Chapter 1My mom asked me to pay the tuition with a credit card

After I started college, my mom suggested I use a credit card for my living expenses, promising to transfer me the money to pay it off at the end of the month.

But when the bill was due, she claimed she hadn't been paid yet and told me to figure it out myself.

Panicked, I was searching online for the consequences of a late credit card payment when I stumbled upon a forum post.

【My daughter started talking back to me after she went to college. How do I get her back in line?】

Someone in the comments had a suggestion: 【Simple. Cut off her allowance and make her use a credit card.】

【Trust me, when the bill is due at the end of the month, just drag your feet on giving her the money. She'll be begging you. She'll be more obedient than a dog.】

* * *

I got back to my dorm, exhausted, after cleaning my cousin's apartment.

Earlier that day, I had asked my mom for the money to pay my credit card bill. She hemmed and hawed, saying she was short on cash. She told me to go clean my cousin's place—he worked in the same city—and my aunt would pay me the market rate of a hundred bucks. With that, she said, she could probably scrape together enough to send me.

I hated the idea, but I was desperate. I took a cab across town to my cousin's apartment, which hadn't been cleaned in two weeks, and threw out a mountain of old takeout containers.

When I got back to the dorm, I asked my mom when she was sending the money. She was evasive again.

A sense of dread washed over me.

The day before yesterday, she said, "Don't worry about it."

Yesterday, she said, "Just wait a little longer."

Today, it was the same story. The bill was due in two days.

Gritting my teeth, I searched online for the consequences of a late credit card payment. That's when a forum post caught my eye.

【My daughter started talking back to me after she went to college. How do I get her back in line?】

I clicked on it instinctively. The original poster explained that her daughter had always been sweet and obedient, but after going away to college, she had become "wild" and had even talked back to her. She wanted to know how to make her daughter apologize.

A user named "IronHeart" offered some advice: 【Simple. Cut off her allowance and make her use a credit card.】

【Trust me, when the bill is due at the end of the month, just drag your feet on giving her the money. She'll be begging you. She'll be more obedient than a dog.】

Hundreds of people were flaming her in the replies.

【Are you raising a child or a dog?】

【If you couldn't afford a kid, why didn't you just buy a condom?】

【Treat your kid like that and don't be surprised if she jumps off a bridge one day.】

But the original poster, "HappyFlower," was genuinely asking: 【Does this really work?】

IronHeart: 【Of course. I've been doing it to my daughter since she was a freshman. She's a senior now and wouldn't dare say no to me.】

【Kids with no financial independence are the easiest to control. If you don't get a handle on her now, it'll be too late once she starts earning her own money.】

【And who is she trying to threaten by jumping off a bridge? The more you indulge her, the more arrogant she gets. Are you going to let your own child walk all over you?】

【If she really jumped, it would just prove she wasn't worthy of being my child. If she died, I'd scatter her ashes in a sewer.】

The words were shocking, monstrous. I felt a pang of sympathy for this stranger's daughter. But it was clear that HappyFlower was taking the advice to heart. She had even "liked" the comment.

After that, the two of them stopped interacting, but other users kept bumping the thread.

I checked the timestamp on HappyFlower's original post. It was from exactly one month ago—the same time my mom and I had a huge fight.

A terrible feeling started to grow in the pit of my stomach.

A month ago, my mom had called and screamed at me, accusing me of being a thief, of eating her food and using her things and then stealing from her. She said I was destined for a life in prison. Then she hung up. I was completely bewildered. After a few frantic calls, I found out from my aunt that my mom's new gold necklace was missing, and she was convinced I had taken it.

But I had been at school, over a thousand miles away. How could I have possibly stolen it?

I was furious and humiliated. For the first time in my life, I refused to back down. I argued with her, telling her she was being unfair and accusing me without any proof.

Later, my mom found the necklace somewhere. She called to apologize, saying she had misunderstood. Then, her tone shifted. She started talking about how she was getting old, how her company was struggling and her paychecks were late. She asked me to use a credit card for my living expenses for a while, and she would pay it off at the end of the month. Her voice, full of weariness and despair, weighed on me like a stone. I was overwhelmed with guilt, so I agreed.

But now, a month later, when I asked for the money, she kept changing her story.

We weren't rich, but we were comfortable. And there was the settlement money from my dad's accident. My mom had said she was saving it for my college education. There was no way she couldn't come up with eight hundred dollars.