Canva

Turning a beloved hobby into paid work can create opportunities while changing why it feels rewarding.

This 16-year-old happily tutors others in mathematics for free and considers accessible learning part of his passion.

Now his financially stressed parents hope those skills could reduce allowance costs and even support the household.

Check out the full story below.

AITA for refusing to monetize my hobby?

For reference: I am 16 and the oldest of my other 2 siblings and my parents are currently in some financial stress after being sued (which they won but still needed to pay a lot for lawyers).

I adore maths and study it in my free time and love sharing my passion.

My way of sharing my passion is often by teaching it to other children and adults who want to learn.

I do this for free as I believe all (with some exceptions but you get it) education should be free for everyone to access and learn from especially the things that will be taught in school.

She has strong beliefs, but her parents suggested a change.

So I was pretty shocked when my parents suggested I make people pay for knowledge.

My gut reaction was that I want to keep my passion a passion and not a way to make money and that if I charge people for maths I would make others less passionate about maths.

They suggested this to be a way that they would need to give me less allowance and maybe contribute to the household.

(Where I live I would get paid more than double the minimum wage, so I would still make a LOT more money than I get from my parents).

But she is on the fence about it.

But the biggest component for me is that I feel guilty? (I think, I’m not sure what emotion) if I think about charging people and I understand it probably is pretty irrational.

And it is kind of double-sided that I think teachers should be paid a lot for teaching but that I shouldn’t.

AITA?

We all need to think about money at some point, and maybe this is the moment for her.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this.

Some advice.

Maybe it’s not such a bad idea.

Why not both?

This person has a different take.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mother who thinks it’s the school’s job to discipline her unruly child, not hers.

I agree.

This teenager wants tutoring to remain a generous passion, while his parents see a valuable skill that could ease their financial strain.

Offering some paid sessions while preserving free tutoring opportunities could respect both his principles and their practical concerns.

The mathematics is simple; assigning a price to joy is the complicated equation.