Reply To: Charging Your Child Rent

[FUZZY]

When I started on YTS at 16, I turned over 1/3 of my allowance to my parents. It was made very clear that this was not “board and lodging” and didn’t come close to reimbursing them for the outlay of keeping me in the house.

It was a contribution to the household expenses, and I was also expected to help out: washing the pots most nights, helping with jobs around the house, helping with my grandmother’s shopping when the weather was bad, etc.

My mum did my laundry for me, I usually didn’t have time for breakfast during the week, but I got my tea each evening and a proper Sunday dinner, and breakfast on the weekends.

So in fact, between me being at comprehensive school and being on YTS and then being n a job, nothing much changed apart from me contributing financially in the small way that I was able to, except for the fact that I was buying my own clothes and buying one or two meals a day during the week.

They never tidied my room: even when I was small that was my job. My grandmother (when we lived with her) then my mother (when my parents bought their own house) used to vacuum and wash the windows for me until I was about eleven.

I continued to turn over 1/3 of my wage when YTS finished and I started a “proper” job, until I moved out.