Money management gets tricky when you’ve got a full house and a teenager who thinks he knows better.

When one father discovered his son’s protest against online driver’s ed cost them extra in insurance fees, he decided enough was enough.

What came next was a perfectly calculated financial reality check.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for docking my son’s allowance the amount he made my premium go up?

I (50M) just switched insurance companies to try and save money because I’ve instituted a monthly budget to stop our overspending in our family of 5 (48F, 19M, 16F, 13F, and 5 cats).

Recently, there was a bit of a mix-up with the insurance company.

The new insurance company asked for my son’s (19M) Driver’s Ed Completion Certificate. I contacted the company, who said he cannot get the certificate because he skipped the online portion.

My son passed the in-class and road tests but has an “objection to online driver’s ed because it’s pointless.”

Now he’s getting on his son for dropping the ball.

I explained that no matter how pointless it feels, it was a term of our contract with them — and he broke it.

The result is that my insurance is $13 a month more than it would have been had he completed the course.

He institutes what he thinks is a fair punishment, but now he’s second-guessing it.

I still give him an allowance, and I’ve reduced it by that $13 a month because I hold him 100% responsible for not completing his course, which cost $715 by the way.

AITA?

The budget isn’t the only thing that needs fixing here.

What did Reddit make of all this?

This commenter agrees with this father’s judgment.

This user reminds this parent that 19 year olds are considered adults, and should be held accountable as such.

Maybe excessive coddling is to blame here.

No matter which course of action this son chooses, he needs to learn to deal with the consequences of his actions.

Actions have consequences, and sometimes those consequences come right out of your allowance.

$13 may not be much, but the lesson behind it is priceless.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.