Mum makes her 5-year-old daughter pay rent, gets slammed on social media

This mother has received international attention for her recent Facebook post, asking her 5-year-old daughter to pay toward the family’s rent, water, electricity, cable and food.

Essence Evans,  who says she lives in Georgia, said in a Facebook post on Jan. 14, that she gives her daughter a $7 allowance each week, so paying rent is a way of teaching her the importance of money and preparing for the real world.

I MAKE MY 5 YEAR OLD PAY RENT. Every week she gets $7 dollars in allowance. But I explained to her that in the real world most people spend most of their paycheck on bills with little to spend on themselves. So I make her give me $5 dollars back. $1 for rent $1 for water $1 for electricity $1 for cable and $1 for food. The other $2 she gets to save or do what she wants with. Now, what she doesn’t know is the $5 is actually going away in her savings account which I will give back to her when she turns 18. So if she decides to move out on her own she will have $3,380 to start off. This strategy not only prepares your child for the real world. But when they see how much real bills are they will appreciate you for giving them a huge discount, she wrote.

However, while people were quick to comment on her parenting plan (“Wow, what a moron. Let your kid be a kid and enjoy their youth before they have to spend the rest of their life worry about bills. I wouldn’t share this story with anybody because you’re a horrible parent,” wrote one particularly incensed user) they failed to see how the plan actually works.

Some supporters even told personal stories of how similar tactics served them well.

My father did that with me. I never complained. But when he died. He left me close to $28,000.00 I was shocked,” wrote Jim Koloski.