Parents are all about teaching their children those important lessons they can take with them through life. Unfortunately, these lessons aren’t always easy. Sometimes they stem from very hard truths. A Kentucky mom shared her story on TikTok after she made her son pay her back $75 for his own clothing. The reason? He ruined his clothes after she told him to be careful with it. While some parents understood exactly where she was coming from, others did not.
Sabrina (@sabrinaalsip) shared a TikTok captioned, “making my preteen son pay me back $75.” I came for the tea, but I stayed for the strong parenting lessons. Sabrina explained that the reason why she works so hard is so her children can have nice clothing and other needs. She said she bought her son some really nice school clothing.
After buying the clothes, her son told her that he was going fishing, and she told him to go have fun. But she did warn him that he needed to change out of his new clothes. When he came home, she found her son covered in mud. He was also being brief with her. Suspecting something, Sabrina asked, “What clothes were you wearing?” That’s when her son admitted he had on his school clothes at the time.
Sabrina sat her son down and explained to him that she told him to change out of those clothes and wanted him to respect that. When she saw the clothes in the wash, the mud destroyed the clothing. So, Sabrina told her son, “You’re paying me back. You’re going to be doing chores to earn money and you’re going to pay me back the $75 that I paid for that one single outfit.” Sabrina’s son was shocked, but he had no choice in the matter. She explained that she doesn’t want her children to think that things just come free to them and that they never need to work for things.
Most parents agreed that Sabrina did the right thing and chose to actually parent in that moment. One person stated, “Wow. A parent parenting. A rare occurrence these days. Kudos to you!!” Another commended her, “A+ parenting.” Unfortunately, some parents had a whole lot to say against what Sabrina did with her own child. A commenter told her, “If the clothes can be washed then there is no need to pay you back.” However, Sabrina said in a follow-up video that the clothing wasn’t washable due to the destruction. It’s just another example of parents always thinking they know best when it comes to other people’s kids.
