[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Black Xmas

I pay rent to live at home with my mum and step dad (£50 a month) which is totally fine, I have no issue with paying my way - but lately she's been talking about me paying for part of the bill for using the phone and the internet - I wasn't massively happy because I don't use the home phone ever and the Internet is a flat charge she would pay if I used it or not.

So tonight the woman across the road came with her new iPhone and my mum gave her our pass code for our internet and my step dad asked why and my mum said 'it reaches across the road so I let them use ours'.

I am so ****ing angry! she's pressuring me to pay for Internet because she thinks it's only fair I share the cost since I use it but she's letting people across the road use it for free??? WTF!

This is just my opinion as a parent with three grown kids now, having had them all at home with me.

Firstly, I do not know the mum's financial circumstances, but I do know that while £50 per week does not seem exhorbitant in todays economy, AJ is right to protest and feel aggrieved that she is being asked to contribute to internet services she says she barely uses when a stranger has been granted unlimited access to those services for free by AJ's mum.

'Charity' truly does 'begin at home' in this scenario.

If AJ wished to donate part of her hard earned 'disposable income' to a stranger, then it should be of her own free will, and I too would feel pissed if I was in her place and someone demanded extra from me to give to a stranger.

Sometimes parents can feel the financial 'pinch' - especially at this time of year - but if that is the case, then cost cutting should begin with the extraordinarily generous 'gift' made to the stranger across the road, otherwise, any pleas of being short of money will ring hollow.