Daughter Gets Back At Strict Mom By Setting Same Cruel House Rules After She Asks To Move In

Oct 10, 2022 by apost team

They say you can’t choose your family and for some, that might be a lifetime sentence to unpleasantness, feelings of ill-will and general discomfort. This is particularly true if you’ve had to suffer through living in the same house as overbearing, unreasonable and uncaring parents. Such traumatic experiences in childhood can scar us for life and lead to distressing mental baggage that requires unpacking in adulthood, such as with a therapist, counselor or mental health professional. And sometimes, when our childhood demons come back to haunt us, we can work through our pain in more peculiar ways.

Such was the case for one woman who had a rough childhood growing up with her mother. After years of being mistreated, she was finally allowed to move out to live with her father at 16. Now years later, she had happily settled down with her husband and cats. Her mother, meanwhile, remarried, made poor career choices, became a widow and, after getting into heavy debt, lost her house. However, despite her mother having favored her brother more, she showed up at the daughter’s house to ask if she could live with them.

The woman took to Reddit to recount her reaction to her mother’s request, which may not seem particularly compassionate but starts to make sense once she described the horrible conditions she had to go through under her mother’s roof as a child. Since posting her story on Aug. 23, 2022, she has racked up more than 32,000 likes and 1,800 comments, many from readers who wanted to share their own similarly horrifying childhood experiences.

In the post, the woman expressed her bewilderment at her mother’s appeal. While she had no intention of saying yes, she could not give up the opportunity to get her back.

“I told her she could live with us … if she decided to follow the house rules,” she wrote before stating them as below.

“All electronics were to be turned off by 6pm. If she was caught with any after that they would be taken away and sold at the next yard sale.

“Bedtime was 7:30, if I caught her up I would take away all of her clothing for the week.

“She may only shower for 5 minutes, once every three days.

“All chores must be done the moment she wakes up. If … not she will not be getting meals for the day.

“She must make sure she is alert at all times, if I and hubby need something done … or else she will lose her bedding privileges for the night.

“She will be in charge of cooking one meal each day, that I choose, if it is not made to my liking she will not be allowed to join us and instead will eat the cheapest frozen meal available.

“I will be reading all her mail, text messages, and emails. I will give her the ones I deem acceptable communication.

“Her car will be my own personal travel car, she will also drive me where ever I want. She will still have to pay for gas.

“If at any point she displeases me, I will be calling my brother up to pick her up from a nearby gas station. I will get to choose what she takes to put in a torn-up backpack before dropping her off without looking back,” read the list of house rules.

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The woman continued the post by saying her mother was shocked.

“She called me a monster, told me these conditions were inhuman, and asked if I was insane. These were the exact conditions I lived under for years as a teenager. The exact conditions she tormented me with for years until she finally let me go live with the one parent that loved me,” she wrote.

“I don't know where she went after she stormed out of my house. My brother called me and told me I have ‘the biggest balls in the family’ for the stunt I pulled. … I hope she finds a nice park bench to stay on,” the post ended.

Readers lauded the woman for her cleverness and courage. “She came to you because she thought she could continue to control and abuse you. Good on you for standing up for yourself and for not letting a narcissist to continue thinking they did not wrong,” one reader wrote.

“I read those conditions and was repeatedly shocked. She was just plain cruel. Those are(n't) ‘conditions,’ those are lightweight torture methods. No bedding? That's sick!” another user commented. 

“As someone with a dysfunctional family, family earns the right to stay in your life. It is not a given just for being a blood relation. I have a better relationship with my parents as an adult but I had to set firm boundaries to get there. Spent a few years very low contact. Nobody owns you just because they made you,” a third user wrote.

In reply to one of the comments, the woman wrote she had no regrets about her actions, as she shared: “The ballad of my moms downfall has so far been a 10/10 star performance. Would recommend to any child who was mistreated by their parent.”

What do you think of the woman’s reaction to her mother’s reappearance in her life? Do you feel like those house rules growing up were unreasonable? Let us know and don’t forget to pass this on to family and friends.