Parents' decision to charge their daughter rent while she's away on holiday sparks debate

Parenting is probably the hardest job on earth. There is always a fear among parents that too much leeway in the name of love can cause their children to become spoilt. A mother was going through the same ordeal and decided to share it with everyone on the forum mumsnet.com. In the post, she explains in detail how she and her partner can not conclude whether they should take rent from their daughter, who is about to be out of the home for a holiday.

In the post, she shares that her daughter is a University student and still lives with her parents. At first, she did not use to work, and as a means of teaching her responsibilities, the parents decided to take £100 a month as rent from their daughter. To pay them the rent, she began working part-time jobs. There were some months where she got good wages, while in some, the earning was not so good. Despite the instability in the income, their daughter was always punctual in giving them rent. This responsible attitude made the parents happy. Their decision to take rent was to develop kind and good behavior within her.

The point of contention develops when their daughter announces she is planning to stay with her boyfriend during the holidays. She is going to stay with his family. During this time, the parents cannot decide whether to charge rent to their daughter. It does feel a bit unfair to expect her to pay rent when she is not even staying, but the woman's husband thinks it is a valuable life lesson. In life, no matter what happens, an individual should always be prepared. He gives the example of mortgage companies not stopping their payments if the family is not residing at their place because of leave.

According to Pew Research Centre, people are showing a casual attitude concerning their jobs and quit with no hesitance. They do not pay heed to things like loans or responsibilities towards relatives while making the decision. Mostly, they depend on backing from their families to go through the lull phase. The reasons for quitting might be justified, but giving up on jobs without any plan just on the dependence of families is irresponsible and a dangerous pattern. Parents like @Claire2437 do not want to inculcate such patterns into their children and therefore attempt to teach them the value of every dollar.

People in the comment section have divided reactions while talking about the rent issue. WindowsSmindows was astonished that parents are charging rent from their daughter, saying, "I can't believe you charge her anything at all, but certainly not if she's not going to be there." Harebrain supported the mother of her charging rent, saying, "Our DD lived at home, whilst at Uni and paid us £100 per month rent just like the Op. It was a contribution towards energy costs, food, etc. She'd have paid much more if she'd been in student accommodation and was a token payment. She wasn't the only one of her friends to do this; it's not unusual."