An 18-year-old girl believed her mother owed her hundreds of thousands of dollars. When she asked her mother to return the money, her mother refused.
The girl had inherited about 125,000 from her grandfather and later realized that her mother owed her almost the same amount. She needed the money to attend her dream school.
However, things changed when she talked to her mother about the money. Hearing her mother’s unfavorable response, she had to take the legal route and file a case against her.
The girl shared that she had a complicated relationship with her parents, which had worsened as she grew up. Inheriting money from her grandfather further exacerbated her relationship with her mother. She explained, “When I tried to get the money transferred to my college savings, I encountered a problem. My mother.”
She wanted the money to study in her dream college, but her mother had other things in mind. She expected OP (Original Poster) to pay back whatever money she had spent on her through the years. Thus, when OP asked her mother to transfer the inheritance money to her account, she refused. She said the money belonged to her because of all she had done for her daughter.
OP confessed that her mother had always stolen money from her room. She had broken her safe and would cash in the funds OP would win by participating in different sports competitions. Feeling helpless, OP waited a few days before talking to her mother again. Meanwhile, she calculated how much money her mother owed her. As to how she did this, she revealed:
“When I was 13 I had decided to start keeping a notebook of all of the money I had earned.”
After adding all the money, OP realized her mother had stolen almost 125,000 from her in the past. She owed OP 250,000, including the money OP inherited from her grandfather.
Armed with her evidence, OP marched into her mother’s room to tell her about the money she owed. At first, her mother was confused, but she started yelling when OP revealed the total. She explained:
“She started yelling that all of that was hers, since she had spent more than that on my medical bills.”
The girl remained patient and asked her mother why she wasn’t doing this with her siblings. Her mother replied that OP was responsible for paying her back because she was the eldest child.
Before talking to her mother, OP had copied everything into a file on her computer because she knew how her mother would react. She recalled:
“When she took my notebook and papers to destroy, I just added on what the notebook, folder, and papers had cost to the total.”
The following day, OP sent an email to her mother, asking her to pay or she would take the legal route. She threatened to sue her for the money she had stolen from her.
However, after thinking about her email again, she felt she had gone overboard. She wrote a Reddit post, asking other users if she had done the right thing. Kris82868 assured OP she was not at fault. “Paying for the medical needs of a 4 year old kid is what a parent is supposed to do and a duty,” she explained.
OP confessed that she was raised to believe children had to repay their parents once they became adults. She felt she couldn’t repay them later in life because of the ongoing issues.
Meanwhile, another Redditor confessed that she would open another account in her name to separate her money from her mother if she was in OP’s place. SunnyBunnyHopHop alsosuggested:
“You need to have an attorney review all the information & discuss your available options.”
In OP’s updated post, she revealed her father was helping her get the money back. She had opened a separate bank account and got rid of those with her mother’s name.
She also shared that her mother confessed her other siblings did not belong to her father. Her mother had cheated on her husband and had five children out of her affair. “So now, she is dealing with a law suit, potential criminal charges, and a divorce,” she revealed.
OP thanked everyone for their suggestions and hoped her father would get full custody of his children. She admitted that discussing her problem with other Redditors was very helpful.
