Muristek
18-year-old gets $1,800 from mother after he completes six-year challenge to stay off social media
Chandigarh, March 31
This was perhaps the best gift a mother could give her son or he could have ever earned.
Lorna Klefsaas paid her son, Sivert Klefsaas, $1,800 after he completed six years of exile from social media until he turned 18 years old.
Sivert was 12 years old when his mother came to him with the proposal, which she called the "18-for-18 challenge," according to Kare11.
According to Lorna, she decided to propose the challenge after seeing her daughter struggle with social media, and after she heard a story on the radio about another mother proposing a similar challenge.
Speaking of her daughter, Lorna said: "She got so obsessed with keeping up her Snapchat streaks that really it was affecting her mood. It was affecting her friendships," Lorna recalled of her older child's experience with social media while speaking to Kare11.
"I mean, it was like an intervention. She was really, really upset, but it was not even three weeks later that she thanked us and said she was so happy to not have her phone."
It was then that Lorna approached her son about the challenge, which Sivert recalled he immediately agreed to, as "being 12, I didn't really have that great of a concept of money yet".
"So, I was like oh sick, yeah, absolutely," he recalled laughing.
However, he also revealed that he downloaded Instagram as soon as he turned 18, before joking that he feels like he's 80 years old because he is struggling to figure out how to use the platform.
On Facebook, Lorna shared a photo of Sivert with the caption: "Six years ago I offered Sivert $1,800 to stay off social media until he was 18. Even though $1,800 is a lot more to a 12 year old than it is to an 18 year old, he has stuck to our deal," Lorna wrote. "He turns 18 tomorrow. He will have $1,800 in his pocket and new accounts on Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter! FYI - it's some of the best money I have ever spent!!!"