By Paige Freshwater
A woman has sparked a debate after banning her stepdaughter from using the shower between 4pm and 6pm because she uses all the hot water. She explained how she married her husband three years ago - and now lives with him, his daughter, 12, and their two-month-old daughter.
Thankfully, the woman gets along well with her stepdaughter and says the only 'bad' thing about her is her hygiene habits. Taking to Reddit, she said: "I love everything about that girl, outside of her shower usage. So she showers twice a day. Once before school and once around 5pm. She stays in there for 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes every single time.
"Our hot water is electric and her shower usage has raised our bill to nearly £485 ($600) a month for the past four months. Whenever I talk to her dad about it, I'm met with a 'It's something we have to get used to because I'm not going to tell her she can't shower'." She complains her stepdaughter uses all the hot water, leaving none for the rest of the family who may want to wash in the evening.
She added: "She uses all the hot water and considers she showers around dinner time and the kitchen sink affects the temperature of the shower, she's constantly screaming out of the bathroom to turn off the kitchen sink when I'm literally trying to cook and need the water to do so. I've told her several times to not use the shower during the hours of 4pm-6pm so I can cook/do dishes but she always claims to 'forget' or gets extremely p***ed off and causes a bunch of tension in the house because she 'feels gross' and needs a shower right that minute.
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"I'm starting to grow resentful because there have been several times I have attempted to bathe our daughter/bathe myself or do the dishes and there's been no hot water. My husband also takes two showers a day. Once before work and once immediately following work. He comes home at 6pm. He also complains because when he gets home there's no hot water but he never says anything to his daughter."
Now her husband's work hours have been cut, the woman has become financially responsible for 80% of the household bills, rather than the usual 50%. She said: "I told him that since I'm now paying significantly more than he is, I refuse to pay this much for electricity and him and his daughter both will be limited to one shower a day, for no more than a half hour. I told his daughter this as well. Both are calling me controlling and have disregarded everything I said and still shower twice a day for 45+ minutes.
"So I left and told them to figure out how to pay for everything. I'm currently staying at my mom's with the baby. He says I'm an AH because I just left them in a trying time all because I want to "control" their showering. That's not it at all. They are financially ruining me and I'm not putting up with it anymore. I literally have maybe £161 ($200) a month after I pay all the bills and a baby that needs diapers. This is gross but I've literally only been able to shower twice without the baby since I had her because of them.
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"I either bathe her or bathe myself thoroughly and I need to bathe the baby because she's super chunky and gets stuff trapped in the rolls and gets rashes." Commenting on her post, one user said: "Your husband takes two showers a day. Of course, his daughter thinks it's normal. But you have been dealing with this for over three years and it is not going to change. Which is fine if he's paying that bill. But now he's forcing you to pay for their bad habits.
I don't blame you for moving out. Now he has a much greater incentive to find a new job. And I would not move back in until he agrees to always pay for the electric bill and install an on-demand water heater so you and your baby always have hot water.
Another user added: "Go to your water heater. There will be a valve you can close. It will cut-off the hot water supply. It doesn't take more then 10 minutes to clean oneself. A third user said: "You can shower twice a day of each shower is a normal length like 5 to 10 minutes. I understand needing to shower again after work or after sport’s practice or something or on a hot sweaty day. But the lengths they shower are nuts! You’re completely right to leave them to their excessive water bills."
Do you have a story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.