Starting a new relationship after your husband passes away can be difficult and complicated, especially when kids are involved.

In this story, years after their father passed away, the kids and their paternal grandparents gathered up his belongings to store at the grandparents house for safe keeping.

Now, mom is upset that all of his belongings are gone and she wants them back.

Should they give them back, or is the mom’s request really weird? Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for not caring that my siblings, grandparents and I upset mom by taking all of dad’s things when her husband moved in?

My dad died 7 years ago.

I (17M) was 10 and my sisters were 17 and 18. 5 years ago my mom moved in her now husband.

This seems like a good way to handle it.

When she told us he was moving in, our grandparents (dad’s parents) asked her what would happen with all of dad’s things.

She said she wanted to donate them or something.

My grandparents said we’d take what we wanted. So my grandparents and sisters came over and mom didn’t want anything so we divided it up between all of us. My grandparents took the things I chose to their house to keep watch over it for me. My sisters didn’t have the space where they were living for more than what they took.

My mom had no actual problem with it at the time it looked like. But after her husband moved in they talked about my dad’s watch and he seemed disappointed it was gone. They didn’t say it to me. But I still heard them.

Nothing wrong with that.

My mom ended up marrying her husband.

My sisters and I aren’t close to him. She wanted me to be more than them because I’m the youngest and still live at home. But he’s her husband and he’s not someone I see as a father figure or my parent and mostly he doesn’t try to be.

My mom gave birth to my two half siblings in the last two years and that changed things.

She’d get upset that dad’s stuff wasn’t around anymore and recently she asked my grandparents to let her take dad’s stuff back.

They told her she had freely let them take it all and they weren’t about to see everything dad owned go to good will.

Why would her new husband want something from her previous husband? This is weird.

My mom asked me to let her take the box I had or some of it. She said she never should have let it all go and there were things she wanted to give her husband and younger kids. She said dad’s watch would have been perfect for her husband. And dad’s old blanket collection would have been great to share with the babies.

I told her the watch was for dad, from me and my siblings and it would be wrong for her new husband to wear it.

She told me it would be a sweet idea to show him acceptance.

And I told her he’ll never be my dad and will never get that kind of acceptance from me. I told her I accept him in other ways but he’s not my replacement dad or filling his shoes. And I said the blankets should stay being used for dad’s future grandkids and stuff. Not kids he has no relationship with.

She mentioned a few other things of dads and got more and more upset about them not being here to give to the babies or use for the babies.

There is a lot going on here, but mom seems like she isn’t handling it well.

Then she said we were all so cruel for taking everything when her husband was moving in. She said we didn’t even give him a chance to be trusted and it hurt her to know we’d rather hide away possessions like that than share them. She told me we really hurt her feelings when we did it.

I asked her why she didn’t pick things to keep.

And she told me it wasn’t hurtful at the time. But now keeping them makes it seem like we’re two families instead of one.

I told her we sorta are. That her younger kids will never know dad and aren’t his kids and we’ll never be her husband’s kids either.

She said she didn’t like it and we were like vultures.

The mom is still really upset.

Since then she’s irritable around me and she told me I should care about hurting her feelings. And that I should care that her husband was disappointed and felt like we all hated him before giving him a chance by taking the watch. And that the babies will grow up and feel bad that we wouldn’t share things with them.

Then she brought it back to her feeling hurt and how I should care.

AITA?

The Mother is either really weird, or there is more to this story than is being told. Possibly that watch is very valuable and she wants the money from it? Who knows, but the kids did nothing wrong.

Let’s see what the people in the comments on Reddit have to say about it.

This is where my money is.

This is a good observation.

I hope this isn’t the case, but it seems like it.

Something has changed with mom.

This does sound really weird.

Something weird is going on with this family.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.