Blending families is no simple task, and to do it well, you have to have buy-in from absolutely every single party.

In this case, OP has a 17yo daughter and her husband has a 19yo son. She doesn’t say anything about how the relationships have been up to the point she bought her daughter a car, but since then, things have been tense.

I got my daughter (17) a new car 2 months ago. Her stepbrother (19) has gone crazy about it ever since and has bern attempting to drive it but my daughter made it clear she doesn’t want him to.

Her stepson is clearly jealous of the car and trying to bully her daughter into sharing it.

In fact, he’s acting as if they already do share the car, criticizing her decor choices, etc.

He’d refer to it as “our car” and would get mad when my daughter decorates it with pink and add teddy bears and necklaces as decoration. He’d get angry and say that she was “ruining their car” and “embarrassing infront of his friends” although she never let him get inside of it.

I asked my husband to talk to his son but he said that my daughter and I need to “chill”.

Then one day her daughter called and said her stepbrother took the car without her permission. OP called her husband and told him to get his son to bring the car back.

They said he was at the movie and would bring it back afterward.

Fastforward to this past friday. My daughter called me at work saying her stepbrother took her car while she was upstairs after he demanded the keys and she refused. I called his phone but he didn’t respond.

I called my husband and told him what happened, I told him that he needed to go bring the car back or I’d have to call the police. He called his son then called me back saying his son was just taking it to go to the movies with his friends and will bring it back at 9pm.

OP did not want to wait because her daughter was very upset, so she called the police to report the car stolen.

I couldn’t wait. I watned him one more time to bring it back but he stalled. I called the police and reported it stolen. My stepson was picked up from his location and brought in to the local police station.

We got the car back but it was a mess, the decorations and toys in it were gone. My daughter didn’t stop crying about it.

The stepson was arrested, the car was returned (a bit worse for the wear) and the tension in the house is worse than ever.

My husband blew up at me on the phone for calling the police on his son and causing him to spend the night there.

They both came home the next day and a huge argument ensued with my husband saying I made a mistake reporting the car missing and said that I escalated this situation and that I was the one who created it and should’ve got his son a similar car or at least told my daughter to share; otherwise we wouldn’t be dealing with his son’s temper tantrums.

The house has been full of tension since then and everyone is just mad at each others. I didn’t want police involvement but seeing my daughter cry I just couldn’t take it.

Did she go too far calling the police? Let’s find out what Reddit thinks below!

The top comment says OP isn’t a jerk for calling the police – but she is kind of a jerk for subjecting herself and her daughter to the living conditions.

This person doesn’t love how the husband is gaslighting her either.

While this comment points out that no one owes this adult son a car.

They want to know where the men in this house get the audacity.

Several people say this would be enough for them to serve their husband with divorce papers.

If Reddit’s comment section is any indication, it seems that women are having less and less patience with subpar relationships.

I don’t see how that’s a bad thing!