College Mom Freaks out When 21-Year-Old Son Asks Her to Stop Tracking His Location
"I hope the kid is able to get some therapy."
Published Sept. 14 2024, 9:45 a.m. ET
If you ever feel like you're a late starter, or that you're taking much too long to get your sh--t together as you attempt to venture into adulthood, then all you need to do is hit up a Facebook moms group and read some of the stories these folks are telling about their kids.
And we're not talking about kids who are still being fastened into high chairs and are fussy about their nap time — these are folks fully capable of voting and driving without being accompanied by a guardian.
These online communities are jam-packed with moms and dads who seem to have learned everything about parenting from this Metal Gear Solid Hind D boss fight and believe that their children are always on the verge of starring in their own version of Homeward Bound.
Like this mom, who expressed how saddened she was that her 21-year-old son no longer wished to have his whereabouts tracked 24/7.
The woman uploaded a post that seems as if it was written as a mourning piece. "I would like some help and possibly condolences from those who have been through similar. The woman goes on to state that her "son turned 21 last month and is now starting his fourth year of college," and that she recently got into a "big fight" about their tracking practices.
His parents tried to explain to him that they primarily want to keep tracking him for safety purposes just in case he gets into any accidents while adding that he's going to school across the country in a dangerous area.
They then told him since they were paying for his college tuition and cell phone plan and footing the bill for a lot of his expenses that he would need to keep the tracking on.
It was at that moment that the young man got quiet and told his parents they could take him off their cell phone plan and that he would pay them back for all of the college tuition they provided to him thus far.
Sure enough, they saw that they were locked out of the payment portal for school and that he had sent them back a ton of money for everything they had given him: $25,000.
In another portion of her post, she added that she and her husband felt like they didn't even know their son anymore after he grew up across the country.
They had no idea where he came up with $25k either to pay them back or that he'd been dating a girl for nine months. They also added that while their friends' children had often come back to visit their families throughout the year, that he wasn't as forthcoming in that endeavor — he'd only return home for one week during the summer.
Towards the end of the post, the admittedly "anxious" mom said that she feared her son was somehow influencing his high school-aged siblings' decisions.
When she asked them if they were talking to their brother, they told their mom they hadn't been in communication with him.
However, she felt as if they were covering something up and were still conversing with their son but weren't spilling the beans.
Numerous Redditors who saw the post remarked that they felt the 21-year-old was clearly doing something right if he was able to pay them back all of their money so quickly.
"He’s 21 and managed to get his hands on $25K. Looks like he doesn’t need them," one person wrote.
Another shared a justification for how the young man was able to save so much cash: "If you can work while having someone else pay your tuition and bills, you can manage to squirrel away a good amount. Unfortunately, all my work money went to mostly tuition and bills."
Someone else thought that he'd been planning this break for quite some time, as he ended up blocking his parents and stopped talking to them after they had given him that ultimatum.
"He’s been quietly planning this break since whatever that big blowup was when he was 18, and he’s smart enough to get a huge financial aid package, he was probably working summers and breaks since they say he never came home."
There was one Redditor who said that the mother's frantic post was a clear-cut example as to why some kids feel the need to go "no contact" with their folks for good.
What do you think? If your parents were offering to pay for your schooling, would you compromise what sounds like a sweet gig just because you didn't like the fact that they were tracking your every move?
Or why didn't he just get a cheap smartphone and keep it in his dorm when he wasn't in class and lie to his parents about where he was and install the tracking application on that?