Trust should be the ultimate foundation of any parent-child relationship.

But when a mother repeatedly pawned her 17-year-old daughter’s school laptop behind her back, she proved that some people value quick cash more than keeping their word.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for giving my mother the silent treatment

I (17F, turning 18 in June) live with my mother, and she and my father are not together.

My father and his wife bought me a laptop for Christmas since I’m going into grade 12, and they think it will make school easier.

But the laptop wasn’t around for long.

I went back, and the first thing my mom asked to do was trade in my laptop for loan money. I didn’t agree to it, but she didn’t care and did it anyway.

After a few days, she paid back the loan, and I got my laptop back.

The trouble wasn’t over yet, though.

Fast forward to a month later — I go to a school event. She texts me asking for my laptop password to download movies, and I agree.

Then, 10 minutes later, she sends me a voice note about how sorry she is but that she traded in my laptop AGAIN without my permission for loan money. She promises she will get it back.

It’s been a week, and I haven’t gotten my laptop back.

This time, her mother’s irresponsibility had put her in a bit of a bind.

I have a project due, and I had 20 pages saved on my laptop that she expects me to try and redo in the two days before it’s due.

I think it’s selfish for her to do this while I’m not there because if I was, I would have at least been able to save my work to my phone.

Now she’s scrambling to figure out what to do.

I’m debating if I should pull all-nighters to finish it or just let myself get a zero for it.

AITA for giving my mother the silent treatment for this?

Parents are supposed to provide for their children, not the other way around!

What did Reddit have to say?

What her mother did was wrong — there’s no way around it.

What kind of mother would sabotage her own child’s education like that?

It’s clear her mother’s home is no longer a safe place to keep her belongings.

Maybe the teen should just be honest with her teacher so accommodations can be made.

A laptop can be replaced, but this betrayal will linger far longer.

Some debts can’t be paid back with money alone.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.