Imagine having a teenage son who complains about being treated like a child. Would you keep telling the boy what to do and making him do it, or would you try treating him like an adult and see how he handles it?

In this story, one mom decides to take the second approach, and she knows it’s going to be a disaster!

Keep reading to see how the teen responds to being treated like an adult from the perspective of his older brother.

“Stop treating me like a kid!”

My youngest brother was lazy when he was in his early teens.

This occurred during summer break from school. Our parents required us to be in bed at 10 PM on weekdays even during breaks from school, since our dad had to leave for work at 5:30 AM.

This had been a rule for years.

My mom was a stay at home mom who busted her butt doing household stuff for all of us that she didn’t have to do, but she enjoyed seeing her family happy.

His brother got a really nice birthday present.

My little brother had recently had his 14th birthday a couple days before and was lucky enough to have been gifted an Xbox and two games he very much wanted.

In our family this was a big deal because our parents, while not poor, weren’t exactly flush with money and had saved up for it by cutting coupons and cutting back on luxuries they enjoyed.

One day during this break, my 14 year old brother was up playing his newly-acquired Xbox still, hadn’t gotten ready for bed yet, and it was coming up on 10 PM.

I had already gotten ready and was reading a book (being in post secondary at the time, I thought it common courtesy to be quiet since I’m living there for free).

Mom wasn’t about to bend the rules.

My mom tells my brother he has to go to bed and to please turn off the game.

Suddenly, the Xbox seems to be the reason he didn’t like the rules any more.

Mom, looking very annoyed at my ungrateful brother, tells him it’s not an option and that he’s going to bed NOW.

His brother doesn’t give in that easily.

Little bro: “But why does HE get to stay up? That’s not fair!” (He, as in me, his college age brother)

Mom: “Because he’s an adult, that’s why. And you’re going to bed this instant!”

Little bro: “No! Stop treating me like a kid! I’m not a little kid any more!”

I see my mom get a funny look on her face. She smiles.

His mom is up to something!

I have no idea what’s going on at this point and I’m pretty surprised because usually by this point she’d bring down the sanctions hammer and possibly take away the Xbox.

But she doesn’t.

She simply says “Okay!” and goes to the kitchen where I see her whisper something to our dad, but I’m too far away to hear.

Dad goes into the garage where he keeps his woodworking stuff, and returns with ear plugs in his hand and our parents go to bed.

I head to sleep almost an hour later. My little bro is still gaming away.

The revenge is about to begin!

The next morning my little brother doesn’t get up until just before noon and has some cereal.

Then dinner time comes. Mom had made an eggplant casserole.

My brother hated eggplant. Normally she’d make something else for him, not this time!

Little brother: “Where’s my food?”

The revenge continues.

Mom: “Oh there’s some ingredients in the pantry for you to make dinner with.”

My brother ends up eating cereal again cause he can’t figure out what he’s supposed to do.

A few days later, he’s got no clean clothes left.

Little bro: “Mommmmm!! I have nothing to wear!”

His mom told him what to do.

Mom, smiling like the Cheshire Cat: “I usually do my laundry on Fridays. Which day would you like to use the laundry machines?”

Little bro: “But…”

Mom: “How about Saturdays? They’re free that day. Oh look, today is Saturday! Feel free to use them.” And she walks out of the room to go lay on the patio and read.

As she goes through the kitchen, she passes my dad and they both laugh.

My bro continues to wear his clothes saturated with teenage stank instead. Gross.

This sounds like fun!

At dinner, my parents announce they’re taking us to a matinee showing on Sunday morning of Terminator (I think it was the third one). My brother REALLY wanted to go. My mom said we’d like to go at 10 AM for the 10:30 showing (to the best of my memory, it was some time in the late morning).

Well, my little bro stayed up super late again playing Xbox. It was almost time to leave and my brother still wasn’t awake.

Normally our mom would have asked him to go to bed at midnight on a weekend, but dear MC mom decided she didn’t feel like stressing herself out arguing with him.

He couldn’t help but ask about his little brother.

As we’re putting our shoes on, I go “Hey, is it just us?”

Mom: “Well, we all knew the time in advance. Don’t worry, your brother will be fine.”

Dad: “He’s gonna be so mad!” and smiles at my mom.

The rest of us go enjoy the movie, including our other brother. Then our parents take us out to lunch.

The little brother really was upset.

We get back home around 2 pm or something like that and little bro comes practically running down the stairs, still in his stinky clothes that haven’t been washed, with tears in his eyes.

Little bro: “How come you went without me!! I wanted to see Terminator too!”

Mom: “That really sucks. The other adults went to bed on time. You asked me not to treat you like a kid anymore. Sorry that you missed it, maybe if you ask the neighbors if they need their lawn mowed, you can make enough to buy a movie ticket and bus ticket to get there.”

He just looked at her and cried harder.

It worked out really well.

My little bro and my parents went to talk.

Apparently my bro had cereal for lunch while we went to a sit down restaurant and he was salty about that too.

That night, my brother went to bed at 10 PM sharp! As a bonus, mom taught him how to do his own laundry and basic cooking skills over the next month.

He seemed happier, started thanking my mom on the times she did stuff for him, and my mom eventually told him she was really proud he decided to be respectful of the rest of the family.

My parents were so happy about his change in attitude that my mom took him and a friend of his to see the movie (it was still playing in the cheap theatres).

That mom did a great job teaching her son a lesson by treating him like an adult. It sounds like he learned about consequences and learned how to do a few household chores.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

It’s better to learn basic life skills before moving away from home.

I completely agree!

Here’s more praise for the mom.

Every parent can learn a lesson from this mom!

The teen years can be tough.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.