Okay, I'm going to assume you can't simply move out of the house or something. Otherwise I might suggest that. Whether you have a job or are just going to college, this is starting to seriously cut into what free time you have away from those responsibilities. And obviously you can't just tell him that you're not going to help him. He already knows you can, and thus the parental guilt trip extraordinaire.
(Useless to point out that you were foolish to let your relatives know that you can do computer tech support. You're probably beating yourself up for that already. ("WHY couldn't I have just pretended to be in accounting? A nice socially acceptable job such as garbage truck driver? But no!" But I digress for the sake of comedy. ^_^) )
So, you can't get out of the house... You can't NOT help your dad...
I want to say that on this next point I am dead serious. Not joking at all.
At this point, you really need to start charging your dad consulting fees on an hourly basis if you aren't already. You may as well get SOMETHING out of this if it's going to screw with your life this much!
We've all seen how often your dad freaks. Obviously he needs someone on call 24/7 to hold his hand. If he were having to call tech support constantly, he'd soon run out of any free calls the warranty program offered and would be well into paying them on a regular basis. Not to mention running up his phone bill or cell-phone minutes waiting on hold.
Find out how much a paid-for tech support plan/warranty costs. Divide that up into months, days, weeks, hours. Then halve that cost (family discount of course) and sell it to him that way.
Point out that he's been taking up your valuable free time for free. If he had to get on a plan, there would be a lot more frustration with him having to wait on hold and paying much more as pointed out above.
If he tries to say that he's providing room and board and helping him out is a small price to pay, then point out that you can't get away at any time of day or night to do your own thing without him calling upon your help. You are effectively on-call 24/7. Make sure to point out that if he were to actually hire a professional to do that, the cost would be extreme, and that you're willing to do it for pennies on the dollar by comparison.
Give him the ultimatum. Pay you or you stop providing any help.
If - absolutele WORST case, he tries to pull the classic parent ultimatum, and say that it's his house and his rules and you'll do it or you can leave and find your own place. Ultimatum right back and tell him that he can do that if he likes, but then he'll either have to pay for a tech support plan/warranty or call you for help. And either way he'd still have to pay. But if he forces you to move out, you'll charge FULL PRICE for your services. Gotta pay the bills somehow, and if you're going to be on-call 24/7 anyway...
That's my suggestion. If it's too extreme, I can understand. Maybe go a little more softly on the ultimatum thing. Maybe start suggesting it more subtly. But do it constantly. Let him understand that he is taking up and monopolizing your time. And that you really should be getting something in compensation for it.
I'm thinking either he'll pay you eventually or he'll try harder to learn on a more permanent basis so that he doesn't have to call/pay you so much. If you're subtle enough, maybe you won't have to give him any kind of ultimatum, but make him think it was HIS idea.
(Useless to point out that you were foolish to let your relatives know that you can do computer tech support. You're probably beating yourself up for that already. ("WHY couldn't I have just pretended to be in accounting? A nice socially acceptable job such as garbage truck driver? But no!" But I digress for the sake of comedy. ^_^) )
So, you can't get out of the house... You can't NOT help your dad...
I want to say that on this next point I am dead serious. Not joking at all.
At this point, you really need to start charging your dad consulting fees on an hourly basis if you aren't already. You may as well get SOMETHING out of this if it's going to screw with your life this much!
We've all seen how often your dad freaks. Obviously he needs someone on call 24/7 to hold his hand. If he were having to call tech support constantly, he'd soon run out of any free calls the warranty program offered and would be well into paying them on a regular basis. Not to mention running up his phone bill or cell-phone minutes waiting on hold.
Find out how much a paid-for tech support plan/warranty costs. Divide that up into months, days, weeks, hours. Then halve that cost (family discount of course) and sell it to him that way.
Point out that he's been taking up your valuable free time for free. If he had to get on a plan, there would be a lot more frustration with him having to wait on hold and paying much more as pointed out above.
If he tries to say that he's providing room and board and helping him out is a small price to pay, then point out that you can't get away at any time of day or night to do your own thing without him calling upon your help. You are effectively on-call 24/7. Make sure to point out that if he were to actually hire a professional to do that, the cost would be extreme, and that you're willing to do it for pennies on the dollar by comparison.
Give him the ultimatum. Pay you or you stop providing any help.
If - absolutele WORST case, he tries to pull the classic parent ultimatum, and say that it's his house and his rules and you'll do it or you can leave and find your own place. Ultimatum right back and tell him that he can do that if he likes, but then he'll either have to pay for a tech support plan/warranty or call you for help. And either way he'd still have to pay. But if he forces you to move out, you'll charge FULL PRICE for your services. Gotta pay the bills somehow, and if you're going to be on-call 24/7 anyway...
That's my suggestion. If it's too extreme, I can understand. Maybe go a little more softly on the ultimatum thing. Maybe start suggesting it more subtly. But do it constantly. Let him understand that he is taking up and monopolizing your time. And that you really should be getting something in compensation for it.
I'm thinking either he'll pay you eventually or he'll try harder to learn on a more permanent basis so that he doesn't have to call/pay you so much. If you're subtle enough, maybe you won't have to give him any kind of ultimatum, but make him think it was HIS idea.