Are your adult kids living at home? 'Tiger mom' law prof offers this contract
The Yale law professor who wrote a book about strict “Tiger mom” parenting decided there needed to be some rules when her two daughters informed her they would be staying at her apartment this summer. So she wrote up a contract.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.), law professor Amy Chua says she and her husband saved 20 years to buy Manhattan pied-à-terre. A contracts law professor, Chua decided their daughters, ages 23 and 20, needed to make some promises in exchange for the rent-free living.
“WHEREAS Children owe their parents everything, even in the West, where many have conflicted feelings about this,” the contract says, the daughters agree to several duties and conditions. They include requirements that the daughters:
• Greet Chua and her husband “with spontaneous joy and gratitude whenever they visit.”
• Never use the phrase, “Relax—it’s not a big deal.”
• Make their bed every day, and when guests come, leave all internal doors wide open “with an immaculately made bed in full view and no clothing or other junk on the floor of the bedroom in sight.” The daughters must also come out of the bedroom for visitors “in a respectable state,” greet them “with enthusiasm,” and sit and converse with them for at least 15 minutes.
• Keep the living room pillows plumped, the glass table clean, and the refrigerator stocked with fresh orange juice when their father is in town.
Violation of the contract terms gives Chua the right to change the apartment locks.
A commenter claims the contract is overly vague and fails to contain an arbitration clause.
