Kate Hackett
A Reddit user recently sparked a hot debate on the “Am I The Asshole” subreddit over the most inane thing: labeling all the bottles in their house.
Why label everything?
Well, friend, because their adult children are — as OP says — idiots.
OP has two college-aged kids living with them and everyone shares a bathroom. In that bathroom, OP stores their medicated shampoo, which needs to be kept upright.
I have two of my children living with me. One has graduated from college and the other is a junior.
I have to purchase medicated shampoo because of a scalp condition. It is by prescription and it is expensive. it also comes in packaging that is meant to be stored upright.
Not on its side and definitely not upside down.
The kids have stuff in the bathroom; OP touches none of it.
My daughter has her hair products in the shower and I do not touch them. My son also keeps his AXE body wash/shampoo/conditioner/woman repellent in the shower. I also do not touch it since I have zero desire to smell like a high school locker room.
I keep my shampoo in there as well since it is my house and I can keep my shit wherever I want.
But the kids don’t seem to extend that same courtesy to OP. They have ruined bottles by storing the shampoo the wrong way.
For some reason the two of them cannot understand that not all packaging is meant to be upside down. They have already wasted an entire bottle of my shampoo by storing it upside down after they touched it for some reason. It all dripped out the spout which is not engineered for that.
OP talked to them and explained that they shouldn’t touch other peoples’ stuff, especially the shampoo. But… lo and behold…
I talked to both of them and I explained that they should not touch my stuff and that if they accidentally tip over my shampoo it was meant to be stored with the lid at the top.
It was upside down. Again. Leaking.
I came home last week to find my shampoo leaking out of the bottle again. UPSIDE DOWN.
So OP bought a bunch of “this side up” stickers and put them EVERYWHERE.
I ordered 500 stickers that say “this side up” with an arrow pointing upwards when the words are upright and I put them on everything in the house that might leak. with my shampoo being literally covered in them.
The kids had friends over and were mocked when their pals realized what was going on.
They had friends over last weekend and they noticed that the relish, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, etc. were all labeled.
My kids were embarrassed when they explained why. They think I am an asshole for putting labels on everything since they only fuck with my shampoo. Since it is $80 a bottle I said I would take off all the labels if they agree to pay for my shampoo. Thus far they have declined.
OP offered to remove the labels if the kids pay for the shampoo, but that was also met with resistance. So: is OP the jerk?
One user commiserated, “NTA. My kids are the same way. Your kids can either learn to leave your stuff alone, put it back the way it was, pay for your medication, or deal with the labels. There are several reasonable choices there.”
“You gave them a chance, you told them why, and they still did it. Sometimes embarrassment is needed. and this was only in your house so it’s not like you forced their friends to see it,” wrote someone else.
A third said, “NTA. Prescription shampoo is expensive and it’s not like it’s easy to get when the refills run out. They should be repaying you for the wasted shampoo and extra doctor visit.”
