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Growing up comes with chores. Even the annoying ones.

One young man hates cooking more than anything.

His mom thinks that makes it perfect practice.

See why dinner duty became the debate.

AITA for requiring my son to cook as part of carrying his weight in the house?

“I am a single mom of two teens. My son, Jake, graduated from high school last year. This post is about a running issue that we’re having.

My background: I’m in a professional career in which I average around 50 hrs/wk. In my area, my salary makes us middle class.

His background. Jake is a great son and brother, and I honestly couldn’t ask for better – even with the ongoing issue we’ve been having. He’s trustworthy, very respectful, and a good communicator, and he always steps up when asked.

All in all, I say (and he agrees), that we have a great relationship and our family functions well as a unit. Jake’s father is unable to provide guidance on life issues.

Jake’s been struggling.

Since he graduated, Jake has had some trouble finding his way. He enrolled at the local college, but he was uninterested in the courses and overwhelmed at the sudden responsibility of dictating his own life path.

We agreed that he could drop his course load with the understanding that he could always restart at a later date.

Jake had a PT job that he quit around the same time. I understood the reasons behind it and had no issue with this decision either.

Because Jake is not in school or working, he has a lot of free time.

My view: While I have been strongly encouraging Jake to get a job or figure out a trade to get into, I have not yet made this a requirement of living at home. Although he’s an adult, he’s a young one, and I’ve been giving him time to sort things out.

It’s only been a few months of him being in this position. However, I feel that a person who is not working or in school bears extra responsibility at home as they are the ones who have the most time.

I have required that along with keeping up with his own chores (laundry, bedroom, trash, etc), Jake should perform additional duties on a daily basis to keep the house running smoothly (cleaning floors more regularly, dusting, etc).

She gave him more responsibility.

Recently, I upped this requirement to include cooking dinner every night. The meals are not required to be fancy. These can be quick meals (think burgers and fries, spaghetti, chicken and rice, etc), can be cooked earlier in the day so that it frees his evenings, and can also be made in bulk for leftovers.

He’s not crazy about this idea…

His view: The cleaning is fine but having to cook feels like a punishment because he can’t stand cooking. While he’s not working or in school, he does have multiple issues that he’s juggling and is under a lot of stress in his life for varying reasons.

He’s not just lying around the house all day. He devotes a lot of time to his hobbies (with my support) which benefit his physical and mental well-being. Also, anything extra I ask of him, he does without complaint.

He feels that I’m being unreasonable in my request, my views are outdated (because I was born before 2000), I never compromise, and I can only have things my way.

AITA for requiring Jake to cook as part of carrying his weight in the household?”

Check out what Reddit users had to say about this.

This person offered some advice.

Another individual had a lot to say.

This reader said she’s NTA.

This person agreed.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a girl who thinks her family is doing too much in criticizing the tidiness in her small space.

And another reader spoke up.

Jake is not working or attending school, so his mom expects extra household help, including weekday dinners.

Most commenters supported the responsibility, though plenty suggested easing him into cooking a few nights instead of five.

He may hate cooking, but unfortunately dinner keeps showing up every night.