Dad wants his adult daughter to stick to 'chores-for-rent' deal for living at his home, sparks debate

It is the most debated topic whether adults living with their parents should pay a part of the rent. In many instances, people find it reasonable that adults should help out with the rent because they are at an age where they can work and support the family. However, a dad (u/NoDivide4576) wanted his daughter to help with house chores like cooking and cleaning instead of paying rent for living in his house. The 20-year-old told her dad that these chores were affecting her studies and she could not do them regularly. The father refused to agree to it, but many on Reddit came in support of the girl. 

"So, I have a 20-year-old daughter who is currently living with me rent-free while she attends college. When she moved back home, we made a deal where she would cook and clean the house as a form of payment for her living here. She agreed to it, and we both thought it was fair," wrote the father. He shared that recently, his daughter approached him and told him that cooking and cleaning were taking too much of her time and she was unable to study or finish her homework. The dad shared, "She asked if I could reduce the number of days she has to cook to give her more time for her studies."

"I told her that she should be grateful for the deal I offered her and that it's not that hard to do a few hours of chores compared to what many kids her age are going through," wrote the person. He further pointed out that some of his daughter's friends are "working 9-5 while going to school simultaneously" and that he has given her "the luxury of just handling some household chores in exchange for free housing." The daughter called up her aunt (dad's sister) and complained about the way her dad was treating her. Soon, the dad got a call from his sister, who told him he was being "too strict and should listen" to his daughter. The man asked people on the platform if he should stick to the agreement or change the deal with her.

Many in the comments found it unfair that the girl had to do household chores every day. u/Beautiful-Report58 commented, "YTA. You sound like Cinderella's stepmother. This is your daughter, who is attending college and you're treating her like a full-time maid. You are not asking her to do some chores, you have her cooking and cleaning full-time for a family. That's a huge difference. At the very least, the cooking needs to stop. You cook for your children and clean up after them. Then, if you want to assign a list of weekly chores, fine. Things that are done once and completed until next week, but not daily cleaning up after 3 people. That's exhausting and that's your job."

u/ProgrammerBig6254 wrote, "YTA; your daughter should NOT be cooking breakfast in any shape or form for your 10-year-old and your 8-year-old. Cooking an easy dinner 3-4 times a week is fine, but your sons should be helping her with the cleaning and they should be responsible for their breakfast! Cut the poor girl some slack." u/Crafty-Total8773 expressed, "YTA, it's your job to provide for your children while they are studying. Parenting doesn't stop when they reach 18."

Later in the post, the dad clarified that he was not trying to burden his daughter with household chores and that his sons were young and didn't know how to cook. He edited the post and added, "I'm paying for her college and all I expect back from her is a homemade meal. I appreciate the feedback, but a lot of bad assumptions were made about me, so I had to clear it up." He agreed to change a few things after reading all the comments. "To compromise a little bit, I might change some of the days she has to cook and clean to days where she has more free time to do so. I believe if she decides to take a 9-5, she will eventually realize just how good the offer I initially made to her was," he concluded his post.