Internet commenters were outraged after one 20-year-old man revealed why he was accused of financially abusing the ones he’s been keeping afloat for months.
In a viral Reddit post published on r/AmITheA**hole, Redditor u/throwaway_990287 (otherwise referred to as the original poster, or OP) said he’s been living with his mother, stepfather and stepsisters for months, slowly taking responsibility for the family’s finances—until enough was finally enough.
Titled, “[Am I the a**hole] for telling my step-dad that I’ll eat whatever I want in this house because I’m paying for it[?]” the post has received more than 12,000 upvotes and 1,000 comments in the last day.
“My mom’s husband is unemployed,” OP began. “Both of them do gigs here and there…but they barely bring money to the house.”
Continuing to explain that he is currently enrolled in college, the original poster said he works and pays rent, but has been forced to take on more and more financial responsibility as a result of his parents’ unemployment.
The original poster also said that his stepfather and stepsisters are “big eaters,” and chronicled how their affinity for specific foods eventually served as a sort of final straw.
“Ever since 3 or 4 months ago, my mom has been asking me to ‘buy this, buy that, buy this again’ and I’ve been doing their groceries too,” OP wrote. “So I’m basically paying for all of the food, plus rent, plus driving my step-sister to and from school.
“Yesterday, I remembered I’d bought a watermelon…it was almost all gone…[and] my step-sister said she wanted some too,” OP continued. “My mom’s husband said kids go first but I said…it was my turn.
“He looked me dead in the eye and said ‘Put it back, son. You can eat something else,’ so I just said I’ll be eating whatever I want because I was paying for it,” OP added. “Later my mom came and apologized for him, but said I was…’financially abusing’ my family.”
With inflation rates increasing to historic levels and the food-at-home price index—which includes items from all six grocery store categories—up 13.5 percent over the last year, many families in the U.S. are struggling to just put food on the table.
Earlier this month, data published by the United States Department of Agriculture showed that more than 10 percent of households are currently food insecure, indicating that at some point in the last year, there was difficulty providing enough food due to a lack of resources.
The same data also showed that in 2021, nearly…
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