Parents Ask ‘Nerdy’ Son They Kicked Out To Come Back After Finding Out He Was Paying Their Bills, Not His Sister

Aug 02, 2022 by apost team

They say you can't choose your family, but you can choose how close you want to be to them. For some, choosing not to be close to your family can come down to a multitude of reasons. They can be unreasonably demanding of either your time or your money. They can be demeaning and unsupportive of your life choices. Or they can be incredibly toxic and take you for granted.

One person, u/plogan56, took to Reddit in July 2022 to share a story of a family far from the likes of "The Brady Bunch." The original poster recounted the experiences of his friend's cousin and his toxic family, attracting more than 17,200 upvotes and 590 comments.

He sets the scene by describing the initial situation his friend's cousin, who he called "Jack," was in. Jack was 28 and living with his parents in their two-story house. He paid for all the utility bills, including electricity, water and the internet. Jack also had a sister, whom u/plogan56 called "Tina." Tina had moved out of the house after marrying a man who made a decent living. However, Tina had taken credit for paying the bills when it was, in fact, Jack paying them, and their parents believed she was the more responsible and Jack was just a nerd.

Tina then decided to move back into the home with her husband and began bad-mouthing Jack to her parents. They would rant about how little they understood Jack, who they described as doing little around the house and keeping to himself in his room. By now, Tina had also had a child and complained that she, her husband and her child needed more space in the house. Jack was suddenly given an order: move out by the end of the month.

Without kicking up a fuss, Jack "didn't say a word. He just nodded and left by the end of that week and moved three cities away to a city closer to his other relatives." But drama would follow him still.

Two months later, Jack is accosted by his sister, demanding to know why the house bills had not been paid. She told him their electricity and water supply had been cut off. "He tells her that she should've paid them since she was 'allegedly' paying them before," the original poster wrote. 

A week later, Jack's parents reached out to him, telling him that they finally knew his sister had been lying and that he had been the one paying the bills. They offer to let him return to the house to live with them "so long as he kept helping them pay the bills." Unsurprisingly, Jack refused their offer, explaining he could "focus on his work more because he's away from them."

While the story ends there, u/plogan56 explained the parents as such: "They're like those stereotypical teens in those cliche high school movies, basically they look down on nerds and think people who study hard are 'uncool' that type of thing. Anyway they kept that mentality even after growing up and having kids, so they always looked down on jack for being nerdy and favortised Tina because she was pretty and popular in high school, but apparently, Jack didn't really care because his personal life had friends he cared about and he connected more with his relatives."

Comments flooded in, mostly siding with Jack and criticizing the parents and sister for their abhorrent behavior.

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"His parents and sister sound like the 'peaked in high school' crowd. Would it shock you that they never learned basic adulting?" one user wrote.

"The part I don't understand is the sister knew she wasn't the one paying the bills so what did she think was going to happen after they kicked him out? Like, did she somehow convince herself that she was paying the bills?" another commented.

"They sound like they went to school to be pretty and popular and not to learn. Being pretty and popular is not a crime, but focusing only on that aspect is definitely one. Jack did well, now Jack can be free AND happy with his financial security. Be like Jack."

Meanwhile, u/plogan56 explained in the comments, "Tina is apparently still there because they can't find anywhere else to live, but her husband's salary just barely covers the bills," and "the dad has a great job that he 'worked for,' but in reality he just got it handed to him from his own father. From what I was told, he's essentially a glorified salesman but he's got bad spending habits."

Many related their own stories concerning parents with money issues.

"My wife's parents were like this. They did know how much the bills were, but they expected their high school-age children to help pay for stuff not because they were struggling, but because they didn't know how to be responsible with money," one user wrote.

"The 'adults' continue to spend money as fast as it comes in. … I was almost in that situation myself, but I managed to run after paying the mortgage for a month or two," another said.

While it's true that there are no "perfect" families, here's to hoping this one manages to sort their differences out.

What do you think of Jack's complicated family situation? Have you had to deal with anything similar? Let us know and pass this on to friends and family.