust and pet fur on them, etc.

If they bring it up, I tell them they are capable of handling it, but they just walk away and it doesn’t get done.

I’m doing what I can, but between work, school, and everything else at home, it can’t all be done. We aren’t living in squalor, i just can’t get to the finer details like I could before.

Things need to change.

Yesterday my husband came to me while I was doing my homework and said the shower curtain liner in our bathroom was moldy.

This pushed me over the edge.

I had my family come into the living room and told them that if they don’t like how something is, they have able bodies and can deal with it themself. That they have the skills to clean.

I have just been taking care of so much they didn’t see. Now I need them to step up. That they don’t like something, they need to step up and take care of it. And how I also plan to redistribute chores.

Her husband thought it was just about the kids.

My kids were arguing that they shouldn’t have to do more, they’re in school and busy afterwards.

I told them that I don’t care, I am busy too! And I can’t do it all. That need to step up or shut up, in nicer terms.

That night my husband told me I was too harsh and need to lighten up. He says I was rude and basically telling them their feelings don’t matter and I need to lay off of them.

I told him the message wasn’t only for the kids, it was for him too. He needs to step up.

She’s second guessing what she said.

But afterwards I started to doubt myself and felt too harsh.

No one is really talking to me right now.

I’m worrying now I was too harsh. I did change up the status quo in the house for my own personal reasons.

So AITA for telling them if they see something they don’t like, they need to step up and take care of it and not complain about it?

Was telling her family to step up too much or just right?

Reddit had her back, big time.

Many praised her for standing up for herself and setting boundaries, calling her family’s behavior entitled and outdated.

This person said these teens need to learn these skills anyway.

They were probably just spoiled and coming to terms with a huge reality check.

Mom hit the books, and her family needs to step up.

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.