The teenage years are tough for everyone, including the parents. As your children begin to grow into young adults before your eyes, they often go through some growing pains in the process. Often this includes attempting to assert their own independence, but it doesn’t always come out in the best way. After experiencing this with her son, this mom wrote a letter of tough love reminding her son that he was, in fact, not quite as grown and independent as he thinks.
Mom Writes Letter of Tough Love to Put Her Son in His Place
Most often when disciplining a disobedient teenager, parents resort to taking things away from them: TV, phone, new clothes, or hangouts with friends. Entirely fed up with the way her son had been behaving, a single mum who went by the name of Estella Havisham decided enough was enough. In 2015, she wrote a letter to her 13-year-old son Aaron, outlining that if he was going to continue to disrespect her authority, then he would have to start taking on more “adult” responsibilities.
Though some people have commented saying that perhaps she was a bit harsh, most are very supportive of her use of tough love. The letter, pictured below, certainly gave Aaron a quick dose of reality.
Dear Aaron,
Since you seem to have forgotten that you are only 13 and I’m the parent, and that you won’t be controlled, I guess you will need to learn 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 I bought for you in the past. If you would like your lamp/lightbulbs or access to the internet, you will need to pay your share of costs:
Rent: $430
Electricity: $116
Internet: $21
Food: $150.
Also you will need to empty the trash Mon, Wed & Friday as well as sweep and vacuum those days. You will need to keep your bathroom clean weekly, prepare your own meals and clean up after yourself. If you fail to do so I will charge you a $30 maid fee for every day I have to do it. If you decide you would rather be MY CHILD again instead of a roommate, we can negotiate terms.”
Image Credit: Estella Havisham | Twitter
Unintentionally Viral
Estella didn’t intend for the picture of the letter to go viral, in fact, she didn’t intend to post it publicly at all. She meant to just send it to a few family members. By the time she realized what had happened, she decided there was no reason to take it down, as it was inspiring other parents to give their unruly teenagers some much-needed tough love as well. (1)