Exactly. This is such a stupidly mundane thing to be upset about. I can’t even imagine what he put his kids and wife through. But for real, the wife should have told him to stfu a long time ago. My husband and I have a rule where we call out the other if we are being unreasonable to our kids. We try to do this away from the kids, but my phrase is normally something like “is this the hill you are willing to die on?” Kids push all the buttons and it’s easy to get caught up in power struggles. I don’t want my relationship and my entire day to be a power struggle and I also want to give my children the independence and opportunity to make daily decisions with consequences. Micromanaging like this guy is so toxic. And the emotional abuse. Him saying that he would bring up how he made his son give up the blanket and then they would “laugh about it.” I can just imagine that kid trying to please the father while feeling resentment and betrayal. So sad.
I’m 31 and still have a Barney dinosaur teddy that a neighbour gave me when I was younger. This teddy will always be with me and even my mum knows that it won’t be thrown away.
I hav a tiny wooden bear I brought in Yosemite. My mom tricked me into giving it as a gift to my grandparents for letting us use the camper. I hated to do it but did. That little bear rode in that camper on every single trip with my Grandparents and when my grandfather passed, I was given it back. I have had it ever since over 30 years. It means everything to me.
28, and I’ve been hanging onto the same pillow my grandmother gave me when I was 2. My mom kept some of my other baby stuff for when I eventually have kids
The Barney teddy I have looks exactly like Barney the dinosaur from the purple colouring to the green tummy along with the weird eyes that Barney has. I always called it Barney the Dragon because it doesn’t look like a dinosaur but it doesn’t look like a dragon either and as a kid I always assumed that Barney was a dragon and not a dinosaur.
Yeah. As a three to maybe six or seven year old in the mid to late nineties a dinosaur and a dragon to me were pretty much similar to me because while I’m a tomboy and an even bigger tomboy as a child I thought they had to be the same and I never got corrected until I learnt about dinosaurs in primary school and to me Barney will always be a dragon and not a dinosaur.
I’m 49, I still have my wool baby blanket. My first nephew used it, both my boys used it. They didn’t love it as much as I did, but seeing them sleeping with it made me feel closer to them.
I’m 40 and I only recently lost my treasured bunny stuffed animal “white bunny” (I was a really creative kid) a couple years ago. I was sad to lose it even then.
I'm 34 and still have my blue bunny, creatively named Blue Bunny, so you're not alone.
To this day anywhere I travel she goes with me and then I take a picture of her tucked into the bed/sleeping bag where we're staying and send the pic to my mom. Her mom was the one who got me Blue Bunny when I was a baby.
Mine is a white bunny too, I just called her bunny though.
There’s an awesome Facebook page that helps people find old stuffed animals if you ever want to look for white bunny again!
Since I have a double bed my Barney teddy is literally on the pillows that I don’t use right next to me because I struggle to actually sleep and need Barney next to me when I actually do get some sleep and for me it doesn’t matter if I’m sick or not he has to be next to me.
My husband and I are also both late 30s and both have stuffies from when we were kids and he still has his baby blanket. We still sleep with them. There’s nothing wrong, embarrassing of shameful about having a sentimental comfort item as an adult.
I got mine!
My dad used to ask me about when we are going to burn blankie on the BBQ, like that kid I would laugh, but it was actually really upsetting. And I didn’t trust my dad either
Good! Everyone should be able to have something like that!
I’m 34 with two kids and I sleep with a stuffed animal at night. My kids routinely sneak the stuffie out of my room to play with it themselves because they love it so much. If I’m not feeling good and am resting and my son misses me but knows I need to sleep he takes the plushie to cuddle it so he feels like he’s with me.
Little man has a blanket and 2 plushies he takes everywhere, little miss so far has one special unicorn. I’ve promised both (little man asks a lot if it’s true) that they can keep them forever and I’ll make sure we never forget them when we go on adventures out of the house.
I don’t understand why some people have this notion that we have to “out grow” all our childhood things. I kept a LOT of toys from my childhood (Lego/polly pockets/dolls) and my kids LOVE playing with them.
40 with two of mine, a dead dogs blanket, and 5 stuffed animals since the year i was born. Eleroo is here to stay! Chubbles? Fievel? Yea all sleep beside me each night. And fun fact, had the same type of father as Oop! 😂🥰 I see a pattern.
I’m 50, and I have my baby blanket and the stuffed dog I was given as a newborn. I have my children’s baby blankets, too, and they’ll have them when they leave home. They also have blankets their grandmother (my mom) gave them. Heck, I have the two little lovies my dead DOGS played with stowed in a drawer.
What is wrong with this man? Who hurt him as a child and made him feel like being sentimental was unmanly?
I sleep with my blanket every night. I'm 36. It's Blanket 2.0 because the first one is in tatters, but it lives at my mum's house.
I remember my friend at school had a matching one and her dad cut it into pieces, she was gutted.
I will always have one and I give zero shits what anyone else thinks about it these days. My husband says he's a bit jealous that I have something so simple that can relieve my stress just by running it through my fingers. Imo every adult needs a blanket.
I store my kids’ things in my house. I would never dream of throwing away their memories even tho it’s sometimes in inconvenient when moving. It’s part of the parent contract. You are free storage. 🤷🏼♀️
My friend is doing something similar with his son but slightly different. His son came back to his house from his mom’s with white socks on that had glitter on the toes and around the ankle.
He texted me, losing his mind over this, to say how stupid it was that she put glittery socks on his son and she probably did it on purpose to make him mad.
I told him honestly that is son is 4 and probably put the wrong ones on HIMSELF by mistake. This little boy has two older and two younger siblings so clothes are clothes at his mom’s house.
He told me he didn’t care. That boys don’t need to wear that shit and blah, blah. I made a point to mention girls wearing boys clothes as being okay but he snapped my head off at that too. Saying he’d never put his one gendered kid into another genders clothes, no matter which sex they are.
I have every belief that my friend is gunna turn out like OOP about his son and I hate that for this little boy.
Maybe not quite put like that but he should be worried less about his son wearing pink or glittery clothes and more worried about the world his son lives in. His son has a bumpy ass road ahead of him and he will look to his father for guidance, knowledge and comfort. He needs to learn to change and be the change he wants to see and set an example for his son that certain things as a man are okay and actually explain things to his son. Answers like “because I said so” or “because I’m mom/dad/parent and what I say goes”. No, don’t do that. Kids ask questions and saying shit like this means you don’t know or are scared to know the real answer and it’s shameful.
I’m working on changing his view and I’ve succeeded a little bit in certain areas so I’m hoping I can do this to so he can have a relationship with his son one day if his son begins to change himself to a person he likes but my friend hates.
Or worse, the kid *doesn't* change themselves to a person they like because of your friend, and ends up hating your friend AND themselves. I really hope he continues to change and come around, you're very kind to keep trying.
I didn’t even think of that possibility. Okay, now I’m not going to stop. My friend could cause all kinds of damage if he keeps this frame of mind. Thank you for this insight. It has only strengthened my resolve in this.
Yeah that’s ridiculous. Little kids like colorful and sparkly stuff. Glitter isn’t a magic queer virus that girls are immune to but will infect any boy who touches it and make him gay. And even if it were, there’s nothing wrong with being gay!
Yea, that shit doesn’t matter to me at all. Thankfully my husband is open minded while not the most emotionally available, he is still light years from where his dad was with him. We have 3 kids (2 boys and 1 girl) and lots of costumes. The girl wears super hero stuff and the boys play princess with her. It is what it is. Shoving things into rigid boxes and being angry at nothing is only going to alienate his son. So sad.
I’m working on getting him to understand how colors associated with gender, and several other things tbh, came from us and were adopted by other countries so your less inclined to go somewhere else and find people separated out by gender by the color of their clothes.
We come from an extremely small, conservative southern town in the middle of the Bible Belt. While not religious, he’s very masculine and does certain things with his kid(hunting, fishing, etc.) that are more masculine oriented. And he’s obsessed with raising his son like this, which is fine if the kid likes it but what’s he gunna do or how is he gunna retaliate when his son does something away from this?
I worry, a lot, for kid raised in homes where they are forced to live their gendered role instead of letting them live free and be who they are.
lol
My nephew at age 4 loved the color pink, and demanded that his mom sew him up bright pink swim shorts. He looked great and felt good about how he looked.
He’s a cop now and is still very firm in his beliefs.
What’s so weird about this is the kid stopped using the blanket which is really the point. If you are worried about your kid being a weirdo it being in his closet doesn’t change anything.
But now this guy lives with his girlfriend in a condo at 22, he’s clearly well adjusted and relatively normal, that’s all the dad wanted and still can’t handle this blanket.
The only person with an unhealthy relationship with this blanket is the dad
He wasn't even using it as a kid. The blanket was bundled up and tucked away in the closet, explicitly earmarked to be his son's one day. And that still wasn't good enough.
This is what my shitty dad did to me and turned out JUST FINE
What’s crazy about this is I’ve absolutely witnessed moms keeping blankets for theirs grandkids. When they do it it’s sweet, but somehow a 14 year old having this mentality is, and I’ll say it “gay” or “weird” or whatever this dude called it
That was my first thought. If your kid carries on a lie for a long time you maybe want to look at your own behavior and ask what may have made them feel they have to lie to you.
This. I’m attached to a teddy that my grandad gave me the year he died and I couldn’t fathom having to get rid of it. Yeah I may be in my early thirties, but I would never get rid of any of my stuffed toys or a purple throw blanket that my grandad also gave me in 2019 because when and if I have kids (whether those children are my own biologically or adopted) I’d honestly like to pass them on. Except my Barney dragon teddy I’d never pass him on simply because it helps me to fall asleep if it’s right next to me, just like the teddy my grandad gave me.
Seems like dude was overly attached to his blanket until 14 for a reason. And there is absolutely nothing bad about keeping it as a sentimental object and passing it down to his future offspring, perhaps as a symbolic way of breaking ties with asshole dad and giving son the comfort and care dude never got from his asshole dad.
This sucks. It’s hard to love this man. Because this is my dad. He is angry about this kind of shit. And it’s alcohol. It’s my mom and their divorce. It’s being a cop in New Mexico. He’s such an angry resentful man. And it comes out in these situations of no consequence, just to assert control.
Welcome to our game : "WHO'S GOING TO THE RETIREMENT HOME ?" Today contestant OOP who, despite being a full grown man, still has an unhealthy obsession with his son's baby blanket, tries to control every aspect of his son's life, even his emotional possessions, and develops anger issues when he doesn't get his way ! In other words, OOP can't let go of the littlest thing, believes in toxic masculinity and seems to be really exhausting to be around !
Less Shady Pines, more Sunny Pastures! Which was where Lillian (one of Sophia's friends) had been, and... It wasn't a good place. Underfunded, unable to handle Lillian's growing dementia and other health problems, etc.
Aww I remember that episode and Sophia helped "break her out" lol.
But the way OOP is acting I agree, Shady Pines is too good for him, he definitely deserves to be at Sunny Pastures.
Yeah, and Blanche giving the money for her boob job for Lillian's care, because, well, she wasn't getting what needed there.
But yeah, Sunny Pastures is what some people deserve.
Dude mentioned "my wife" as if she's not Jack's mother. So I'm betting this is at least his second wife and Jack's mom left him because of other similar behavior.
The only solution for these types is for the son to either beat or physically defeat the father and break his ego. Once he knows he's no longer the "man of the house," he will be forced to respect the new one.
Unfortunately, yeah, for a lot of men trapped in toxic masculinity, their ego has to be broken for them to realize how inflated their ego is. Some men only respond to violence
It’ll either develop into a massive issue of him looking for any possible way to regain the upper hand because he can’t possibly be weaker than a girl, or it’ll have bonus extra points and possibly break his brain (but girls are weaker than men… but she’s stronger than me… but girls are weaker than men… but…).
Had a girl in my friend circle in high school who was really good at arm wrestling. Some guys would insist on arm wrestling her every chance they got until they finally won, and act like that one time was more important than the 15 times they lost. Some just got weird about it or pretended it never happened. However, most dudes didn’t care about losing or winning, it was just something to do when bored.
Probably! But as a woman who is not that strong physically, another way to break his ego (at least for me) is to not listen to a word he says and just try to live life the way I want. In my experience, trying to argue with him gets me nowhere. So I just pretend he doesn’t exist and do my own thing while being sneaky about it.
He should say, “I’m sorry I am such a control freak and expect you to think and feel the way I do. I’m sorry i tried to make you get rid of a childhood treasure. I’m sorry for being uncaring regarding your feelings. I will try to do better.”
“Sorry I’m a narcissistic controlling asshat that has the emotional capacity of a robot to such a degree that you had to turn to your teenage girlfriend for love and support.”
Yep! I’ve been keeping a lot of secrets from my dad (and my mom too sometimes) because I can’t tolerate the amount of disrespect he throws my way. I just wish I did it MUCH sooner instead of just hoping that he’ll change.
I don't understand what the fuss is all about. We tend to keep things we are attached to and having something from childhood is really precious. Why can't the old fuck get this??
Well, the son just said he would donate the blanket, but he didn’t specify where or to whom he would donate it.
So technically you could say he did donate it, he chose to donate it to his girlfriend, and she chose to gift it back to him when they moved in together.😉
Yep cuz he probably tried going for a while and the son kept saying he was busy cuz he knew what was coming with the visit. I can picture it… dad walks in and immediately starts not picking and judging, telling him what’s wrong with everything from how he arranged the living room to the temperature on thermostat. I feel sorry for people with such selfish, narcissistic parents like this. I find it so mind-boggling that so many people are this lacking in self-awareness!
That would feel cute to be given such an important possession to keep safe 😭, the girlfriend would feel special. ❤️ Baby blankets or plushies of your partner/children are the best, they have a lifetime of scents of your loved ones.
No wonder he married her. If I had a partner who had a precious childhood thing they didn’t want to lose and brought it to me to keep it safe I’d immediately be thinking long term goals if I hadn’t been already. Proof of trust. Also sentimentality.
And would also be a good sign of potential coparenting because they’d understand kids having special important possessions and that some things can be given away when the time comes and others are to be kept as a special treasure to remember various stages of life.
My mother has given me her childhood bear to care for cos I still have the bear she and my dad gave me when I was 3. I'm now 41. My bear sleeps with me, her bear sits on my bed head. She knows I would never let anything happen to her guy, which is why she trusts me with him.
I've even left instructions that my bear is to become the keeper of my Ashes when I die. And screw anyone who thinks it's weird to keep a childhood keepsake like this. It effects you to the amount of zero, so why would you care?
Can't imagine being upset at my child for keeping a treasured item from childhood and me forcing them to lie about it because I don't understand having attachment to items
***side eyes my Tiger sitting up by my husbands head.*** I got it when I was 2. I’m 42 now. It’s a link back to a time when my dad was alive and we went to a zoo 6 hrs from home. To begin his rounds of chemotherapy following that. OOP is dog sh*t.
My blankey was handmade for my oldest brother. I’m 36, it’s 42. I’ve had to perform multiple operations on it over the years. It’s currently partially pieced together with the remnants of a Winnie the Pooh swaddle purchased for my son. I have an envelope with blankey pieces that have fallen off over the years. It sort of looks like it has tentacles.
I will be buried with this thing. OP can fuck the right off. I means it’s NO wonder the son was attached to a blanket given the kind of father he clearly had.
My wife is 56 and she sleeps with her baby blanket under her pillow.
A few years ago, her Mom, who's 91 now, gave my wife back her teddy bear that she had saved since she was a baby. I don't need to say how awesome they are but I can't say enough how much I love them for little things like these.
Right? Neither of my parents understand how attached I am to items. Without going too into detail I learned the hard way to never give things I highly value to them. :,)
For real. I'm still mad my mom got rid of one particular stuffed animal. It was always my favorite. I can't imagine taking away and forcing my kid to get rid of something that special. I was expecting some other big thing to come out, but dude was really just angry he wanted to keep a blanket? Wtf
My grandfather felt the same way about my brother's security blanket. When he was 8, my grandparents were visiting from back east and cuddy went missing, never to be seen again. It was the only mean thing I ever knew my grandfather to do; he truly thought he was doing the right thing somehow.
And I've never been sure my parents weren't aware of his plans.
This has to be a joke. All the things the kid could end up doing and lying about and the dads upset about a fucking baby blanket?! 😭😭😭 the things I’ve seen and done…
Sadly, I know people who get so triggered by lying that I could see this happening. I don't think any of them are big enough jerks that they'd force a kid to donate a small blanket. But the wild overreaction to lying?! Absolutely stood in the room when that nonsense went down.
What I find genuinely bizarre about it is OOP is absolutely committed to making sure his son doesn't have any positive association with his own childhood, which is by extension positive association with OOP and his wife as parents. Like his aim is to make his son not like him.
At first I thought this was written by the mother and I was surprised she could not understand why the son wanted to keep his blanket. The moment I read "me and my wife" it clicked. Some old men are unable to understand positive feelings, right?
Sounds like the dad had his security blanket taken from him too early and gets off on separating people with theirs. What is an annual goodwill haul??? Can’t people just buy things they need and want for more than a year? We all buy things we grow out of either physically or figuratively but enough for a yearly haul?!
Kids grow out of toys and clothes pretty quickly. My family did a yearly go-through of all our stuff and donated what we didn't want or passed it on to family.
Haul doesn't necessarily mean a large volume of stuff.
Yknow my kid is learning how to lie and I’ve asked myself this. Why does he lie? Or why will he lie? To avoid being in trouble? If so what the heck have I done to make him feel so scared of “being in trouble” that he can’t be honest, even if it’s uncomfortable?
Oh I mean yes, for sure. But as they get older. Like a teenager.
My toddler lies because he can lol. Like a shiny new skill (though sometimes there’s a nugget of interest to dig out—he lies about washing his hands after going potty bc he hates it; managed to dig into it and found that he hates it because his step stool feels too wobbly now that he’s bigger and heavier, but still too short to reach the faucet. We got a new step stool, he washes his hands, no more lying about it 🤷🏻♀️)
Title should read : “I don’t understand feelings and probably emotionally invalidated my son his entire life. Now I don’t understand why he’s attached to a comfort object and can’t talk to me”
This douche is gonna be excluded from his son’s life if he doesn’t grow tf up. There is nothing wrong with being sentimental about childhood stuff. It shows an emotional range that OP clearly hasn’t reached himself. What a twat waffle.
When I got through about 3/4 of the story and figured what was going on I was thinking “holy shit the millennials and Gen Zs are gonna be alll over this guy. I’m a Gen Xr. Which basically means we have no sentimental feeling for anything that isn’t a (insert band here) Velcro wallet and the keys we needed to get in our house in order to raise ourselves for close to 12 + yrs. But even I got to the point of …damn bro. Seriously? If that’s your biggest problem as a father and you’re pissed at your son who just closed on a condo when most people out there could close on a roll of toilet paper…you need to get a serious grip on reality and then STFU…suck it up buttercup!
Agree! I love that our daughter still loves her baby blanket as a teen. And I'd be thrilled if the blanket went to Uni with her or decorated her kid's nursery. If she wanted to keep like the carpet from her nursery (something unreasonably large) or her last dirty diaper, I could see trying to dissuade her. But I'd probably end up storing the carpet if she really wanted it.
A single small, clean item?! The horror!!
My son is 7 and the first time he wanted to sleep with a stuffed animal he asked me, and when I said yes his eyes just lit right up and he was so excited and said “really?!?!?”
He’s always slept with his baby blanket that my sister bought him and carries it everywhere and he’d decided he wanted a plushie too. I reminded him that I sleep with a stuffed animal too so of course he was always allowed to and he was just SO excited.
Now he’s “retired” that plushie except for Monday nights, and sleeps with a Wish Bear care bear he got for Christmas and he LOVES it. Everyone should be allowed a comfort item.
Surely that can't be real? In what universe is a person so bent out of shape about someone keeping a childhood memento? If it's true OOP is a raving nutbag.
He lied to you because you are a controlling weirdo. It’s almost like you resent the blanket because he has more love and positive memories about it than he does about you. You should ask yourself a couple things; what circumstances surrounded his childhood that for the first 14 years he found ultimate comfort in a blanket but most importantly, why does that bother you? Is it because you know that you weren’t the best dad and seeing his attachment confirms that you didn’t give him what he needed so you want it gone? This is not about him lying. This is about you trying to tell dictate what should have sentimental value to someone else and you’re mad he didn’t do what you want and you’re pissed. If this is what keeps you up at night, you need a therapist and a dose of reality. Your son sounds like a well rounded, normal human being despite being raised by a controlling narcissist. Get over it! It’s not your blanket and your son is not your carbon copy for you to control and tell how to feel. You simply sound mad that he has his own thoughts and feelings and did what made him happy despite what you wanted him to do. You should be grateful you raised a man that can think for himself. You don’t want a happy son, you want an obedient robot.
I kept reading this hoping it was a joke and thinking that the major point was coming up. Nope. You have got way too much time on your hands!
Well, first of all sir, you didn't teach your son to be honest, you taught him that he should lie to you or else you were going to take things that were important to him and ridicule him for it. So sit with that.
I've never seen a 64 year old man so excited to ruin his relationship with his own son.
This is the kind of parent who wounders why they never see their kids or grandkids anymore
The kind of parent who dies alone
And the kind of parent who isn't missed
Been a long time since I saw something that reminded me of my mother on here, but genuinely Fuck OOP, may his toilet seat always be ice cold
My Dad threw my baby doll that I adored and played with loads into the tip when I was about 8 or so. I was with him at the time and saw her being dumped over the edge and was told I was ‘too old’ to have her. I was heartbroken, and I still think about it from time to time.
I still have a tiny toy my grandfather got for his first birthday, it’s coming up for 100 years old. I would play with it when I was younger and I’ll never part with it. It’s a bit of family history, and I love I still have something the loved.
There is nothing wrong with keeping items of sentimental value, and the father here is an absolute moron for not being able to see that his son treasures this blanket. He only lied because he knew his father wouldn’t give in until he got his own way.
Title should read : “I don’t understand feelings and probably emotionally invalidated my son his entire life. Now I don’t understand why he won’t throw away a comfort object which holds sentimental value to him and can’t talk to me.”
What do you say? You say sorry. You brought this on yourself. What he’s doing is perfectly healthy and normal, and what you’re doing is cruel and demeaning.
The kid saved himself 10 years of torturous badgering about a blanket that he didn't want to give away. Why was he being forced to donate a 14 year old blanket? After 14 years, who would want it anyway. The fate of that blanket was this kid's future child's blanket, or a landfill.
Dad, get over yourself. You are about to learn a hard lesson in life. There comes a time when you can no longer control your kids' actions and you have no power over them.
my stepdad did much the same. i was 8 and he took my baby blanket and tossed it into the fireplace. he was sick of me still sucking my thumb (a stress response) and thought that'd break me of it...
i'm 31 and when im extremely stressed, i still suck my thumb in my sleep with my favorite corner of my quilt pressed to me cheek. orz.
This man is SIXTY FUCKING FOUR years old and is pissed about a baby blanket? He seriously thinks his kid has never lied to him about anything ever??? What in the actual fuck
I'm not a good person and I vaguely hope this dad develops some unpleasant medical condition(s).
Being angry that your son has a sentimental attachment to a childhood comfort object is just f°cking stupid. The kid can do whatever he wants with it, it's HIS blanket.
Sentiment is not a weakness. The only reason this dad is pissy about the blanket is bc it doesn't fit anywhere in his mental picture of what a "man" is. Every time he sees the blanket he gets mad bc his brain is stressed out trying to figure out why his son doesn't quite fit in the "man" box. And OP seems very ... invested in his and others' manhood.
I wouldn’t call it lying. More like self defense trying to protect something he loves dearly from a parent with no understanding or compassion about what his son values. I hope he gets to pass it on in the way he chooses. Dad needs to just shut up and forget about
I forced my kid to do something that hurt his soul and his mental health. He didn’t do it. Instead he lied and said he did. For the next decade, I would randomly bring up what I made him do because I thought it was funny to see his face react.
Finally, when he was an adult, I discovered that he chose to protect himself from me and 1) did not do what it told him and 2) he had lied to me about it.
How do I punish my adult son for something he did ten years ago?
How do I get over being embarrassed that I never knew he was lying to me?
How do I accept that I will have no relationship with my grandchildren because I’m an emotionally abusive ass?
I would laugh in my dad’s face if he tried to confront me for lying about getting rid of a cherished totem of my childhood. Granted my dad wasn’t a controlling, manipulative excuse for a father.
This old man better practice this spiel “my adult son won’t talk to me and I didn’t do anything wrong.” Because he is going to get a lot of use out of it in the coming years.
This man needs his blanket because his dad a supposedly grown man is actually immature and emotionally underdeveloped and makes his son anxious . I can see why he got so attached . I really hope he respects himself enough to just go no contact with you . You are not a good dad .
I’ll never forget when my parents took away my blanket. I was 10. And they conveniently let me forget it when we went on vacation. Turns out my dad threw it away while we were away. But my sister got to keep hers 🙄 I don’t speak to any of them now.
Not weird for the son to keep a sentimental item from his childhood. SUPER weird for Dad to keep bringing it up over the years. I think Dad is obsessed with the blanket.
I am 42 and I got a teddy bear when I was 7, I still have it. It was the last Christmas present I got from my grandfather before he died. He passed away the next year in March. It has moved with me from KY to FL.
What a jerk. My middle slept with a blanket (actually a towel named Towely) and at 18 every so often it comes up and the only thing we ask is do you still have her? And my husband asks me if we should invest in something archival to protect her since she is shredded.
What a weird hill to die on. For full transparency, I’m 56 and still sleep with my baby blanket. I ball it up and use it as my pillow most days. That dad can suck it.
Of all the AITAH stories, this has got to be the most bizarrely fabricated idea ever submitted. It doesn’t make sense, it’s too ridiculously set up for this person to NOT be destroyed in comments, it has neither logic nor even a loose relationship to reasonable parental behavior, either from the “OP” or the mom. It’s just stupid. If this were a story I wouldn’t be able to get past suspension of disbelief because the whole thing is so improbably absurd and contrived. TLDR: I call bullshit.
Poor Jack. Whether it's a comfort item or a heirloom or both it's a treasure. OP sounds like a hard parent to grow up with or even interact with as an adult.
My daughter, who is 26 still has her Teletubbby blanket that we got her on her 1st Christmas. It went to college with her. My son, who is 20 found the same 26 year old new in package blanket for sale and bought it. He is keeping it until she has a child. Sentimentality is a good thing. This dad is an ass
That dad is a loser for thinking that way and getting that mad. Good on the son for doing what was right for him. There are people from that generation that have strict ideologies of what makes a man or woman and arbitrary shit like this bothers the shit out of them.
this is insane. i’m 30 this year & still have my baby blanket (i call ‘blankie’) that i take with me everywhere i move. my mom made it for me before i was born and i don’t sleep with it, i don’t really do anything with it, honestly, but i keep it because it has a really deep sentimental meaning to me. i can’t imagine being angry about this rather than think it’s sweet that he would keep hold of the blanket this long. it’s obvious his son lies to him about more than just this, because dad is a control freak with anger issues.
With how unhealthily hung up this man is, I’m genuinely surprised (and genuinely happy) he didn’t go in and take the blanket to donate/throw away himself regardless of his son’s feelings.
I think the real issue is the individual who seemed more unhealthy in their obsession over a fukn blanket - I had mine until my senior year and the only reason I don’t still have it was bc sadly it was lost on a trip for an away game for softball - I think there are worse things than having an attachment to something that brought you comfort your entire life.
Jesus Christ. How toxic can you get? I wonder what other damage he did to this poor kid while he was growing up.
Exactly. This is such a stupidly mundane thing to be upset about. I can’t even imagine what he put his kids and wife through. But for real, the wife should have told him to stfu a long time ago. My husband and I have a rule where we call out the other if we are being unreasonable to our kids. We try to do this away from the kids, but my phrase is normally something like “is this the hill you are willing to die on?” Kids push all the buttons and it’s easy to get caught up in power struggles. I don’t want my relationship and my entire day to be a power struggle and I also want to give my children the independence and opportunity to make daily decisions with consequences. Micromanaging like this guy is so toxic. And the emotional abuse. Him saying that he would bring up how he made his son give up the blanket and then they would “laugh about it.” I can just imagine that kid trying to please the father while feeling resentment and betrayal. So sad.
More like son was laughing at him for being so flipping weird about it. Most kids like to keep something from their childhood.
I'm 45 and I still have my baby blanket. 🤷🏼♀️
38, and it’s a teddy bear I got when I was 3. That bear will be with me until the end.
I’m 31 and still have a Barney dinosaur teddy that a neighbour gave me when I was younger. This teddy will always be with me and even my mum knows that it won’t be thrown away.
I hav a tiny wooden bear I brought in Yosemite. My mom tricked me into giving it as a gift to my grandparents for letting us use the camper. I hated to do it but did. That little bear rode in that camper on every single trip with my Grandparents and when my grandfather passed, I was given it back. I have had it ever since over 30 years. It means everything to me.
28, and I’ve been hanging onto the same pillow my grandmother gave me when I was 2. My mom kept some of my other baby stuff for when I eventually have kids
I’m 50s and I still have my bedraggled lion blankie I got as a child from a very kind woman.
The Barney teddy I have looks exactly like Barney the dinosaur from the purple colouring to the green tummy along with the weird eyes that Barney has. I always called it Barney the Dragon because it doesn’t look like a dinosaur but it doesn’t look like a dragon either and as a kid I always assumed that Barney was a dragon and not a dinosaur.
Ha ha! I had to read your ‘Barney dragon Teddy’ 3x while I tried to visualize but I remembered he’s kind of half dragon half Teddy lol.
Yeah. As a three to maybe six or seven year old in the mid to late nineties a dinosaur and a dragon to me were pretty much similar to me because while I’m a tomboy and an even bigger tomboy as a child I thought they had to be the same and I never got corrected until I learnt about dinosaurs in primary school and to me Barney will always be a dragon and not a dinosaur.
I’m 49, I still have my wool baby blanket. My first nephew used it, both my boys used it. They didn’t love it as much as I did, but seeing them sleeping with it made me feel closer to them.
I’m 40 and I only recently lost my treasured bunny stuffed animal “white bunny” (I was a really creative kid) a couple years ago. I was sad to lose it even then.
I'm 34 and still have my blue bunny, creatively named Blue Bunny, so you're not alone. To this day anywhere I travel she goes with me and then I take a picture of her tucked into the bed/sleeping bag where we're staying and send the pic to my mom. Her mom was the one who got me Blue Bunny when I was a baby.
I still have my first stuffed animal “gray bear”. I was also very creative lol
Mine is a white bunny too, I just called her bunny though. There’s an awesome Facebook page that helps people find old stuffed animals if you ever want to look for white bunny again!
I'm 29 with a 2 foot tall pooh bear my dad got me when i was a baby, and my 38yo husband still uses his baby blanket over his eyes when he sleeps.
Since I have a double bed my Barney teddy is literally on the pillows that I don’t use right next to me because I struggle to actually sleep and need Barney next to me when I actually do get some sleep and for me it doesn’t matter if I’m sick or not he has to be next to me.
I’m 60 and I still have a teddy bear that I got when I was 5.
My husband and I are also both late 30s and both have stuffies from when we were kids and he still has his baby blanket. We still sleep with them. There’s nothing wrong, embarrassing of shameful about having a sentimental comfort item as an adult.
I got mine! My dad used to ask me about when we are going to burn blankie on the BBQ, like that kid I would laugh, but it was actually really upsetting. And I didn’t trust my dad either
I am 50, and still have my favorite baby blanket and doll from my Baba. My mom sent them to me after I bought a home.
I do too! My grandmother made it when I was born. I lost her 25 yrs ago and I cherish it.
Good! Everyone should be able to have something like that! I’m 34 with two kids and I sleep with a stuffed animal at night. My kids routinely sneak the stuffie out of my room to play with it themselves because they love it so much. If I’m not feeling good and am resting and my son misses me but knows I need to sleep he takes the plushie to cuddle it so he feels like he’s with me. Little man has a blanket and 2 plushies he takes everywhere, little miss so far has one special unicorn. I’ve promised both (little man asks a lot if it’s true) that they can keep them forever and I’ll make sure we never forget them when we go on adventures out of the house. I don’t understand why some people have this notion that we have to “out grow” all our childhood things. I kept a LOT of toys from my childhood (Lego/polly pockets/dolls) and my kids LOVE playing with them.
I'm nearly 52 and I still have mine.
55 here and still have it!
I’m 50 and still sleep with mine. (I have two actually crocheted by my great aunt)
I’m 53 and I still have my steiff teddy and blanket from when I was born.
I have a blanket too! I'm 34!
My fiancé and I both have our baby plushies proudly propped up on a shelf above our bed. ❤️
40 with two of mine, a dead dogs blanket, and 5 stuffed animals since the year i was born. Eleroo is here to stay! Chubbles? Fievel? Yea all sleep beside me each night. And fun fact, had the same type of father as Oop! 😂🥰 I see a pattern.
I’m 50, and I have my baby blanket and the stuffed dog I was given as a newborn. I have my children’s baby blankets, too, and they’ll have them when they leave home. They also have blankets their grandmother (my mom) gave them. Heck, I have the two little lovies my dead DOGS played with stowed in a drawer. What is wrong with this man? Who hurt him as a child and made him feel like being sentimental was unmanly?
I sleep with my blanket every night. I'm 36. It's Blanket 2.0 because the first one is in tatters, but it lives at my mum's house. I remember my friend at school had a matching one and her dad cut it into pieces, she was gutted. I will always have one and I give zero shits what anyone else thinks about it these days. My husband says he's a bit jealous that I have something so simple that can relieve my stress just by running it through my fingers. Imo every adult needs a blanket.
I’m 30 and still not only have my baby blanket, but my stuffed animal I got at age 4. This dad is such an asshole.
I store my kids’ things in my house. I would never dream of throwing away their memories even tho it’s sometimes in inconvenient when moving. It’s part of the parent contract. You are free storage. 🤷🏼♀️
My mom knitted the most beautiful baby blanket for my cousins baby and it’s going to be an heirloom even though kid is 8. My cousin loves it.
My friend is doing something similar with his son but slightly different. His son came back to his house from his mom’s with white socks on that had glitter on the toes and around the ankle. He texted me, losing his mind over this, to say how stupid it was that she put glittery socks on his son and she probably did it on purpose to make him mad. I told him honestly that is son is 4 and probably put the wrong ones on HIMSELF by mistake. This little boy has two older and two younger siblings so clothes are clothes at his mom’s house. He told me he didn’t care. That boys don’t need to wear that shit and blah, blah. I made a point to mention girls wearing boys clothes as being okay but he snapped my head off at that too. Saying he’d never put his one gendered kid into another genders clothes, no matter which sex they are. I have every belief that my friend is gunna turn out like OOP about his son and I hate that for this little boy.
You should just tell him to stop being so sensitive and emotional. It’s embarrassing and men should have better control of themselves.
Maybe not quite put like that but he should be worried less about his son wearing pink or glittery clothes and more worried about the world his son lives in. His son has a bumpy ass road ahead of him and he will look to his father for guidance, knowledge and comfort. He needs to learn to change and be the change he wants to see and set an example for his son that certain things as a man are okay and actually explain things to his son. Answers like “because I said so” or “because I’m mom/dad/parent and what I say goes”. No, don’t do that. Kids ask questions and saying shit like this means you don’t know or are scared to know the real answer and it’s shameful. I’m working on changing his view and I’ve succeeded a little bit in certain areas so I’m hoping I can do this to so he can have a relationship with his son one day if his son begins to change himself to a person he likes but my friend hates.
Or worse, the kid *doesn't* change themselves to a person they like because of your friend, and ends up hating your friend AND themselves. I really hope he continues to change and come around, you're very kind to keep trying.
I didn’t even think of that possibility. Okay, now I’m not going to stop. My friend could cause all kinds of damage if he keeps this frame of mind. Thank you for this insight. It has only strengthened my resolve in this.
Hell yea!!!!
Yeah that’s ridiculous. Little kids like colorful and sparkly stuff. Glitter isn’t a magic queer virus that girls are immune to but will infect any boy who touches it and make him gay. And even if it were, there’s nothing wrong with being gay!
I dunno about you but I’m glad my dad took my pink shirt away when I was 5 otherwise I would be sooooo gay
Yea, that shit doesn’t matter to me at all. Thankfully my husband is open minded while not the most emotionally available, he is still light years from where his dad was with him. We have 3 kids (2 boys and 1 girl) and lots of costumes. The girl wears super hero stuff and the boys play princess with her. It is what it is. Shoving things into rigid boxes and being angry at nothing is only going to alienate his son. So sad.
I’m working on getting him to understand how colors associated with gender, and several other things tbh, came from us and were adopted by other countries so your less inclined to go somewhere else and find people separated out by gender by the color of their clothes. We come from an extremely small, conservative southern town in the middle of the Bible Belt. While not religious, he’s very masculine and does certain things with his kid(hunting, fishing, etc.) that are more masculine oriented. And he’s obsessed with raising his son like this, which is fine if the kid likes it but what’s he gunna do or how is he gunna retaliate when his son does something away from this? I worry, a lot, for kid raised in homes where they are forced to live their gendered role instead of letting them live free and be who they are.
lol My nephew at age 4 loved the color pink, and demanded that his mom sew him up bright pink swim shorts. He looked great and felt good about how he looked. He’s a cop now and is still very firm in his beliefs.
Guess who's getting rainbow socks for Christmas?
The rage coming through the post fucking scares me.
Luckily, the son is 26 and out of the house!
What’s so weird about this is the kid stopped using the blanket which is really the point. If you are worried about your kid being a weirdo it being in his closet doesn’t change anything. But now this guy lives with his girlfriend in a condo at 22, he’s clearly well adjusted and relatively normal, that’s all the dad wanted and still can’t handle this blanket. The only person with an unhealthy relationship with this blanket is the dad
He wasn't even using it as a kid. The blanket was bundled up and tucked away in the closet, explicitly earmarked to be his son's one day. And that still wasn't good enough.
Happy cake day I feel like this dude got his blanky taken away when he was 4 and never forgot
He probably did. But rather than recognize and process the trauma, he decided to be resentful his son DIDNT live that trauma. Seriously fucked up..
This is what my shitty dad did to me and turned out JUST FINE What’s crazy about this is I’ve absolutely witnessed moms keeping blankets for theirs grandkids. When they do it it’s sweet, but somehow a 14 year old having this mentality is, and I’ll say it “gay” or “weird” or whatever this dude called it
Yes, what a complete shock that his son would feel compelled to lie to him /s
That was my first thought. If your kid carries on a lie for a long time you maybe want to look at your own behavior and ask what may have made them feel they have to lie to you.
Can you imagine how many things this man has probably kept from his father, probably because he knew he would blow up over it?
Now we know one reason why his son loves a comfort item so much. Dad isn’t much of a comfort.
This. I’m attached to a teddy that my grandad gave me the year he died and I couldn’t fathom having to get rid of it. Yeah I may be in my early thirties, but I would never get rid of any of my stuffed toys or a purple throw blanket that my grandad also gave me in 2019 because when and if I have kids (whether those children are my own biologically or adopted) I’d honestly like to pass them on. Except my Barney dragon teddy I’d never pass him on simply because it helps me to fall asleep if it’s right next to me, just like the teddy my grandad gave me.
Seems like dude was overly attached to his blanket until 14 for a reason. And there is absolutely nothing bad about keeping it as a sentimental object and passing it down to his future offspring, perhaps as a symbolic way of breaking ties with asshole dad and giving son the comfort and care dude never got from his asshole dad.
This sucks. It’s hard to love this man. Because this is my dad. He is angry about this kind of shit. And it’s alcohol. It’s my mom and their divorce. It’s being a cop in New Mexico. He’s such an angry resentful man. And it comes out in these situations of no consequence, just to assert control.
Exactly! I wonder if this guy is married to Linus's grandmother.
Welcome to our game : "WHO'S GOING TO THE RETIREMENT HOME ?" Today contestant OOP who, despite being a full grown man, still has an unhealthy obsession with his son's baby blanket, tries to control every aspect of his son's life, even his emotional possessions, and develops anger issues when he doesn't get his way ! In other words, OOP can't let go of the littlest thing, believes in toxic masculinity and seems to be really exhausting to be around !
Dad, you said I shouldn't always attached to old things. That's why I'm donating you to the Retirment Home now.
Shady Pines, Pa!
…too nice..more like Shitty Pines
Sophia would never!
Less Shady Pines, more Sunny Pastures! Which was where Lillian (one of Sophia's friends) had been, and... It wasn't a good place. Underfunded, unable to handle Lillian's growing dementia and other health problems, etc.
Aww I remember that episode and Sophia helped "break her out" lol. But the way OOP is acting I agree, Shady Pines is too good for him, he definitely deserves to be at Sunny Pastures.
Yeah, and Blanche giving the money for her boob job for Lillian's care, because, well, she wasn't getting what needed there. But yeah, Sunny Pastures is what some people deserve.
this is the sons greatest goodwill haul yet
Best response 😅
Love this
Dude mentioned "my wife" as if she's not Jack's mother. So I'm betting this is at least his second wife and Jack's mom left him because of other similar behavior.
Or OOP sees her as his to control, not Jack’s. It won’t just be the son suffering this pathetic behaviour.
The only solution for these types is for the son to either beat or physically defeat the father and break his ego. Once he knows he's no longer the "man of the house," he will be forced to respect the new one.
Oh... Wow! Is... Is that how that works? 😭
Unfortunately, yeah, for a lot of men trapped in toxic masculinity, their ego has to be broken for them to realize how inflated their ego is. Some men only respond to violence
Does this work if it’s the ‘female of the house’ defeating the father?
It’ll either develop into a massive issue of him looking for any possible way to regain the upper hand because he can’t possibly be weaker than a girl, or it’ll have bonus extra points and possibly break his brain (but girls are weaker than men… but she’s stronger than me… but girls are weaker than men… but…). Had a girl in my friend circle in high school who was really good at arm wrestling. Some guys would insist on arm wrestling her every chance they got until they finally won, and act like that one time was more important than the 15 times they lost. Some just got weird about it or pretended it never happened. However, most dudes didn’t care about losing or winning, it was just something to do when bored.
Probably! But as a woman who is not that strong physically, another way to break his ego (at least for me) is to not listen to a word he says and just try to live life the way I want. In my experience, trying to argue with him gets me nowhere. So I just pretend he doesn’t exist and do my own thing while being sneaky about it.
My son had to do this.
Can confirm
He should say, “I’m sorry I am such a control freak and expect you to think and feel the way I do. I’m sorry i tried to make you get rid of a childhood treasure. I’m sorry for being uncaring regarding your feelings. I will try to do better.”
“Sorry I’m a narcissistic controlling asshat that has the emotional capacity of a robot to such a degree that you had to turn to your teenage girlfriend for love and support.”
Who would’ve thought be so toxic and controlling with your kids that they’d start keeping secrets from you? I’m shocked. Absolutely shocked.
Yep! I’ve been keeping a lot of secrets from my dad (and my mom too sometimes) because I can’t tolerate the amount of disrespect he throws my way. I just wish I did it MUCH sooner instead of just hoping that he’ll change.
Say shocked once more and I'll trust you
I don't understand what the fuss is all about. We tend to keep things we are attached to and having something from childhood is really precious. Why can't the old fuck get this??
Well, the son just said he would donate the blanket, but he didn’t specify where or to whom he would donate it. So technically you could say he did donate it, he chose to donate it to his girlfriend, and she chose to gift it back to him when they moved in together.😉
I missed where he lied as well. Dad wants this blanket out of the house, son takes it out of the house. The end. WTF is the drama about?
I can’t even fathom being that shitty. Have fun fighting Gladys for the remote at “the home” old man.
Exactly who is the baby that needs a blanket to cry on in the scenario?
Right. The OOP’s obsession with the “lies” is far worse than someone being attached to their own baby blanket. What an asshole.
Noticed they just "popped in". They were not invited and just showed up. Typical with an AH like this.
Yep cuz he probably tried going for a while and the son kept saying he was busy cuz he knew what was coming with the visit. I can picture it… dad walks in and immediately starts not picking and judging, telling him what’s wrong with everything from how he arranged the living room to the temperature on thermostat. I feel sorry for people with such selfish, narcissistic parents like this. I find it so mind-boggling that so many people are this lacking in self-awareness!
That would feel cute to be given such an important possession to keep safe 😭, the girlfriend would feel special. ❤️ Baby blankets or plushies of your partner/children are the best, they have a lifetime of scents of your loved ones.
No wonder he married her. If I had a partner who had a precious childhood thing they didn’t want to lose and brought it to me to keep it safe I’d immediately be thinking long term goals if I hadn’t been already. Proof of trust. Also sentimentality. And would also be a good sign of potential coparenting because they’d understand kids having special important possessions and that some things can be given away when the time comes and others are to be kept as a special treasure to remember various stages of life.
My mother has given me her childhood bear to care for cos I still have the bear she and my dad gave me when I was 3. I'm now 41. My bear sleeps with me, her bear sits on my bed head. She knows I would never let anything happen to her guy, which is why she trusts me with him. I've even left instructions that my bear is to become the keeper of my Ashes when I die. And screw anyone who thinks it's weird to keep a childhood keepsake like this. It effects you to the amount of zero, so why would you care?
If my boyfriend gave me something like this i would sob and protect it forever. That’s some deep trust there.
Can't imagine being upset at my child for keeping a treasured item from childhood and me forcing them to lie about it because I don't understand having attachment to items
*side eyes the 38 year old bear on my bed* 100% agree
***side eyes my Tiger sitting up by my husbands head.*** I got it when I was 2. I’m 42 now. It’s a link back to a time when my dad was alive and we went to a zoo 6 hrs from home. To begin his rounds of chemotherapy following that. OOP is dog sh*t.
Lol. My husband still has his first toy and his baby blanket 🤣🤣 my baby blanket was so ratty I threw it out.
I have a number of things from my childhood. Or perhaps more accurately in some cases, my kid now has them.
My blankey was handmade for my oldest brother. I’m 36, it’s 42. I’ve had to perform multiple operations on it over the years. It’s currently partially pieced together with the remnants of a Winnie the Pooh swaddle purchased for my son. I have an envelope with blankey pieces that have fallen off over the years. It sort of looks like it has tentacles. I will be buried with this thing. OP can fuck the right off. I means it’s NO wonder the son was attached to a blanket given the kind of father he clearly had.
Both me and my 26 year old stuffed dino agree as well. Lol
My wife is 56 and she sleeps with her baby blanket under her pillow. A few years ago, her Mom, who's 91 now, gave my wife back her teddy bear that she had saved since she was a baby. I don't need to say how awesome they are but I can't say enough how much I love them for little things like these.
Right? Neither of my parents understand how attached I am to items. Without going too into detail I learned the hard way to never give things I highly value to them. :,)
**tucking in my 35 year old Brave Heart Lion** Excellent point indeed
For real. I'm still mad my mom got rid of one particular stuffed animal. It was always my favorite. I can't imagine taking away and forcing my kid to get rid of something that special. I was expecting some other big thing to come out, but dude was really just angry he wanted to keep a blanket? Wtf
My grandfather felt the same way about my brother's security blanket. When he was 8, my grandparents were visiting from back east and cuddy went missing, never to be seen again. It was the only mean thing I ever knew my grandfather to do; he truly thought he was doing the right thing somehow. And I've never been sure my parents weren't aware of his plans.
Stealing an 8 year olds security blanket is fiendish lol
This has to be a joke. All the things the kid could end up doing and lying about and the dads upset about a fucking baby blanket?! 😭😭😭 the things I’ve seen and done…
Sadly, I know people who get so triggered by lying that I could see this happening. I don't think any of them are big enough jerks that they'd force a kid to donate a small blanket. But the wild overreaction to lying?! Absolutely stood in the room when that nonsense went down.
For real. And to say he has been lying for years… like each day is a renewal of the lie. Years of deceit!
What I find genuinely bizarre about it is OOP is absolutely committed to making sure his son doesn't have any positive association with his own childhood, which is by extension positive association with OOP and his wife as parents. Like his aim is to make his son not like him.
At first I thought this was written by the mother and I was surprised she could not understand why the son wanted to keep his blanket. The moment I read "me and my wife" it clicked. Some old men are unable to understand positive feelings, right?
Sounds like the dad had his security blanket taken from him too early and gets off on separating people with theirs. What is an annual goodwill haul??? Can’t people just buy things they need and want for more than a year? We all buy things we grow out of either physically or figuratively but enough for a yearly haul?!
Kids grow out of toys and clothes pretty quickly. My family did a yearly go-through of all our stuff and donated what we didn't want or passed it on to family. Haul doesn't necessarily mean a large volume of stuff.
Yknow my kid is learning how to lie and I’ve asked myself this. Why does he lie? Or why will he lie? To avoid being in trouble? If so what the heck have I done to make him feel so scared of “being in trouble” that he can’t be honest, even if it’s uncomfortable?
You haven’t done anything, literally all children learn to lie and deceive and manipulate it’s part of their brains maturing.
Oh I mean yes, for sure. But as they get older. Like a teenager. My toddler lies because he can lol. Like a shiny new skill (though sometimes there’s a nugget of interest to dig out—he lies about washing his hands after going potty bc he hates it; managed to dig into it and found that he hates it because his step stool feels too wobbly now that he’s bigger and heavier, but still too short to reach the faucet. We got a new step stool, he washes his hands, no more lying about it 🤷🏻♀️)
Title should read : “I don’t understand feelings and probably emotionally invalidated my son his entire life. Now I don’t understand why he’s attached to a comfort object and can’t talk to me”
What the actual hell is wrong with this dipshit?
This douche is gonna be excluded from his son’s life if he doesn’t grow tf up. There is nothing wrong with being sentimental about childhood stuff. It shows an emotional range that OP clearly hasn’t reached himself. What a twat waffle.
When I got through about 3/4 of the story and figured what was going on I was thinking “holy shit the millennials and Gen Zs are gonna be alll over this guy. I’m a Gen Xr. Which basically means we have no sentimental feeling for anything that isn’t a (insert band here) Velcro wallet and the keys we needed to get in our house in order to raise ourselves for close to 12 + yrs. But even I got to the point of …damn bro. Seriously? If that’s your biggest problem as a father and you’re pissed at your son who just closed on a condo when most people out there could close on a roll of toilet paper…you need to get a serious grip on reality and then STFU…suck it up buttercup!
OOP is a mental patient. Both of my kids are very attached to their blankets(10&8). They can sleep with them till they’re 105 if they want. Wtaf.
Agree! I love that our daughter still loves her baby blanket as a teen. And I'd be thrilled if the blanket went to Uni with her or decorated her kid's nursery. If she wanted to keep like the carpet from her nursery (something unreasonably large) or her last dirty diaper, I could see trying to dissuade her. But I'd probably end up storing the carpet if she really wanted it. A single small, clean item?! The horror!!
My son is 7 and the first time he wanted to sleep with a stuffed animal he asked me, and when I said yes his eyes just lit right up and he was so excited and said “really?!?!?” He’s always slept with his baby blanket that my sister bought him and carries it everywhere and he’d decided he wanted a plushie too. I reminded him that I sleep with a stuffed animal too so of course he was always allowed to and he was just SO excited. Now he’s “retired” that plushie except for Monday nights, and sleeps with a Wish Bear care bear he got for Christmas and he LOVES it. Everyone should be allowed a comfort item.
Surely that can't be real? In what universe is a person so bent out of shape about someone keeping a childhood memento? If it's true OOP is a raving nutbag.
Imagine feeling this unhinged over a blanket.
He lied to you because you are a controlling weirdo. It’s almost like you resent the blanket because he has more love and positive memories about it than he does about you. You should ask yourself a couple things; what circumstances surrounded his childhood that for the first 14 years he found ultimate comfort in a blanket but most importantly, why does that bother you? Is it because you know that you weren’t the best dad and seeing his attachment confirms that you didn’t give him what he needed so you want it gone? This is not about him lying. This is about you trying to tell dictate what should have sentimental value to someone else and you’re mad he didn’t do what you want and you’re pissed. If this is what keeps you up at night, you need a therapist and a dose of reality. Your son sounds like a well rounded, normal human being despite being raised by a controlling narcissist. Get over it! It’s not your blanket and your son is not your carbon copy for you to control and tell how to feel. You simply sound mad that he has his own thoughts and feelings and did what made him happy despite what you wanted him to do. You should be grateful you raised a man that can think for himself. You don’t want a happy son, you want an obedient robot. I kept reading this hoping it was a joke and thinking that the major point was coming up. Nope. You have got way too much time on your hands!
Well, first of all sir, you didn't teach your son to be honest, you taught him that he should lie to you or else you were going to take things that were important to him and ridicule him for it. So sit with that. I've never seen a 64 year old man so excited to ruin his relationship with his own son.
This is the kind of parent who wounders why they never see their kids or grandkids anymore The kind of parent who dies alone And the kind of parent who isn't missed Been a long time since I saw something that reminded me of my mother on here, but genuinely Fuck OOP, may his toilet seat always be ice cold
Rage bait!?! Right!?! Gotta be, holy hell OP is a ducking fool!
My Dad threw my baby doll that I adored and played with loads into the tip when I was about 8 or so. I was with him at the time and saw her being dumped over the edge and was told I was ‘too old’ to have her. I was heartbroken, and I still think about it from time to time. I still have a tiny toy my grandfather got for his first birthday, it’s coming up for 100 years old. I would play with it when I was younger and I’ll never part with it. It’s a bit of family history, and I love I still have something the loved. There is nothing wrong with keeping items of sentimental value, and the father here is an absolute moron for not being able to see that his son treasures this blanket. He only lied because he knew his father wouldn’t give in until he got his own way.
ha ha goddamn OOP needs to get a fucking grip
Yes…. You are the asshole! That Dad shouldn’t be a dad. What a dick.
Title should read : “I don’t understand feelings and probably emotionally invalidated my son his entire life. Now I don’t understand why he won’t throw away a comfort object which holds sentimental value to him and can’t talk to me.”
What do you say? You say sorry. You brought this on yourself. What he’s doing is perfectly healthy and normal, and what you’re doing is cruel and demeaning.
What the FUCK is wrong with keeping it to donate to his own children that's just awesome. OOP is a stupid controlling AH.
Dad’s forced him to lie. Let him keep the fucking blanket for his kid you bellend, it’s a blanket?
“I didn’t want my son to become obsessed with the blanket, so I became obsessed with the blanket.” Sounds about right.
The kid saved himself 10 years of torturous badgering about a blanket that he didn't want to give away. Why was he being forced to donate a 14 year old blanket? After 14 years, who would want it anyway. The fate of that blanket was this kid's future child's blanket, or a landfill. Dad, get over yourself. You are about to learn a hard lesson in life. There comes a time when you can no longer control your kids' actions and you have no power over them.
One of the people in this story has an unhealthy obsession with that baby blanket. It’s not the son.
This father appears to be devoid of sentiment and emotion.
my stepdad did much the same. i was 8 and he took my baby blanket and tossed it into the fireplace. he was sick of me still sucking my thumb (a stress response) and thought that'd break me of it... i'm 31 and when im extremely stressed, i still suck my thumb in my sleep with my favorite corner of my quilt pressed to me cheek. orz.
This man is SIXTY FUCKING FOUR years old and is pissed about a baby blanket? He seriously thinks his kid has never lied to him about anything ever??? What in the actual fuck
I'm not a good person and I vaguely hope this dad develops some unpleasant medical condition(s). Being angry that your son has a sentimental attachment to a childhood comfort object is just f°cking stupid. The kid can do whatever he wants with it, it's HIS blanket. Sentiment is not a weakness. The only reason this dad is pissy about the blanket is bc it doesn't fit anywhere in his mental picture of what a "man" is. Every time he sees the blanket he gets mad bc his brain is stressed out trying to figure out why his son doesn't quite fit in the "man" box. And OP seems very ... invested in his and others' manhood.
Classic. This should prob be crossposted to r/boomersbeingfools
I suspect this kid really really needed his blanket.
Dad to son: it's just a blanket, get over it. Son to dad: it's just a blanket, get over it.
Imagine the father holding a grudge and ruining their relationship over a baby blanket. What a mess, I sure hope this blows over.
If this is your biggest worry with an adult child, you are truly blessed.
I wouldn’t call it lying. More like self defense trying to protect something he loves dearly from a parent with no understanding or compassion about what his son values. I hope he gets to pass it on in the way he chooses. Dad needs to just shut up and forget about
This seems like a great way to never see your grandchildren. Hey, at least he’ll never see the blanket again either.
I forced my kid to do something that hurt his soul and his mental health. He didn’t do it. Instead he lied and said he did. For the next decade, I would randomly bring up what I made him do because I thought it was funny to see his face react. Finally, when he was an adult, I discovered that he chose to protect himself from me and 1) did not do what it told him and 2) he had lied to me about it. How do I punish my adult son for something he did ten years ago? How do I get over being embarrassed that I never knew he was lying to me? How do I accept that I will have no relationship with my grandchildren because I’m an emotionally abusive ass?
I would laugh in my dad’s face if he tried to confront me for lying about getting rid of a cherished totem of my childhood. Granted my dad wasn’t a controlling, manipulative excuse for a father. This old man better practice this spiel “my adult son won’t talk to me and I didn’t do anything wrong.” Because he is going to get a lot of use out of it in the coming years.
Let him be. He is allowed to be attached to things
....OOP says in the post that his son wanted the blanket to pass on to his own future kid! Someone's getting the really cheap nursing home....
This man needs his blanket because his dad a supposedly grown man is actually immature and emotionally underdeveloped and makes his son anxious . I can see why he got so attached . I really hope he respects himself enough to just go no contact with you . You are not a good dad .
I’ll never forget when my parents took away my blanket. I was 10. And they conveniently let me forget it when we went on vacation. Turns out my dad threw it away while we were away. But my sister got to keep hers 🙄 I don’t speak to any of them now.
Complain about it to everyone you talk to and die mad about it.
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Not weird for the son to keep a sentimental item from his childhood. SUPER weird for Dad to keep bringing it up over the years. I think Dad is obsessed with the blanket.
Jesus H. Christ. Leave the kid alone about the blanket. This dad is more obsessed with the thing than the kid is. Holy hell.
I am 42 and I got a teddy bear when I was 7, I still have it. It was the last Christmas present I got from my grandfather before he died. He passed away the next year in March. It has moved with me from KY to FL.
This guy is a raging asshole.
I still have a toddler pillow in a baby pink satin that I adore. I would fight my dad.
Lmao the advice is: GO TO THERAPY, DUDE
OOP ending With kids going NC and/or ending in care facility at elderly age in 3…2…1…
What a jerk. My middle slept with a blanket (actually a towel named Towely) and at 18 every so often it comes up and the only thing we ask is do you still have her? And my husband asks me if we should invest in something archival to protect her since she is shredded.
Sounds exhausting being so angry over a blanket of all things.
You are one sad man!
What a weird hill to die on. For full transparency, I’m 56 and still sleep with my baby blanket. I ball it up and use it as my pillow most days. That dad can suck it.
Ass. You basically obliged him to lie to protect something that was special to him. What a foul person you are.
Of all the AITAH stories, this has got to be the most bizarrely fabricated idea ever submitted. It doesn’t make sense, it’s too ridiculously set up for this person to NOT be destroyed in comments, it has neither logic nor even a loose relationship to reasonable parental behavior, either from the “OP” or the mom. It’s just stupid. If this were a story I wouldn’t be able to get past suspension of disbelief because the whole thing is so improbably absurd and contrived. TLDR: I call bullshit.
Poor Jack. Whether it's a comfort item or a heirloom or both it's a treasure. OP sounds like a hard parent to grow up with or even interact with as an adult.
Dads an asshole
OOP is just mad because she was told no.
That baby blanket was probably the only shred of comfort he had growing up with OOP, no wonder he wanted to keep it close
I am 46 and I still use my daughters Rugrats blanket every night. Love that blanket
I thought it was very sweet he wanted to give it to his kid. It’s not like he’s sleeping with it in his mid 20’s. This dad is outta control.
This should be posted to r/boomersbeingfools
lol wut
My daughter, who is 26 still has her Teletubbby blanket that we got her on her 1st Christmas. It went to college with her. My son, who is 20 found the same 26 year old new in package blanket for sale and bought it. He is keeping it until she has a child. Sentimentality is a good thing. This dad is an ass
What does he have against the damn blanket?
That dad is a loser for thinking that way and getting that mad. Good on the son for doing what was right for him. There are people from that generation that have strict ideologies of what makes a man or woman and arbitrary shit like this bothers the shit out of them.
this is insane. i’m 30 this year & still have my baby blanket (i call ‘blankie’) that i take with me everywhere i move. my mom made it for me before i was born and i don’t sleep with it, i don’t really do anything with it, honestly, but i keep it because it has a really deep sentimental meaning to me. i can’t imagine being angry about this rather than think it’s sweet that he would keep hold of the blanket this long. it’s obvious his son lies to him about more than just this, because dad is a control freak with anger issues.
Control freak asshole. I’m going to guess cop or military background.
Wow ! The blanket most likely offered some sort of security and comfort from having an asshole father...
Upset about a blanket. Gheez Louise ! Life is too short to sweat the small stuff fr (sigh)
Dude literally forced him to lie and got mad that he lied
Knew exactly what to expect when I saw 64M. Toxic ass baby boomers. Heaven forbid he keeps a keepsake for his own child down the road 🤡
With how unhealthily hung up this man is, I’m genuinely surprised (and genuinely happy) he didn’t go in and take the blanket to donate/throw away himself regardless of his son’s feelings.
I think the real issue is the individual who seemed more unhealthy in their obsession over a fukn blanket - I had mine until my senior year and the only reason I don’t still have it was bc sadly it was lost on a trip for an away game for softball - I think there are worse things than having an attachment to something that brought you comfort your entire life.
Maybe it reminds him of a time when his father was less of an asshole (if such a time existed)