After My Son Betrayed Us, I Cut Him Off Forever

The year I turned forty, my husband and I had finally saved up one and a half million dollars.

When I thought back on all those years of grinding away, never once stopping to see the world, the decision came easy. We both quit our jobs without looking back.

After that, we put the money into an investment portfolio and started planning a trip. I was so excited that I immediately shared the itinerary with our son, Jacob James, who was away at college.

The moment Jacob saw the budget breakdown, he called.

I was still buzzing with excitement about the trip when his voice came roaring through the phone:

"You're retiring at forty? Have you both lost your minds?"

"You only give me two thousand a month for my allowance, but you're planning to blow ten grand on a vacation?"

"I'm telling you right now, from here on out, you two get to spend five hundred a month, max. That money is mine. You brought me into this world, so you're responsible for me. Nobody touches that money!"

——

His tirade stopped me cold. I double-checked the caller ID. It was definitely my son, Jacob James.

My husband Arnold James and I had worked ourselves to the bone for over twenty years, juggling day jobs and side hustles, and we'd managed to buy two properties and save up a million and a half. Now, with investment returns alone, we were pulling in somewhere around twenty to twenty-five thousand a month. At a time when most college kids got by on seven or eight hundred, we were giving Jacob two thousand.

I genuinely could not understand why he'd say something like that. My first instinct was that something must have happened to him, so I tried to calm him down.

"Jacob, honey, we have plenty of money. Your dad and I budgeted ten thousand for this trip, and we're still earning every month. You don't need to worry about us spending too much. Did something happen at school?"

"Nothing happened to me! I'm saying why the hell do you two get to blow all that money on a vacation while I'm stuck on campus living like I'm broke? Do you even know what two grand a month gets me? My roommate's family gives him twenty-five thousand a month! A single pair of sneakers costs two grand! Are you even my real parents? You can't even give me that much? I'm walking around in three-hundred-dollar shoes. I can't even hold my head up!"

His voice dripped with resentment. "If you couldn't afford to raise me, you shouldn't have had me. Since you did, you owe me a decent life. Not one where I have to watch everyone else have things I can't!"

Jacob's little speech made everything crystal clear. Nothing had happened to him. College life had turned him into someone who measured his worth against everyone else's wallet.

"Enough!"

Before I could respond, Arnold snatched the phone from my hand and barked into it.

"Jacob James, what do you think you're doing? What did we teach you at home? We told you not to compare yourself to other people. You think we didn't look into how much things cost at your school? A full meal in the dining hall is eight bucks. You're there to get an education, not to keep up with the rich kids. Your mother and I worked our entire lives, and now we want to spend our own money on a trip. Do we need your permission?"

"What do you mean, your money? You're my parents. I'm your only kid. When you die, who's getting all of it? Me. So when you blow money now, you're blowing my money!"

Arnold's forehead pulsed with a vein as Jacob kept arguing his case. But the voice on the other end of the line wasn't finished:

"I'm telling you, transfer every cent in your accounts to me before you waste it all. And what's with retiring this early? Even if you have to sweep streets, you need to be out there earning for me! Otherwise, when you're old and frail, see who takes care of you!"

"Jacob James! You ungrateful little—!"