His father-in-law ran 3 heaters off a $900 emergency generator but refused to chip in for gas. Before the next storm, he made one change to the tank
'You don’t keep score with family,' the entitled father-in-law said.
Being a guest in someone's home comes with unspoken boundaries, especially when resources are tight. After a severe windstorm took down the local power grid, one man (u/Wild_Fan2671) hooked up his backup generator just to keep the furnace, fridge, and one heater running. But his visiting father-in-law treated the blackout like a luxury stay. He plugged in extra space heaters in empty rooms and kept the TV on all day. As a result, he burned through three gas cans on a generator worth roughly $900. Still, the man remained silent. But when his father-in-law refused to chip in for the next refill, the homeowner took matters into his own hands. He made one change to his generator that did the job, as he revealed in his Reddit post on November 3, 2026, garnering over 6,900 upvotes.
AITA for putting a lock on my generator after my father in law drained it twice and said family doesnt keep score?
by u/Wild_Fan2671 in AITApod
A brutal winter wake-up call
The trouble started when a savage ice storm knocked out local electricity for nearly a week. Determined to never get caught off guard again, the man shelled out roughly $900 for a reliable backup generator. He kept the machine primed and stored three full cans of gasoline inside his backyard shed. Nonetheless, when high winds flattened the grid months later, his father-in-law arrived to wait out the dark days. He aimed only to power the furnace, refrigerator, and the living area heater. Within forty-eight hours, however, the entire reserve was completely drained. The father-in-law had heaters running inside an unoccupied spare bedroom, an empty sunroom, and even near his workshop tools.
Refusing to pitch in
Still, the man tried to remain calm but couldn't for too long. That is because he learned that fuel was impossible to secure across town. So, he asked his father-in-law to pitch in. "He laughed and said, 'You don’t keep score with family,' and that he was not going to sit in the cold at his age counting pennies," the man recalled. To make matters worse, he repeated this same routine just two weeks later. Again, the man had to burn through $40 of gas for which he had waited in line for over an hour.
FIL's double standards
Tensions ran deeper due to a recent flooded basement crisis. Back then, the man had requested to borrow his father-in-law's truck and vacuum equipment. But his father-in-law flatly refused. He told him to "figure my own stuff out, because that is what being an adult is." The earlier refusal came back to mind when the generator dispute escalated. This made him set a firmer boundary before the next storm. Ahead of another forecasted storm, he finally secured a locking cap over the machine's fuel reservoir. The essential household circuits would stay live, but luxury heating was off unless the father-in-law hauled his own canisters.
When he noticed the padlock, he quickly messaged his daughter. He claimed that her husband intended to leave him shivering in the shadows over pocket change. But the man stood firm. This entire incident showcases just how money can be a friction point amongst relatives. In fact, according to a LendingTree survey, 1 in 6 Americans report that money has ruined at least one of their relationship, similar to this man and his father-in-law. Meanwhile, another 27% claim that even though money didn't ruin their relationships, it caused tension.
Playing the age card
As for the people, they didn't hesitate to call out the father-in-law. u/Strict_Wonder486 wrote, "Your father-in-law is a mooch who plays the age card when the bill shows up." Meanwhile, u/fakeuser515357 pointed out, "It's not just about the money, it's not about reciprocation or any of the other material things, it's about having a responsible, capable person in charge of maintaining your access to essential services - and one suitable heated space - for the duration of the power outage. He has shown that he's not capable of having that responsibility, and he's not willing to change his behaviour. It's not about keeping score; it's about trust, and you have no reason to trust him in an emergency."
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