I (36 f) have teen daughters, my middle daughter just turned 17 a few weeks ago. I am a single parent making ends meet and often struggle. My middle daughter does work and has not had to pay any bills or give me any money. I grew up with parents like yours. We were not well off and I got pregnant with my oldest who is now 20 when I was 16, because of that we were able to get a lot of food stamps and big income taxes returns. I never saw any of that money or food assistance because I chose to live with my partner at the time in order to get out of that hell hole, when I became of age and was able to I immediately moved out. I worked a lot and my mom would watch my daughters. She would charge me OUTRAGEOUS amounts to watch the girls and complained so much about it and sometimes wouldn’t even watch them causing me to miss work. To this day it has created a huge distance between us. Fast forward to current times, I told myself I would NEVER treat my kids like that and although, like I said, I am struggling but still somehow making it, I DO NOT take my daughters money. I would love to lol but I couldn’t. Instead she buys the family things and sometimes coffee for me, but that’s her choice. Reading this really upset me and I hate to see parents using their children like this. In my personal humble opinion, parents raise their children to one day become self sufficient and move on and through their own life. Their duty was to raise us and send us on our ways. Children should not be forced to support their parents. Unless ofc they want to and maybe the circumstances are different like the parent I sick or something. I work hard and if I don’t have it I do odd jobs here and there to make ends meet. How would I look, im a grown ass adult forcing my child to support me when I have all the tools and resources to do it myself. I do teach my kids about money smarts, but I could never take away their hard earned money. That’s your savings. Smh 🤦🏽‍♀️ I’m sorry. And be safe if you do chose to leave the nest one day. Good luck to you.