One mom, Heidi Johnson, wrote a handwritten letter to her son, Aaron, and shared it on Facebook. She didn\u2019t intend for the post to go viral. She didn\u2019t even intend to make the post public. It was supposed to just be for friends to see, but she does not regret her post or the fact that it\u2019s public.\n

In the letter to her 13-year-old son, Johnson reprimanded her son, treating her like a \u201croommate.\u201d She went on to give him an itemized bill for rent, food, etc that totaled over $700. If he was going to treat her like a roommate instead of his mom, she would do the same.\n

Johnson signed the note, \u201cLove Mom,\u201d and she truly does love her son. She followed up the post with another post explaining some backstory to the situation. She also reassured parents who were criticizing her that \u201cI am not going to put my 13 year old on the street if he can\u2019t pay his half of the rent. I am not wanting him to pay anything. I want him to take pride in his home, his space, and appreciate the gifts and blessings we have.\u201d\n

She added that she never intended for Aaron to pay the bill. Instead, she wanted him to \u201cgain an appreciation of what things cost.\u201d The reason Johnson wrote the note was to make sure her son understood \u201cwhat life would look like if I was not his \u2018parent,\u2019 but rather a \u2018roommate.\u2019 It was a lesson about gratitude and respect from the very beginning.\u201d\n

\n

Johnson also explained that before she wrote the note, her son had lied about doing his homework, and when she told him she was going to restrict his internet access, he responded, \u201cWell, I am making money now.\u201d She explained that the money he was referring to was a little bit of income he was making from his YouTube channel, but not nearly enough to pay for food and rent.\n

The public note has not hurt Johnson\u2019s relationship with her son. She explained, \u201cHe and I still talk as openly as ever. He has apologized multiple times.\u201d\n

Johnson has also had parents turning to her for advice since she posted the note to her son. She explains, \u201cMy post seems to have opened a door, and people feel safe coming to me and asking for advice, venting, or even just having someone bear witness to their experience by listening and opening up and sharing a piece of myself in return.\u201d\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One mom, Heidi Johnson, wrote a handwritten letter to her son, Aaron, and shared it on Facebook. She didn\u2019t intend for the post to go viral. She didn\u2019t even intend to make the post public. It was supposed to just be for friends to see, but she does not regret her post or the fact …\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":75311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[642,657],"tags":[1009,648,390],"class_list":["post-75309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-moral-story","category-love-and-relationships","tag-family_relationships","tag-mother","tag-son"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75312,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75309\/revisions\/75312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}