Strict rules don’t always work when the person enforcing them won’t follow through.

The following story involves a woman who grew up on a small farm with a stepfather who had serious anger issues.

He instructed her that the horses’ manure be dumped between poles, but he failed to maintain the system himself.

When things inevitably went wrong, he blamed her despite the fact that she was following his instructions exactly.

Read the full story below for all the details.

Following “Parental” figure instructions

About 20 years ago, my siblings and I lived mainly on a very small hobby farm with one parent and a “stepfather.”

Living in the U.S., they were married when I started middle school. They divorced when I was in my senior year of high school.

He had a ton of issues. These included anger management issues.

I was the only one willing to talk back to him.

This woman teaches horse lessons to children.

We also had multiple people coming over. They were mostly other children.

They came to get lessons with the horses. The lessons were given by me.

This was in exchange for their help. This was a huge help to me.

My siblings did basically nothing with all the animals, including chickens, turkeys, pigs, horses, and cats. They were supposed to help.

His stepfather gave her clear instructions about what to do with the horses’ manure.

To keep the animals alive, I took care of them over 80% of the time.

Well, this step-dad’s rule was that manure was to be dumped between two poles.

He was supposed to move the poles. This was so the older piles would age into fertilizer.

It was to be removed from the small property.

He consistently gets mad at her.

Of course, he would get aggressively mad at me.

This happened when new manure was tossed on older manure ready to be transported out.

He would attempt to force me to have everyone follow his instructions.

Well, his instructions continued to be to dump waste between two poles. So I just kept that up.

But she just reminds him of his instructions.

Everything eventually ended up blending together because he would not keep up with moving the poles.

He blew up at me.

I just reiterated his instructions back to him.

This led to more anger from him.

Being able to repeat his instructions back that led to the mess he was mad about felt pretty damn good.

Well, she followed the instructions she was given.

If the system failed, it was because the person in charge failed to maintain it.

It is hard to blame someone for doing exactly what they were told to do.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a tenant who decided to stop returning his neighbor’s misplaced laundry after two years.

Do you agree? Let’s find out what others have to say about this on Reddit.

Short and simple.

Indeed, right?

Here’s another positive remark.

Finally, this person likes it, too.

If you give bad instructions, don’t be surprised when the output turns into a mess.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who homeschooled during the day and worked at night, only to have her employer try to change her schedule.