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Parents usually worry when their college student is not studying enough, but this family somehow has the opposite problem.

A hardworking 20-year-old pays for tuition and housing, earns good grades, and still gets scolded for spending too many hours studying.

Instead of loosening their other strict rules, the parents insist their child needs better time management while maintaining lofty academic expectations.

Check out how it all went down.

AITA for Disobeying the Study Rules my Parents Made for Me?

I’m a 20-year-old student.

I pay for my own tuition, and I’ve given my parents over $20,000 in “rent” so far.

I expect that will be enough money to cover living with them for the entirety of my degree.

This man’s parents told him to cut back on study time.

I’m in a difficult major, so I need to study a lot. And I spend several hours studying per day.

But my parents tell me that I’m studying too much and that I need to cut down my study time.

They said that I “don’t know how to manage my time.”

His parents have very high expectations of him.

I know how to manage my time, since I am organized, and the hours I spend studying always translate to good grades.

My parents also have high expectations of me, and they expect me to go to graduate school.

They expect him to follow their rules.

Their “rule” isn’t necessarily framed as a suggestion. It was more like a requirement that I must follow.

If I don’t follow it, I get scolded.

I think this would only be a reasonable request if they were the ones paying for my degree.

But he thinks they have no right to control him.

I’m paying for my own tuition and already paid to live with my parents, so I feel like they should have no say in how much time I spend studying, and I should do as much studying as I feel like I need.

They shouldn’t mind if I’m spending most of my time studying.

They didn’t want him to take a gap year.

I even offered to take a gap year to work, in case my parents needed extra rent money, but they’re forcing me to go back to school right away.

If I were to move out, I’d take a gap year to save money for rent anyway.

And they are very strict.

Moreover, my parents are strict.

They don’t allow me to go out with my friends outside of school, so I can “focus on my studies”.

To be honest, this rule is fine with me, but it seems counterintuitive to say that, if they’re wanting me to cut down on my studying.

Studying is a good thing. His parents shouldn’t tell him not to study. Let’s find out what others have to say about this on Reddit.

Short and simple.

This person offers some honest advice.

Here’s a valid point from this user.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a group trip that sours when additional guests are added without agreement.

And lastly, this person gives their honest opinion.

Despite paying tuition and substantial rent, OP was still expected to obey their parents’ limits on how long they could study.

Their rules also prohibited socializing to encourage academic focus, leaving OP trapped between studying too much and doing practically nothing else.

These parents built an academic prison and then complained that the inmate was spending entirely too much time hitting the books.