I made my 18-year-old pay rent and people say I’m a bad mom

A mom went viral for making her 18-year-old daughter sign a lease to stay at home and then experienced a wave of negative comments.

The Oklahoma mother of six posted a video of her daughter signing the document to TikTok. She called it a “teaching moment” as the song “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from the musical “Annie” played in the background.

The video has since received more than 1.6 million views, almost 130,000 likes and over 4,000 comments.

But despite framing this decision as a way to set up her daughter for success, not everyone is on board with making her child pay for room and board.

Multiple commenters talked about their own life, and how they aren’t on speaking terms with their parents after they made the same decision.

“My parents did this and we no longer talk! So good luck I guess,” one person said. 

“I’m in my 20s and can barely get by with two jobs. HELP HER SAVE !!! So she can be financially stable when she goes on her own,” said another.

The comments provoked a follow-up video where the landlord, er, mom explained her reasoning. “I was a single mom at 16 and my parents didn’t set me up for success, I had to fight for every single thing I have.”

She didn’t want her children to rely on her, and wanted them to handle real-world experiences such as knowing how to read a legal document and “not just sign something because it’s in front of you.”

She mentioned that to rent any home in their area they needed “renter’s history” and by charging her daughter $100 per month, she is enabling her daughter to begin creating that history.

This is said to be the only bill her daughter, Jada, pays. “No car payment, no insurance, no cellphone bill,” she said.

Not all of the TikTok feedback was completely against this idea. In fact, some commenters were all for it. 

“My mom did this and it definitely made me a more responsible person very thankful for that, nothing in this world is free,” one person said.