My (20f) father (40sM) made me unplug my PC because he caught me awake quite late.

A few nights ago, my father caught me awake at 4am on my PC, granted, he was angry so I just apologised, turned it off and went to sleep. I didn’t think much of it because it was a one-off event and I understood why he'd be angry.

Two days later, he came into my room with a box and told me that while I live at home, I’m to keep my PC unplugged and in the box - because I was awake at 4am. To preface: I’m not usually on my PC until 4am, I just happened to still be talking to some people that night, I had gotten home from work at around 10pm in a bad mood and felt better speaking to friends.

The country we live in is in lockdown, but I also work 3 days a week as well at a take-out place, so it’s not like I’m not doing nothing. I do my own stuff at home (laundry, sometimes my own food if I’m working, I clean the kitchen 3x a day, hoover etc) and I also pay “keeps” as well.

This has really upset me, though, and I don’t know if I’m overreacting or not. He knows I do a lot on my PC - I’ve been getting into graphic design during lockdown, and have done some projects for friends, some of which have paid me money for it. I have a drawing tablet, I use discord to keep in touch with my friends as well as play games with them, etc. I obviously have spent most if not all of my free time on my PC, it really takes the edge off of the covid-hell that’s going on, as well as keeps me busy. I could go on, but he also thinks I’m lazy for the amount of time I spend on it, despite the other things I do, as well.

I have a laptop, but I’m somewhat really limited in what I can do on it in comparison to my PC, obviously. I can't do my graphics stuff on my laptop, which is frustrating because I've had a few commissions lately, I also can't do work for an online course I'm doing, and I also can't play games with friends, which has lead to us spending a bit less time doing stuff together (they usually sit in a call and play games, I'm not one to sit in a call and listen to them talk about the game if I'm not playing).

There’s very few things I enjoy doing at home otherwise - I can’t stand watching TV/Shows, there’s only so many outdoor walks I can go for, all the books I have, I’ve read, I’m not inspired to draw anything… you get the gist. I’m also in the process of re-applying to uni and amongst other things, a lot of the files I need are on my PC that I can’t access.

Since he made me do that, I’ve not spoken to him at all. When he’s tried speaking to me, he gets blunt replies. Amongst other things, I’m just not happy with him right now and that was kind-of the final straw for me. He asked me if we were friends, I didn’t reply and he just laughed. He’s not bothered apologising.

I’m angry with him, but this is the first time in my life I’ve actually not made an effort to “make-up” with my own father because I feel like he’s treating me like a child. He’s taken away one thing that kept me somewhat sane during lockdown. I’m usually sociable, and pre-lockdown would go see friends a lot as well as balance 2 jobs, so obviously staying in the house is driving me insane. He hasn’t confiscated any of my stuff for over 4 years otherwise and for the most part, I tend to just bite my tongue and comply with what he asks.

I don’t feel like I’m addicted to my PC, it genuinely just made occupying my time a lot more easier to do in lockdown. I want it back, but I’m also ready to just bite my tongue until I move out, as I’m hoping to move out in July.

Also, I’d like to mention that my PC was bought with my own money, as well as my phone, laptop, pretty much most of my own belongings, which also makes me feel like it wasn’t “his” to confiscate.

I genuinely think he took it away mostly to piss me off, I can speak to friends and still be awake until 4am on other devices, he knows this, I just now can’t do it on my PC but also losing access to a bunch of other stuff.

The only reason I feel like I'm in the wrong here is because it's just a PC and I'm overreacting / feeling entitled.

So, Reddit, am I justified in being annoyed with my father, and do you have any advice on how I could possibly fix this / come to an agreement with him? If I’m not justified and I am overreacting, how can I better myself?

Thanks!

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TLDR: My dad made me unplug my PC because I was awake at 4am, despite me needing my PC for various things that I can't do on my laptop. He won't budge on giving it back, and I've not been speaking to him since.

Posted Jun 4, 2020, 11:42 PM UTC

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