When this parent is upset, she asks Reddit:
I got my daughter (17) a new car 2 months ago. Her stepbrother (19) has gone crazy about it ever since and has bern attempting to drive it but my daughter made it clear she doesn't want him to.
He'd refer to it as 'our car' and would get mad when my daughter decorates it with pink and add teddy bears and necklaces as decoration.
He'd get angry and say that she was 'ruining their car' and 'embarrassing infront of his friends' although she never let him get inside of it. I asked my husband to talk to his son but he said that my daughter and I need to 'chill'.
Fastforward to this past friday. My daughter called me at work saying her stepbrother took her car while she was upstairs after he demanded the keys and she refused. I called his phone but he didn't respond.
I called my husband and told him what happened, I told him that he needed to go bring the car back or I'd have to call the police.
He called his son then called me back saying his son was just taking it to go to the movies with his friends and will bring it back at 9pm. I couldn't wait. I watned him one more time to bring it back but he stalled.
I called the police and reported it stolen. My stepson was picked up from his location and brought in to the local police station. We got the car back but it was a mess, the decorations and toys in it were gone. My daughter didn't stop crying about it.
My husband blew up at me on the phone for calling the police on his son and causing him to spend the night there.
They both came home the next day and a huge argument ensued with my husband saying I made a mistake reporting the car missing and said that I escalated this situation and that I was the one who created it and should've got his son a similar car or at least told my daughter to share; otherwise we wouldn't be dealing with his son's temper tantrums.
The house has been full of tension since then and everyone is just mad at each others. I didn't want police involvement but seeing my daughter cry I just couldn't take it. AITA?
kittymurerer writes:
This is, weird. For the simple act of reporting the car stolen, when it was in fact stolen, NTA.
For marrying and subjecting yourself and more importantly your daughter to the environment created by your husband and stepson, YTA.
Get a divorce and get them as far away from your daughter as possible.
rxytp writes:
IMO it sounds as if he's told his son that it was both of theirs & OP's just allowing her daughter to keep it to herself so he's not the bad guy. His ways of talking & blowing up at op for holding his son accountable screams he's fueling this fire in more than one way.
OP's NTA for calling the cops, but she needs to get her daughter away from these two toxic AH's while making them replace what AH JR destroyed with his tantrum. The audacity of it all would've been enough for me to give him & his entitled son their walking papers.
wordsmyth writes:
NTA. You told your husband to get the car back or you'd call the police. He and his son ignored you. You called the police. No one should be surprised.
Why doesn't your husband buy his son a car? It sounds like your finances are separated? Does the kid work, go to school, do anything responsible with his life?