Some family vacations create memories. Others create the overwhelming urge to silently wander around a park alone eating absolutely nothing because everyone is screaming.

This 15-year-old says her relationship with her mom has been unstable for a long time, especially after her parents split up and housing situations became messy and emotionally charged. But during a recent trip with her mom, brothers, and grandparents, things apparently hit a breaking point.

According to OP, the day started with her mom immediately blaming and yelling at her over things like CarPlay directions and a long McDonald’s line before the family even reached the park. Already upset, OP decided she didn’t want to participate in cheerful family photos and instead wandered off alone for space—something she says is normally allowed because her mom tracks her location anyway.

What followed was hours of public yelling, family fights, accusations of disrespect, and eventually OP calling her dad asking if she could stay with him instead.

AITA for “being disrespectful” when my mom kept yelling at me and then dropped me off at my dad’s?

I (F15) have a really rocky relationship with my mom, and I don’t know if I handled this wrong or if everything just kind of blew up.

For background, about a year ago my dad left my mom around the same time our lease ended, and there was a situation where I got sent to my grandparents for a while.

My mom says I didn’t get “kicked out,” but it felt like it. My grandfather has also tried to kick me out before, so it’s just been unstable for a while.

Oh boy…

Recently, I went on a trip with my mom, my brothers, and my grandparents, and the entire time they were arguing nonstop like they always do.

On the last day, we got in the car and my mom immediately started yelling at me because she didn’t know how to use her carplay to get directions. This is something she does a lot, and she still blamed me for it.

Then she decided she wanted McDonald’s, but the line was long, so she blamed me for that too and said we were going to be late. By the time we got to the park, she had basically been yelling at me the whole drive.

Wow, enough blame for Mom or is there more?

When we got inside, they wanted to take pictures, but I didn’t want to because I was already upset.

I walked away to a building to look around (which I’m normally allowed to do since she has my location). She started blowing up my phone calling me disrespectful, so I moved to another area to get space.

I ended up calling my dad and telling him I wanted to stay with him when we got back.

No kidding you did.

About 20 minutes later she found me (she had my location the whole time) and started yelling at me again in public. At one point she said we were leaving, then changed her mind, and I just didn’t want to be around her anymore.

The rest of the day I basically stayed separate. They got food without me and I didn’t have money, so I just walked around reading. On the way back, I was crying the whole car ride.

When we got to my grandparents’ house, things got worse. My grandfather started yelling about us being disrespectful and at one point said we weren’t allowed back. I went outside to check on my brother and then took a walk because I was overwhelmed.

Holy cow.

When I came back, my mom picked me up and said we were going to go say goodbye, but then my grandfather yelled again that we weren’t allowed back. My mom started blaming everything on me again, and I kind of had a breakdown in the car.

She ended up driving me to my dad’s house, wouldn’t let me take all my stuff out of the trunk, and said it wasn’t mine. Then she left. After that, she was texting people saying she didn’t know where I was.

So now I’m staying with my dad and everything feels really messed up.

Reddit overwhelmingly leaned NTA, with many commenters focusing less on the specific argument and more on the overall instability and emotional environment OP described. A lot of people were alarmed by how often she seemed to be blamed for unrelated problems, yelled at publicly, or made to feel unwanted whenever family tensions escalated.

Many commenters also pointed out that OP’s reaction—wanting space, crying, calling her dad, and emotionally shutting down—sounded less like “disrespectful teenage behavior” and more like someone reaching their emotional limit after constant conflict. The grandfather’s involvement and repeated threats about not being welcome back only added to the sense that this household dynamic was chaotic and emotionally exhausting.

The general consensus was that the adults in the situation were expecting far more emotional regulation from a teenager than they were showing themselves.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a skate shop employee who got in trouble with parents for trying to protect their toddler.

This person says to try not to take it too personally.

This person says mom is a straight up jerk, plain and simple.

And this person says hopefully Dad can rescue her from this.

It’s hard to “respect your elders” when the elders are acting like the loudest kids in the room.