Couple furious with woman who held fundraiser for daughter they kicked out.
When this mom is concerned for her daughter's friend, she asks Reddit:
'AITA for hosting an fundraiser bluntly saying that it was for a teenager whose parents left her homeless? Her parents are furious.'
mommabear543 writes:
My youngest daughter is a senior in high school. One of her best friends, Lily, just turned 18 as the school year was starting, and her parents kicked her out of the house that same day.
My daughter told me she was sleeping on different friends couches and talking about dropping out to work a job. So my family took her in so she could finish school. I just can't imagine a parent kicking their kid out like that.
So, after we did that, my daughter and Lily decided to have a community barbecue / bake sale to fundraise for some money to cover food and housing expenses. It wasn't anything I ever asked for but the girls wanted to do something to contribute for groceries and Bills.
The girls made flyers and little promos for social media and they were pretty straightforward about what was going on.
They said 'Community barbecue / Fundraiser for Lily' and a note from Lily saying 'As you may know, my parents kicked me out of the house and cut off any financial support on my 18th birthday, leaving me homeless with no money or car.
The 'Smiths' gave me a home, expecting nothing in return except that I stay in school and graduate. I wanted to do something to give back and pay my own way!'
Anyway, I shared that on social media and so did the girls and a lot of their friends at school. The barbecue was a huge success, almost all of our neighbors came by, and so many kids from my daughters school, and a lot of our family and family friends.
The girls ended up raising several thousand dollars which I ended up putting in an education fund for Lily, where I'm also putting stuff like the cash she gives me from her job 'for groceries' and stuff like that. I'm planning on surprising her with it closer to graduation.
Anyway, Lily's 'parents' are irate, they saw that I posted the flyer on the community Facebook page and most everyone in town saw it. I got a call from her dad screaming into the phone at me for 'slandering' their family online. Which I felt like was such bullshit.
I told him to either buck up and act like a parent ought to, or lose my number. He started yelling on the phone again so I hung up and blocked his number.
Then I got a bunch of calls from another number, it was Lily's mom, getting angry at me about how 'I don't know what she and her husband have been through, and it was trashy of me to be begging the whole town for money for myself and acting like it was their fault'
I was like 'Well, it was your fault?' and she got so angry and said that she and her husband had given their daughter 'everything' and she was 'ungrateful' which I feel is BS because they ain't even giving her a roof over her head.
AITA for letting my daughter and her friend who was kicked out at 18 host a fundraiser that was very blunt that it was to raise money after her family kicked her out?
Let's see what Reddit had to say.
frightfursunleashed writes:
NTA Frankly, that’s just a shitty thing for a parent to do. If they didn’t want to get slandered, maybe don’t kick your child out the instant they become an adult?
honestweasel writes:
The idea that kids magically become 'adult' the moment they turn 18 is such BS. These shitty parents were only acting as parents because they were legally required to be.
The moment their child was legally an adult they felt like they were off the hook. I'm sure their daughter is better off without them, but what a difficult journey that is. Loving parents try to make their kid's life better, not worse. NTA.
OP mommabear543 responded:
Thanks :) Honestly it was so heartwarming seeing the community come together like that. I didn't have space to get into this in my OP but my daughter's friend group really came together to do something amazing!
They coordinated this massive barbecue / bonfire party mostly on their own, with only a little help from us parents.
A bunch of kids from school and their sports team put together gift bags to raffle off, or baked goods to sell, or carnival games that they charged a raffle ticket to play. And a bunch of them got their families to chip in on hotdogs or firewood for the event.
And they got all these raffle tickets that they sold for the giftbag raffles and carnival games, along with putting out an anonymous donation box at the entry.