I [20 M] have costed my parents a lot of money with ridiculous things I have done, and I feel horrible about it.

Since I was 16, I have costed my parents literally a total of $48,000 on stupid avoidable things I have done.

I'm not talking about how much they paid to feed and clothe me. My parents signed up to pay for those things when they chose to have me. I'm talking about things most parents don't have to pay for.

I won't get too specific, since that would take away my anonymity, but an example is a car accident I was in. My parents had to pay a lot of money when I was 17, because I took the car without permission and crashed it. That was just one thing. There have been more.

Though I have disappointed them very much at times, they still love me, and have always supported me. They never even complained about the money it costed.

But $48,000 is literally a year's salary for some people. I feel really awful about having made them pay all that.

When I'm graduated and working, I might give them my first year's salary, just to get it off my chest that I costed them so much with the stupid things I did.

Do you have any advice?

UPDATE: Thank you all for your feedback. I think I'm in agreement with most of you. I have grown out of doing those stupid things, and I can just have a talk with my parents about how much I appreciate all their support over the years. No need to give them a year's salary - they would not accept it.

UPDATE #2: Again, thank you all so so much for your feedback. A common theme I'm seeing in these comments is to maybe take them out for dinner or maybe on vacation. Good ideas, I might do that. People are also saying that the roles reverse and kids take care of their parents when they're older. One of my siblings is a doctor, and he will likely take that role. But of course, I'll do what I can.

TL;DR: I have costed my parents a lot of money doing stupid things since I was 16, and I feel bad about it.

Submitted August 31, 2018 at 10:41AM by crux1776 https://ift.tt/2wxRMWR