AITAH for still being mad at my parents for stealing my car?
This is a bit of an involved story, and I'm on mobile so my apologies if there are any issues.
When I (32M) was 19 my grandparents gave me their old saturn sr2 so I would have a way to get around, without having to walk or depend on public transportation. My mother had the car put in her name instead of mine and that wasn't an issue for about a year. But when I started working as a CNA and did about 96 hours a week at my job, my mother and step-father started asking me to trade my saturn for their old silverado, so they could sell it to help with costs when they took over my grandparents prius.
This started a four month long period of them both asking me if I wanted to trade cars every time I was in the same room as them. After that they spent another month asking me to let them give my saturn to my brothers ex girlfriends new boyfriend. I said no through all of this, to the point I was paranoid about going home after work and couldn't sleep for more than an hour because they wouldn't leave me alone. I actually started hearing the question in my sleep.
I finally let them trade the cars just to get them to leave me alone.Then, after about another two years, and the silverado breaking down on three seperate occasions, my parents demanded it back because it was in "terrable condition, and you're not taking care of it". Mind you, the only problems that truck had that I hadn't fixed, were the paint peeling, a gas leak (it had both before my parents forced me to trade for it), and one corner panel was dented, from when it was driven into a guard post at the gas pump (not done by me)
After they took the truck back, they spent five months promising to return it to me, before they sold the truck and said it was to pay for legal fees when my stepfathers sister "stole his inheritance".
I stopet talking to my parents for almost a decade because of this and the several months they spent trying to gaslight me into believing I was the only one who did anything wrong.
But, I finally decided to give them another chance last year, after the hurricanes (I live in florida) nearly caused me to be evicted and my mother helped.
But, I was taking to my mother today and the topic came up, she tried to shift the blaim solely onto me again, and said it's all in the past. When I reminded her how much I suffered because I didn't have my car, she tried to say she had to "walk, just like you do" when she was young and end it their. I reminded her that she didn't have someone give her a car because she let the engin explode, not because someone else demanded she trade it for something else and then sell it out from under her. At some point she let slip that they sold the silverado to pay for one month of her nursing program, and I snapped and started yelling about everything I went through because of her taking my car. For context: I have been run over twice, nearly gotten heatstroke, had severe sunburns, been mugged at gunpoint, had a knife pulled on me, been attacked with an umbrella, and nearly set on fire by drug addicts)
Everyone in my family is trying to convince me that I should just get over my car and move on, but whenever I try, I hear about how they traded their cars in for another upgrade, or they went on some fancy vacation, or the got a camper. I can't help but feel like they could have spent a fraction of that money to replace my car.
I ho estly don't know anymore, am I the asshole here?
Posted Jul 8, 2025, 4:51 PM UTC