With the price of living rising every month, living at home is seeming like a better and better option for many young people.

Your own room, home-cooked meals, and spending quality time with the people you love. And let’s not forget one of the biggest perks: no rent!

But according to this user’s story, free rent isn’t always on the table when living with your parents!

Was he wrong to refuse to pay, or was he just being a mooch? Decide for yourself!

AITA for avoiding exorbitant parent rent

I (23m) am finishing my undergrad in the Spring, and won’t be starting law school until ideally this coming fall but potentially fall 2024.

Naturally my intention has been to return home for the interim, as I have between classes up until this point.

Now, my “mother”(53f) is suddenly requesting 1,000 USD/ month in rent for the room I use at her place.

But OP said that this demand for rent didn’t come from any real financial need…

This has nothing to do with finances, she’s a landlord on a six figure salary from her teaching job.

She doesn’t need my money.

I’ll avoid poisoning the well with details on my relationship with my parents, but I will say I don’t think I owe any parent anything.

If you choose to have a kid, that is a lifetime commitment to them. I didn’t ask for it.

While OP didn’t have the money to pay the rent, he didn’t really have any other option!

I’m posting this as I’m about to start going down the list of names for help.

I don’t have anywhere else to go and I certainly am not going to have thousands of dollars to give anyone anytime soon.

My “mother” insists this is normal behavior and my “father” agrees and wants nothing to do with myself or her.

AITA for expecting my parent to try to help me?

It’s not ridiculous to make your adult child pay rent, but when you don’t need the money it is a little tacky to hustle your child out of 1,000 dollars per month!

Reddit agreed with OP, saying the whole relationship sounded very strained even without the expectation of rent.

But another user said that it all depended on how long OP was planning on staying.

But this user argued that staying with your parents for three months wasn’t the burden OP’s Mom was claiming it to be.

Finally, this user said that now that OP was an adult, it was time he start contributing.

How’s that for a “Welcome Home”?

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.