A Beverly Hills teenager recently dragged her mother on the Dr. Phil show to complain that she has to live like a peasant, after her monthly allowance was cut from $5,000 to just $1,000.
Ever since she was born, 15-year-old Nicolette has been given everything she ever wanted, including a nanny, personal driver and trainers, shopping sessions on Rodeo Drive and a bag collection that would make most women jealous. As a teenager, she would spend between $5,000 and $10,000 on designer clothes, accessories and other things most kids her age can only dream of. However, her mother Nina decided she couldn’t keep up with Nicolette’s spending, so she cut her allowance to “only” $1,000 a month. The self-described “spoiled brat” could’t accept that, so she asked the famous Dr. Phil to straighten things out.
Photo: Dr Phil video screengrab
“I want my mom to understand that I can’t live off $1,000 a month, and I grew up on a certain lifestyle. She can’t just take that away from me immediately,” the teenage girl said. “If someone took that lifestyle away from her, she wouldn’t like that. And I grew up on it, it’s all I’ve ever known.”
Her mother admitted that she started giving Nicolette credit cards with no limit on them “from a very young age”, but started cutting her allowance after realizing how spoiled she had become. She said she always felt guilty for working several jobs and not spending enough time with her daughter, so she compensated through financial rewards. However, the teen claims that a$1,000 monthly allowance doesn’t even cover her basic expenses, and that her mother should set a proper budget for her.
“I feel like a peasant. I can’t live like this anymore. I’m always out of money,” Nicolette told Dr. Phil. “If you ask me, I think my mom should be giving me at least $2,500 a month just to cover my basic expenses.”
The girl added that she also wants a brand new $231,000 matte black Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen for her 16th birthday, because she’s been wanting one for two years, and she “needs” it. Her mother, didn’t agree, offering her a new Mercedes C Class instead. Nicolette said she would accept it, but made it clear that she would “not be driving anything that could be considered an Uber X”.
After hearing both Nicolette’s arguments and her mother’s, Dr. Phil made it very clear that increasing the girl’s monthly allowance would only make things worse. The popular talk show told Nina that “overindulgence is a form of child abuse” and warned her that she was at risk of compromising her daughter’s values by giving her whatever she wants.
As for Nicolette, she should get a job in the real world, according to Dr. Phil. She doesn’t feel that way, though, claiming that “minimum wage” isn’t going to get her her dream car and that a job is “too much work”.
