Is it OK to charge your daughter rent?
Readers weigh in on the controversy
I need your opinion on this one.
A recent DailyMail article raised an important question about whether it was OK for a mother to charge her 18-year-old daughter rent.
The mother involved posted this video to TikTok, which shows daughter Jada reading and signing a proper, legally-binding lease with monthly rent to the tune of “It’s a Hard Knock Life.” Mom has decorated the video with the captions:
“When your 18-year-old decides to stay at home…
Teaching moment…
Setting up for success…”
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Mom’s viewpoint is that she is getting her daughter prepared to succeed in this ‘hard knock life.’ She had been a single mother herself, had nothing given to her, and has made a priority of teaching her kids about what the real world will expect of them. Each of her six children have signed a lease with her to prepare them for independent living.
The comments are very divided.
Some feel that the mother is being cruel, and violating the mother-daughter bond by asking her eighteen-year-old to sign a lease. They warn that this demand will only cause trauma, and perhaps end with the daughter not on speaking terms with the Mom at all.
Others cheer Mom, and praise her for her realistic approach to preparing her daughter for responsibility and adulthood.
To her credit, Mom seems to be doing pretty well at raising a responsible adult. Daughter Jada responded with this TikTok:
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So what’s your opinion? Here’s the poll:
Please share in the comments which way you voted - Good Parenting or Bad Parenting - and why…
You might find others agree with you. Or not.
good parenting. bonus points if the $100 a month goes into an escrow account for her daughter when she’s ready to move out.
When we graduated from high school, my parents told us their rules for adult children.
(1) If you attended school full time, they would pay for tuition and room and board, including living in their home rent free if you chose to go to a college nearby.
(2) If you attended school half time, they would pay for either tuition or room and board, but not both. You could choose which they paid for and which you paid for. Room and board in their home while attending school at least half time was $100 total.
(3) If you wanted to live at home while working or otherwise not going to school, rent was $100 a month and board was $100 a month.
There was also a secret rule that when you graduated from college, you got a check in the amount of all rent paid to them since high school graduation. You had to swear that you would never tell any younger siblings about the secret rule. I got a check for about $2000 which was a lot of money in 1982, and my brother, who had lived at home more than I did, got a check for $5000. I don't know what the rest got because by then I was out and supporting myself.
This was in 1977, so I imagine the prices would be higher if they were making the same deal with newly fledged adults in 2022. Not only did it not hurt us, it made us be intentional about the choices we made and helped prepare us for the day when we would be fully responsible for our own place to live and food to eat. Interestingly, for all the complaining we did about it at the time, similar deals were offered by all of us to all my parents' grandchildren when the time came.