Update August 11, 2024
I promised an update. It’s taking me a long time to really sit down and gather my thoughts to update or rather just really take in the reality of my situation. It’s taken me 31 years to really see beyond the rose tinted glasses of the relationship I thought I had with my father. I did cancel his flight. He did not help us move, but I did end up engaging with him to keep the peace.
Quick recap: I inherited my grandparents home. Father and step mom wanted to move in. I said no. Dad then decides to leave evil step mom and reconcile. Wanted to “temporarily” move in with us. We said no. He was insisting on helping us move and we ultimately said no. We are essentially estranged and he’s never really been a parent to me. Would rather love and bond with my 3 step sisters and all their children than his only child and grandchild. I previously entertained reconciliation only to be strongly dissuaded by my extended family and Reddit.
A week before making the move he did come to Kentucky and leave my step mom as he had said. How he did it was cowardly. She was doing laundry on their last day in Texas at their RV and he got in her vehicle and split back to Georgia. Leaving her without transportation. Her children are angry. Once he got to their RV in Georgia he parked the car, packed his truck up and trailer and headed to Kentucky. He spent a week here on his property next to my inherited home (I inherited his parents house for those that do not recall). He was essentially camping in a small trailer he would haul stuff in for flea markets and gun shows.
He asked if he could use my water hose so he could shower and I agreed. I have cameras outside so I thought, “What could it hurt?” Well, here’s where I was wrong. I then get a call from him that “water is pouring from under the house.” I told him to shut the water off. The house has been having leaks since I took possession as it’s got 60 year old plumbing that will be replaced with the sale of my home. I had my uncle come to confirm and then scheduled a plumber to come look at what needed to be done. This was just 5 days before we would get there with a moving truck from Florida to KY. A pipe had split under the sink and the water heater had busted during the winter.
During this time a storm came through and the power went out. He found a key I had in a flower pot for the plumber and went into my home. When we got there he told us he sprayed the yard for ticks, did pest control and also cleaned and sprayed for pest INSIDE THE HOME. I was livid. I didn’t react angrily because at the time it felt weird. I was questioning whether I was wrong and he was actually wanting to be a dad to me after all this time. So I let it go. That illusion has since passed.
We’ve been here since mid June and now I’ve discovered he’s robbed us blind. He’s denied it all of course. Tape had been removed from an old chimney hole (assuming looking for money), green dishware has been stolen and put on consignment in town and at another local place 40 minutes away. Any time we have a sub contractor out to give bids on the remodel he just shows up and tries to hijack the situation.
He talked to me like I’m stupid in front of my husband. That surprisingly didn’t go well. My husband is as docile as it comes, but that was the straw that broke his silence in all this. My dad didn’t take kindly to my husband telling him he needed to mind his own business and be respectful to his wife.
He’s now staying at one of his cousins in an RV. He’s still moving forward with his plans to put a tiny home on the land that is nestled between me and my uncle. My extended family tend to avoid him like the plague even with his repeated efforts to enter the fold. He showed up to their home on the 4th of July with a lawn chair to see fireworks uninvited and they didn’t ask him to leave.
Sometime in July we noticed my dad had messed with the propane heater. It no longer had the pilot light on, and the dial had been moved to “1.” Which is on the opposite side of the dial as the pilot setting. Either that was incompetence or he was playing with fate with our lives. His granddaughters life. He of course denied it.
I am under the impression we are all in fear of his retaliation. My husband has no such fears and keeps threaten to go into the consignment that has my stolen glassware and making a scene. Honestly I’m at the point that I’m just going to let my husband deal with him. I’m no longer emotionally exhausted and just annoyed.
He shows up randomly with food which I immediately throw away. The last one had a note on it for my daughter. I wish I had a happier update, but this is what it is. We close on the sale of our home next week and start remodeling soon. I’ve let my contractors know the situation and he’s not to be on the property. I feel bad having them in the situation. I’m worried he will vandalize the house my grandparents left me while we are in our rental.
If I end up as a news story, know it’s not a mystery and know who is responsible.
Relevant Comments:
OOP reveals more worrisome details about her father in the comments when asked if she’s in a 2A or “Criminals are people” state:
Both county and state are 2A or I would have reported his storage unit of unregistered guns he sells without performing background checks. He exited the military, became a consultant, somehow lost his security clearance and started selling guns. At one point he was selling Korean AKs to “militia” groups in Georgia. I wish this was all a joke. My dad is the Frank Gallagher Lord of War I guess.
Kittytigris:
I’m with your husband on this. Your silence is emboldening your father in pushing boundaries. There’s only one way to deal with people like that, make sure they’re aware that you’re not afraid of creating an even more public scene than they are. You and your husband should absolutely file a police report and a no trespassing order on the theft and damages he had done. Get your stuff back from the consignment shop. If anything, it makes your father aware that you’re not afraid to send him to jail if need be and no one would bail him out.
OOP:
The problem with making a report is I don’t have photo evidence that it belongs to me other than I have the other half of the green glassware set he stole. Last time I called the police for trespassing the state police sided with dad’s story that I was a disgruntled child and he was just trying to be “a dad.” Unsure if it was just small town sympathies or the patriarchy at work. This is also the Bible Belt.
Kittytigris:
If you have the title/deed of the house/property it is well within your right to have whoever you want trespassed. I wouldn’t just leave it at that, I would just tell the cops that he is estranged from me and I haven’t had contact with him in years. He just left his current family because he thinks he can get me to fund his lifestyle. He is a stranger and I want him off my property. If your uncle is next door and the same mindset as you, he can back you up by asking for your father to be removed from his property as well or at least let the sheriff know that your father is not welcomed.
CherryblockRedWine:
“He is a stranger, a thief, and has committed identity fraud.”
OP, use ALL your ammunition. He stole his parents’ identities and ruined their credit. There is a pattern to all this.
Also – you wrote in another post that even the land he would “inherit” was deeded to you – if that’s the case, why not just evict him?
Maleficent_Theory818:
Get a police report and go to the consignment store and get your dishes back. I can bet they have a higher value than you realize beyond sentimental value.
Document everything he has done. You need to see about getting your property posted so he can’t come onto your lawn and cause further damage.
desert_dame:
Yes definitely get the police report and get your dishes back. I’m in the vintage biz. And let me tell you. If someone brings in stolen merch. They are not only banned from their store but all others they are friends with. It’s a small world in the biz. People know people.
This will prevent him from doing business in your town. He’ll have to leave the surrounding area to sell anything. And re estate sales. The better ones will ban him from the premises. Since he’s known to be a thief.
Please Let it start with you to stop him. Unfortunately in the biz there are these vindictive aholes. Surprisingly enough. It tends to be men of a certain age. They’ll break stuff, hide stuff and steal it.
The teens will steal cheap costume jewelry. It’s the older guys who will really rip you off.
The thing with the propane tank. That’s definite criminal intent to destroy your house. That’s how arson fires are done too. The water to undermine your foundation. And it’s hello $50k to get a new one.
You and uncle must combine forces to get rid of this increasingly deranged man.
Editor’s Note: I’m marking this ongoing. OOP is still renovating the house and her dad is still in the RV in the area causing problems. She hasn’t posted in a month, but has posted comments on other topics recently.
Reminder: I am not OOP. Do NOT comment on Original Posts. No Brigading! See Rule 7.
He is one of those kids who thrives hanging with adults than other children, which is why his parents endorsed the girls days as it meant they get 2:1 time with him. He gets on with his sisters as they are both super calm and kind girls, but most of his meltdowns arise from confrontation with other kids or his sisters wanting to do something that he doesn’t like.
Some examples include Flo playing music in her room or them picking a movie he doesn’t want - obviously when they do a vote the girls’ pick usually wins as there’s two of them, and he gets stressed out a lot by other kids at school. Kate and Tom encourage the girls to be empathetic and let him have his way, but I think this means the girls sometimes lose out. He’s got some friends at school who he has frequent playdates with, especially when the girls are out the house, and he’s friends with Mia’s two sons who are 10 and 8, and sometimes gets invites to go to laser tag with them, but they live slightly further away and as it’s on weekends Tom or Kate are always there as they have to take him.
Back to the story. Ben walked Ava to school today, and Flo and Ivy go to the same school (in the UK, the first year of secondary school is when the kid is 11/12, so Ryan is at primary school still, joining the girls next September).
Flo was waiting by the gates (the girls walk themselves) and asked to talk with him after Ava went in. She basically said that she loves her brother but really values having days out with me, Tom and Ava because it’s calmer and when they went Winter Wonderland two years ago, he was chill for about four hours but they ended up leaving earlier than planned as he was starting to get cranky with all the queues and they didn’t want to risk meltdowns there. As they started with the rides that he wanted, they had only done one or two that the girls wanted and didn’t do the iceskating which is what she really wanted to do.
She also mentioned when the family went to a restaurant recently, Ryan threw a fit as the food was taking too long and he was hungry. Tom took him home and while the girls were trying to chat to Kate, she was too busy on her phone trying to message Tom to see if Ryan was ok. I also have noticed that the girls are at my house a lot lately.
As they are responsible for walking themselves home, they will just go to mine to do homework as it’s empty otherwise until I get home at 5.30. Ivy and Ava are in the same class so do homework together. Flo will often chat a lot to me and Ben, often about gossip, what happened at school. I thought nothing of it, but now I wonder if she even has those chats with her parents. Where Flo and Ava are both pretty headstrong and confident, Ivy is sensitive, and I think her mum saying she’s excluding her brother really gets to her.
Ben relayed this to me and I contacted Tom telling him we need to meet. He works long hours but agreed to swing by mine after work to hash the issues out. While Kate is lovely she thinks with her heart, while I think Tom is more levelheaded. At the minute he’s on the bring Ryan team, but I think when I lay out why that is not possible (the lack of other adult / the girl’s feelings / the length of time we are planning on staying) I am hoping he sees the light.
This morning I also got texts from my mum and Mia, both on Kate’s side. My mum has had a past of kind of favouring her son over her daughters, and she was saying that Tom was valiant adopting Ryan and it was my duty as the local family member to make sure that he was accepted as much as possible.
To those who said, send her along, I wish lol but also found out she and my dad booked a last min flight to get some Winter sun for a few days. Mia was more levelled but still on their side saying I needed to keep the peace as we don’t want a scrap just before Christmas, but when I mentioned she organised things without the girls she got quiet.
I also found out she is also the designated Ryan babysitter for that day so think she might be trying to pawn him off on me so she doesn’t have to come over - she lives a 45 min drive away and her and her kids are driving down to hang with Ryan in his house and in the local area as Kate works in our town so is close by if there is an emergency. I was thinking about asking my sister if her and the boys wanted to come, but as her boys are younger I would be scared of the girls being overshadowed and I’m not sure we can manage 6 kids between the two of us at Winter Wonderland. Her youngest is also not the height requirement for a lot of the rides the girls want to do as he’s pretty short for his age. It also takes away from the girls’ day. They’ve really talked a lot about it and I don’t want them feeling awkward about doing something because Ryan doesn’t want to.
Maybe we can come again next year when we have all six parents available so more flexibility but for now, I think it’s safest going with the girls only. I am slightly concerned that with the way Kate is behaving she might tell Mia not to come and drop all three at mine on Friday, but Ben (WFH) says he will babysit if need be. Ryan really likes him, and I think he would prefer playing on Ben’s PS5 to the theme park anyways. I don’t want it to come to that as it’s cruel to tell the kid he can’t come when he’s at my door but wouldn’t know what else to do.
I am pretty nervous about how my brother will react, especially to Flo talking to Ben as I really don’t want a fight or her to get in trouble. I’ll mention what she said but not anything where I can see it starting a fight. Ben told her to speak to her parents too so that may be happening, but I think it would just be her as Ivy is very timid and doesn’t want to make her parents sad. I don’t want to be cut off from my nieces as I love them a lot and know they love their cousin so really want to resolve this. Any advice would be appreciated.
Top Comments
Commenter 1: It sounds, genuinely, like everyone really loves each other. But, just because there’s that love, it doesn’t mean that communication will always be easy.
It’d be great if the grownups had a family meeting, without the kids, to make plans for the upcoming year where there’s equal all-family time, and equal individual small-units time, so that kids get their own special attention and also get time together.
ETA: This currently situation is of course really sticky, but it’s only sticky because everyone loves each other AND, folks want to have their own special time. If you can approach the conversation that way (with understanding and excitement to make different plans, special plans with Ryan in the near future) with you sister, hopefully it’ll go easier. It’s not that anyone wants to leave anyone out, it’s that sometimes it’s just great and fun to have smaller units!
Commenter 2: The Parents and Family involved are massive AH.
Ryan is going to be a monster in the coming years bc everyone keeps playacting him instead of actually parenting him. The fact the Mia is trying to Pawn him off and the Grandparents are all of a sudden going on a “minication” proves they THEY don’t want to deal with him but rather help him understand that he can always go that its ok to miss out they are teaching him that if he whines and screams a lot he’ll eventually get way.
Then the poor daughter can’t even spend time with their Parents without Tantrums and Chaos and that’s simply not fair. Unfortunately OP can’t just take the girls and just go without being arrested and charged.
Just stay as much as you can in their lives until they both leave for College. Show them that you, Hubby, and cousin are with them no matter what happens after this display of Entitlement.
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