Mom teaches teenage son a lesson after he recklessly spent $500 without permission

The fact that kids are not always obedient is no surprise to any parent. However, sometimes, their lack of obedience or not asking for permission can cause a big loss. In this case, $500 to be precise. In a story posted by u/The-Expert-Is-Here, her son made an unsupervised expense of $500 for a game around Christmas. She and her husband decided to punish their son for his mistake. To lighten the load off her chest, she decided to go on the r/TrueOffMyChest thread on Reddit to talk about it.

The mother starts the story by stating that she and her husband have a big family with four kids. Around Christmas, their 15-year-old son decided to spend around 500 dollars on something like Fortnite or skims without asking them. In order to teach him a valuable lesson about money and the importance of asking the parents before spending such an amount, the parents decided to punish him. They agreed that they wouldn't be getting their son any presents for Christmas that year. However, the mother being a mother, said, "It's killing me inside a little since all the other kids will get gifts, but I also think it an important lesson for him to learn."

After receiving many comments and questions on her post, the mother decided to make some edits and added a few pointers. She mentioned that her son, for a while, believed that his parents were just threatening him. In her own words, "We are kind of pushovers." Next, she said that while this isn't make or break money for the family, their sole purpose for doing this was to teach their son an important lesson. Moreover, she's already working towards getting a refund. She also mentioned that she understood the dilemma she was in had no right or wrong. There would be judgment for both scenarios, whether she punishes or doesn't punish her son. Lastly, she stated that they have a password to put in before purchases. However, it seems like the son had it memorized somehow.

A while later, she also added an update to the same story. She said that she spoke to the son a few times before he believed that he really wouldn't be getting a present for Christmas. However, he took it quite well. He helped his mother shop for his siblings. While the refund is still a work in progress, the son's account got banned somehow. About this, many parents in the comment section came to the couple's aid. u/Pwosgood87 said they faced a similar situation with their son and said, "We were able to contact Microsoft and have the charges reversed within a week. Since he did not have my consent, the tech told me they had to refund it, which they did."

While u/xcrazy_abc2f had a fresh perspective and said, "Sounds like he already got his Christmas presents earlier than everyone else." u/TDInsideHustle said, "It's a good punishment. Stick to it," the mother replied, "It's so hard though. I want him to feel loved at Christmas. I also want him to learn responsibility."