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Do parents have a responsibility to financially support their children no matter what?
By Cortney Crowell — Written on Jun 09, 2023
A father opens up to the Reddit forum “r/AmItheA–-hole”(AITA) about a controversial decision he had made that strikes parents across the globe, sparking a conversation about whether or not a parent should support their children through school.
His decision has caused others to question his parenting.
The father explains why he refuses to pay his 25-year-old daughter’s college tuition.
The father opened the post by discussing his successful career and made it known that “My career is very prestigious and I worked hard to get where I am today.” He says that he tried to teach her valuable lessons about hard work and pushed her to develop a strong work ethic.
He explains that his daughter has lived with his ex and that they were divorced during her childhood. Obviously, we know that having divorced parents is already hard enough on a child, but he says that he provided her with everything she wanted and needed whenever she stayed with him during weekends.
According to the user, her first time at college started off well. “Two years in, Cassie started to gradually drop out. I say gradually because she went from 18 credits and on the dean’s list every semester to 12 credits then 6 and failing Biology and Math. It didn’t make sense.”
Photo: Reddit
His daughter told him she couldn't continue school anymore.
He was shocked by his daughter's decision, claiming, “What teenager doesn’t want a free ride with no cares! I was paying for everything. All she had to do was study.” After their argument, she went no-contact and moved across the country.
Years later, he said his daughter contacted him and said that she wanted to resume school but would need him to pay. The father explained that he didn't want to pay because he's "not an atm and since she’s 25, it’s not really my responsibility anymore.”
Reddit users were enraged by the dad's behavior in the comments.
The Reddit users in the comments heavily critiqued his parenting and labeled his actions, “YTA” meaning they believe he was in the wrong. One person wrote, “He's so self-centered that he can't even see that he failed as [a] parent. Building [a] relationship on '[Here's] the thing you want and leave me alone' basis is not what parents [are supposed] to do”
Other users explained, "I paid child support, gave her all the electronics blah blah, etc... She could have gone to ivy league. Never have you mentioned love."
His actions raised a lot of questions on discipline and parenting and if there's ever a time when your child is no longer your responsibility — but it seems like no one liked his answer.
Cortney Crowell is a writer from New Jersey that covers entertainment, news and human interest based stories