I am a bad parent too. My son knows as long as I am paying his bills...its my rules.
When he pays his own including rent on his own place...he can make the rules.
This kid is 19. He needs to find a job and buy his own car.
"He who has the gold, makes the rules...you get your own gold, you can get your own rules.
Right now it's MY gold, and thus MY rules.
That little speech pretty much ended the discussion of who was running the show.
>>>>...as long as I am paying his bills<<<<<<
Bills? What bills? Don’t you know that the TV cable is magic? The lights are magic. Even the sockets in the wall where you plug things in, just like the sink faucets, they just work. Nobody knows why. ...and, and everyday the food fairy comes and and restocks the cupboards and the refridgerator with food.
You watch. I can drink the last drop of orange juice and another jug will magically appear overnight....
/child mentality
At our house we operate under the “golden rule.” I have the gold, so I make the rules.
When I was 12 years old, I got a job cutting lawns in the neighborhood for two bucks a lawn. For every lawn I cut, I had to give my mom fifty cents because I was using my mom and dads lawnmower and gasoline. When I was 13 and got a newspaper route that paid about 40 bucks a month, I had to pay ten dollars to my mom for rent. The same went on when I got a job at a gas station, 25% of my pay went to mom. At that age I could not understand why. When I was 18 and moved out on my own, I understood why and thanked her.