Man selling house to "get rid" of stepchildren after their mom died backed

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Alice Gibbs

By Alice Gibbs

Senior Reporter

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In a viral Reddit post, a man has been cheered for his decision to sell his house and cut ties with his stepchildren.

On the popular r/AITAH [Am I the a******] subreddit, user No_Competition7799 shared his decision to sell his house, forcing his adult stepchildren to move out. With more than 16,000 upvotes and over 1,200 comments, the online community had strong reactions to the story.

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No_Competition7799 asked: "AITAH for selling my house to get rid of my step children?"

He said that his wife passed away in November 2022, leaving him with three adult stepchildren aged 21, 22, and 25. Despite having been in their lives for over a decade, the stepchildren reportedly distanced themselves from him, refusing to acknowledge him as a parent figure.

Exterior of house for sale

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Despite this, the poster said he had been financially supporting the stepchildren by providing them with housing, covering utilities and even hiring help around the house after their mom died. However, he expressed frustration that they had stopped contributing to household chores and upkeep.

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Feeling disrespected and unappreciated, No_Competition7799 decided to sell the house, which had appreciated significantly in value, and move to his cabin. He gave each stepchild $10,000 from the proceeds of the sale and informed them of his decision. The stepchildren, who had noticed the 'for sale' sign and attended open houses, were upset, prompting the man to ask Reddit users if he was in the wrong.

Dr. Jolie Silva is a clinical psychologist and chief operating officer of New York Behavioral Health. She told Newsweek: "When there is a loss of a parent, families go through a grieving process in which each individual may process the death in different ways, on different timelines. When a biological parent passes away, survived by adult children and a stepparent, that biological parent could have been the glue that held the family together and the bonds were never strong enough to hold them together otherwise."

Silva added it can be difficult to support adult children, and that the emotions of the situation and selling the family home would be extremely difficult for the poster.

"I would recommend the stepparent speak to a mental-health professional, so they have an unbiased person to help them weight the pros and cons and logically problem-solve," Silva said.

"Selling a family home and moving is one of the top three most-stressful experiences someone can experience—along with divorce and death of a loved one—so having a mental-health professional on hand to navigate the emotional challenges is a good idea."

In the comments, people rushed to back the man's choice to sell the house and cut off the adult stepchildren. User Oddjibberz wrote: "Raise your hand if your parents gave you $10k when you moved out? No hands? You separated from leeches, NTA [not the a******]."

Similarly, Xoxo_emmmaa posted: "NTA. They were disrespectful to you and your home and you weren't obligated to continue providing for them, especially after they became adults."

Reddit users like Rowana133 and Vicious_Lilliputian agreed that No_Competition7799 had already gone above and beyond by financially supporting the stepchildren after their mother's death. "You had no obligation to give them any money from the sale of your home, yet you did. Did they honestly think they could mooch off you forever?" asked Vicious_Lilliputian.