Mom's 'tough love' letter to entitled 13-year-old son garners praise from other parents

Kids grow up eventually to make their living, but what happens when the sudden influx of wealth turns someone arrogant and selfish? A mom from Italy devised an ingenious plan to teach her son a fitting lesson and put him in his place. Heidi Johnson decided to pen a letter addressing her son in 2015 when he was 13 years old. Johnson posted the picture of her handwritten letter to her son Aaron on her Facebook profile, along with some lengthy notes to update people about the situation that followed after she gave him the letter.

"Dear Aaron," the mom started the letter. "Since you seem to have forgotten you are only 13 and I am the parent, I guess you will need a lesson in independence. Also, as you threw in my face that you are making money now, it will be easier to buy back all the items that I bought for you in the past. If you would like your lamp or lightbulbs or access to the internet, you will need to pay your share of the costs." Johnson listed that Aaron is required to pay $430 for rent, $116 for electricity, $21 for internet and $150 for food. The mom also instructs her son to employ the trash can on three days of the week when he will do the vacuum cleaning and keep his bathroom tidy.

Aaron will also fix his own meals and if he fails to do any of the things mentioned in the letter, he will have to provide $30 to his mom as a "maid fee." "If you decide you would rather be my child again, instead of roommates, we can negotiate terms," the letter concluded. People in the comment section of her post appreciated Johnson for calling out her entitled son. Jeff Philips wrote, "It's just that time in life we all go through it to some degree, stand proud as a parent, teach them from your experience and get respect. I love it." Amanda Woder added, "I wish this worked. Unfortunately, mine realized real fast that I couldn't send him in public without clothes and I couldn't evict him. I had hoped that the shock would work, but it didn't. He just waited me out."

Johnson wrote two follow-up Facebook notes to clarify certain misconceptions people had about her open letter to Aaron and even shared snaps of a printed agreement paper between herself and her son. In the first note, Johnson summed up that she is excited that her son is getting successful online and in real life, but when her son got the letter, he crumpled it and threw it in the bin before getting upset. Johnson wrote that after doing everything to care for and raise her son, it hurts her to take a harsh step like this.

Fortunately, Aaron seemed to get the point his mother was trying to make and the mother and son had a heart-to-heart talk. Aaron started doing his chores to earn back all the privileges he had to pay for otherwise. "A lot of you have asked how is he making his money. He is actually a YouTuber and has managed to make teeny tiny bit of money off of his videos. Not enough to pay rent or for food. It was never really about having him pay me back; it was to help him gain an appreciation of what things cost," Johnson wrote in her second note, adding that her son quickly understood that he couldn't pay rent, utilities or food with his YouTube earnings.

"Again, I am not trying to make a buck off my kid. This came down to a 13-year-old telling his mother she had no right to enforce certain rules and had no place to control him. I made the point to show what life would look like if I was not his parent but a roommate," she concluded. Johnson had never intended to make the post available to the public, but she believed that "everything happens for a reason" and her son recognized his mistakes.

This article originally appeared 3 months ago.