Respecting personal space and belongings is a basic part of healthy relationships.

This young woman used to live with his abusive father.

Now that she’s with her mom and stepdad, she tries to keep her boundaries.

However, her stepfather began jokingly taking her things, which triggered her old wounds.

When she tried speaking up, her mom and stepdad didn’t take it very well.

Read the full story below and share your thoughts.

AITA for indirectly establishing a boundary with my stepdad?

I (20F) am currently in a situation where my mom (48F) and my stepdad (40M) aren’t really speaking to me.

So, I want to know if I’m in the right or wrong.

Friday morning, my stepdad kept coming into my room. I sleep with my door closed.

He had my dog with him and kept playing with him.

At the same time, he was roughly patting me to rile the dog up.

This young woman came from an abusive father, so she feels uncomfortable with intrusion.

For reference, my dog is a year old. So he’s pretty young and energetic.

My stepdad did this three times while I was trying to sleep in. I didn’t have school on Fridays.

The third time was where this story takes a turn.

For context, so this makes sense, I used to live with my abusive father.

His wife’s children would come into my room unannounced and uninvited.

They touched and sometimes stole my stuff. This caused me to be very territorial with my belongings.

Silly, I know.

Her stepfather jokingly took and messed with her stuff.

So my stepdad jokingly says to my puppy, “Let’s take her stuff!”

Then he takes my Wii remote and puts it in his pocket.

He grabs my stuffed cow and my Wii U gamepad.

He turns it on and kind of starts messing with it.

She sent a text message to her mom about it.

I start to panic because my stuff is being touched.

After he leaves, I send a text message to my mom.

I write, “He keeps touching my friggin’ stuff and I’m afraid to speak up about it without him getting mad.

It’s a huge boundary of mine.”

But her mom defended her stepdad, saying he was only having fun.

She messages back saying, “What the hell?” Then, “He’s having fun and you’re ruining it.”

Then, she tells me that he had read my message.

I hear him start going off, cursing and mumbling to himself.

This is something he always does when he’s angered. It greatly annoys both me and my mother.

Her mom and stepdad were upset and stopped talking to her.

My mom then messages me with things like “Why do you always do this? You shouldn’t have said that.”

And that he was having fun and joking around, which he doesn’t really do with me.

Now, he wants nothing to do with me. He’s angry with me.

My mom is also upset but seems to want to move on.

Still, neither of them are really speaking to me.

Her stepdad started mocking and glaring at her.

My stepdad keeps mocking and mimicking me. He keeps bringing up what happened.

This causes my mom to yell at him to stop. She doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.

Now,  he gives me glares.

He does that obnoxious sigh thing when someone who doesn’t like you sees you come around.

Now, she feels guilty for making a big deal out of it.

Now I feel guilty.

I firmly believe this situation could’ve been prevented or not happened at all.

All I did was state a boundary and I upset everyone.

My boyfriend, my best friend, and her sister believe I’m not in the wrong.

They think my stepdad could’ve handled the situation better. So, AITA?

Let’s check out the comments of other people on this story.

This person offers some useful advice.

This user gives their honest opinion.

He’s a prick, says this one.

People are telling her to move out.

Finally, here’s a valid remark about the mom.

Setting boundaries is something you should feel guilty about… ever!

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.