- A man's brother-in-law and twin daughters moved into his home after losing theirs.
- The twin girls did not regard his 16-year-old daughter's privacy, constantly taking her things and using them without permission.
- Having had enough, the man needed to find a way to stop it.
A man felt the need to vent out on Reddit after his wife slammed him for putting a lock on their daughter's door. He wondered whether he was wrong for doing so or if his reasons were valid.
A man's brother-in-law moved in shortly after losing his home. | Source: Shutterstock
Things started getting complicated when the man's brother-in-law moved in after his divorce. He and his daughters, Olivia and Sloane, 18, needed a place to live after they lost their house.
Growing up, Olivia and Sloane weren't close to the man's 16-year-old daughter, Zoey. However, they got along fine and weren't enemies. Upon moving into the home, the man noticed that Olivia and Sloane had no regard for Zoey's privacy. They'd walk into her room at any given moment and take things.
His daughter's privacy didn't exist after their relatives moved in. | Source: Shutterstock
Regardless of whether it was makeup, clothes, phone accessories, or her laptop, they made clear that they weren't shy about borrowing. Initially, the man's wife and brother-in-law saw nothing wrong with this. After all, it was customary for girls to borrow things from one another.
They took Zoey's laptop without permission. | Source: Shutterstock
However, the man disagreed. He felt it was disrespectful for his daughter's cousins to take her things without permission. The final straw for him was when his daughter saved up to get a 60-dollar-worth makeup kit from a known brand.
Her cousin Sloane took an interest in the makeup and used it without permission. To make matters worse, she dabbed the makeup such that the palette shades got all mixed up.
The twins saw nothing wrong with borrowing Zoey's things. | Source: Pexels
When Zoey found the kit on her bed, she began to cry. She saved up for it, and now, because her cousin decided to use it without permission, it was no longer in the condition she left it. The man told his wife about the incident and how upset Zoey was. His wife said she'd ask her niece to apologize, but the man didn't think this was enough.
Zoey was so upset that she cried. | Source: Shutterstock
Zoey didn't think it was enough, either. She began moving her valuable items out of the house, traumatized by her cousins. The man got her a lock to ensure his daughter didn't need to move things out of the house. She installed it on her door, and when everyone at home saw it, they were upset.
Sammy confronted the man about it, and he told him the truth. Sammy was livid, "My daughters aren't thieves! It's normal that girls of the same age borrow each other's stuff." He accused his sister of enabling Zoey to buy $60 worth of makeup to look older. He called it a "defect" that the mom should be fixing.
Sloane used Zoey's new makeup kit without permission. | Source: Shutterstock
Likewise, he called his brother-in-law an enabler because he was overprotective of Zoey. The man didn't think so. He was only setting boundaries for his daughter, who was begging for her privacy. His daughter appreciated the gesture, but his wife did not.
His wife slammed him for putting a lock on the door. She says the lock made it impossible for Zoey to spend time with her cousins and that the man was supposed to treat them like their own daughters.
The man put a lock on her daughter's door. | Source: Shutterstock
When his wife demanded him to remove the lock, he refused. He wrote, "I said this lock does not get removed til her brother and his daughters are out of our house." His wife felt angry that he implied he would kick them out. She warned him that her family would hate him if they discovered what he did.
The man shrugged and reminded her about their family's harsh reality: he allowed Sammy and his children to move in when their own family refused. He told his wife that if she were to start shaming him, she'd have to shame her parents for refusing to let their son and granddaughters in.
The girls would enter Zoey's room without permission. | Source: Pexels
After everything that happened, only the man and Zoey remained on good terms. Everyone else started giving them the silent treatment, and his wife was upset. Ultimately, the whole silent treatment tactic has made Zoey think twice. Even though she didn't do anything wrong, she now feels like she did because of how everyone treated her.
People on the internet supported the dad after reading the story. They told him he was a good father for standing up for her despite everybody else's thoughts. In a similar story, a dad refused to punish his daughter for mocking her cousin, believing she did nothing wrong. Click here to understand why.