should i emancipate myself from my mother knowing it'll end our "relationship"

I (20M) am a rising junior in college, I go to a very expensive school, because of this when I was admitted to said school I had a long conversation with my parents regarding cost, it ended with them agreeing to cover tuition as well as all living costs during my undergrad.

As my parents are divorced with my father having more money the agreement was for my mother to cover food and part of tuition while my father covers everything else. It's also worth noting that during the divorce my mother received ~$4 million in stocks alone, not accounting for any other assets (paid off house, cars, etc) + $300k in alimony for a few years later reduced to $150k , it's also important to note that the divorce took place in 2016.

Two more important notes are that I am not apart of my mother's household or insurance, the only tie I have to her is that she pays my phone plan, and the second being that I have two younger brothers (18M and 16M).

As of Sept 2025 I have been living in an apartment while at school, meaning I get groceries and cook my meals as opposed to a traditional dining plan in the school's dining halls. This cost is supposed to be covered in its entirety by my mother.

My issue arises in Nov 2025 when I sent her an itemized list of my groceries for the past few months. After sending her the list she texts me back saying that she disagrees with the agreement made between the three of us (myself, mother, and father) and tells me that she will only send me $100 per month (later upped to $125) and that my father needs to pay the rest of it.

I contact my father and he isn't having it as he already pays ~80% of tuition along with all of my housing + school books and tells me I need to work it out with my mother.

Spoiler, I don't.

I don't work while I'm at school as I don't have much free time (dual major in Mech-E + Chem, I also teach a class + tutor, and am involved in extracurriculars), however, I do work summers so I have some savings which I had to stretch across both semesters until the summer when I'm able to work again.

As that wasn't possible with my savings amount + living in an expensive city I am left with a completely depleted bank account + fully maxed out credit card.

Because of this I ended up not speaking with her from November - May, only coming back into contact with her due to pressure from my father in conjunction with her annoying/guilt-tripping me.

By coming into contact with her again it made me realize all over again how and why I was so angry with her in the first place and it's really been getting to me, especially with my father's sole advice of "ignore her", which isn't helpful. I'm now considering emancipating myself from her solely so that she stops receiving money + to get my message across to her. (For those of you ready to comment "have a conversation with her", I did have a three way conversation with my father and her for 2 hours in Dec that went nowhere).

As I mentioned before I have two younger brothers, both live with her, both have all of their expenses fully covered (food, gym memberships (one gym membership + trainer is double my monthly grocery budget), sports, travel, cars + on her plan (I had to buy my own car + get my own insurance plan when I was 17)). Seeing the difference between how I'm treated versus them makes me want to cut her off again + emancipate myself from her cause I really am sick of this.

My questions really go out to those of you who've lost your parents, will I regret doing this down the line? As you can see she is a very greedy person and by cutting off some of her money I am without a doubt that this will end our relationship and never allow for another one to form. I and my mother (5XF) are both relatively young with many years ahead of us so I am very unsure if this is the wisest decision, I also am worried about how this may impact my relationship with my brothers, I get along well with the middle one, however, the youngest really looks up to me and I couldn't bring myself to hurt him.

Oh wise redditors, what should I do?

Posted Jun 3, 2026, 1:45 AM UTC

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