Some parents have a hard time accepting that their adult children are capable of living independent lives.

So, what would you do if your family treated a missed phone call like a full-blown emergency and showed up at your apartment late at night because you went to sleep early with your phone on silent? Would you understand where they were coming from? Or would the whole thing leave you annoyed?

In the following story, one young man deals with this exact predicament and can’t help but feel upset. Here’s what’s going on?

AITA for leaving my phone on “Do Not Disturb” at night and making my mom worry?

I (24M) moved into my new apartment less than two weeks ago. Before that, I was living at my sister’s (29F) place because we both work in the capital, and she let me stay with her until I found my own apartment.

Our parents live in a small town about three hours away. We have a very close relationship with them, and I only moved out of their place a couple of months ago.

Also, my mom tends to be super overbearing, not in a normal, motherly way. She has literally said that whenever my sister or I go out, she can’t relax until we tell her we’re home.

Wanting a good night’s sleep, he went to bed early.

I’ve told her multiple times that those feelings aren’t normal, but she’s basically been the same for the past 30 years. My dad also enables her, saying that way of thinking is normal for a mother. In my opinion, she’s extremely overprotective.

The thing is, today I decided to go to sleep early because I wake up at 5:30 a.m. for work and didn’t want to be tired. I’m a very light sleeper, so I usually leave my phone on “Do Not Disturb” because even the slightest notification wakes me up.

I went to bed around 9:30 p.m., and at about 11:30 p.m., I heard a knock on my door. It was my sister.

At this point, he was angry.

She said my mom was really scared because she couldn’t call me and her messages weren’t going through, so she thought something had happened to me and immediately started imagining the worst.

I was pretty mad. I told my sister she couldn’t just come to my place at almost midnight every time I go to sleep early, just because our overprotective mom is worried.

She called our mom right away to let her know I was okay, but then both she and my dad berated me on the phone for not answering, my mom even cursed at me a bit.

He tried to reason with his mom, but the damage was done.

I told them the same thing I said before: I’m a light sleeper (which they know), and I keep my phone on “Do Not Disturb” so I can actually get a good night’s sleep.

My mom told me to be more considerate in the future and said now she’s worried about my sister, too, because she had to take an Uber back home at midnight.

My sister just left, and I can’t help but feel like this whole thing could’ve been avoided if my parents had a bit more common sense.

AITA?

Eek! Talk about overprotective!

Let’s check out how the fine folks over at Reddit feel about his mother.

This person thinks his behavior at night is normal.

Here’s a good suggestion.

This mother feels a different way.

This reader doesn’t think he did anything wrong.

This would be so annoying, but he needs to stand his ground and hopefully his mom will calm down.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who expected her ex to be able to handle Easter with their child, but instead he ruined the holiday forever.