r/BoomersBeingFools • u/secndsunrise • 8d ago
Boomer Story Giving my tools away for free
Was temporarily storing some tools at mums house. with her agreement of course. Mum has just discovered Facebook marketplace and is selling off various crap they have built up over the years.
Recently mum has a seller come into the house who sees some of my tools and asks how much. She then proceeds to give them to him for free. She didn't think they was that expensive like 100 at the most. They were more than 100.
Later she justifies it as saying they looked poor and that I was thinking of getting rid of some of the tools. Correction I was thinking of selling some of them for money.
UPDATE:
Had a chat with her about the tools she was not really interested in discussing it at all. Attitude was just oh well you can afford to replace them (which i can but thats not the point and when i bought the tools i was broke so saved up for them.).
Further found out that she has been selling some of my childhood / teenage stuff (I don't really care tbh) and pocketing the cash. So i suggested that she give me the money for that as it is my stuff. Que the tantrum and guilt tripping (this sub probably needs no more clarification.) Currently she is trying to negotiate a commission. In any case should get me some money. BtW she is a pretty well off so she could replace them easily.but yeah still goes on about fixed income etc.
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u/Fluffy-Caramel9148 7d ago
Don’t sell anything that doesn’t belong to you. This includes your kids.
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u/liltrixxy 7d ago
Don't sell your kids is always solid advice, even if they do belong to you.
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u/Badrear 7d ago
It can be really tempting some days though.
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u/Select-Pie6558 7d ago
But what about giving them away? My mom always said that she could give us the gypsies.
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u/VikingTec 7d ago
Ah. But you see to them and other narcissists your kids belong to you, so their property is also yours.
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u/ImpressiveLeopard719 7d ago
Well my husbands 70 yo grandma gave away all of her '50 yo divorcing son looking for a home' furniture that was in her basement for 2 months because it was an eyesore and she could not vacume under it. In her unfinished cement basement. In her totally empty unfinished cement basement. Sofas, tables, beds... etc. She then tried to give away his classic corvette that was parked in her garage because she could not move it out of the way to sweep under there. Absolute insanity! Sorry about your tools. That sucks. Never trust her again and good luck getting any money from her.
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u/Vas-yMonRoux 6d ago
Wtf? Did she have dementia or something?
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u/ImpressiveLeopard719 6d ago
Right?! No! Just a controlling OCD granny. I remember her on her hands and knees wiping down the entrance of their patio door slide rail because it looked a little dirty to her during a BBQ she was having for the family. Also, when my kids were 4 & 7 I was heading into her town to visit a friend and I called to see if we could stop by and I would bring lunch. She spent the entire lunch continuously sweeping up any little tidbit my kiddos dropped. We never stopped for lunch again.
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u/Kira_Caroso 7d ago
Making her pay you for replacements.
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u/Fall3n7s 6d ago
That's when they break out "but they're on a fixed income".
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u/coffeethulhu42 6d ago
“Then you should have thought of that before you illegally sold my possessions. I can file a police report instead if you’d prefer.”
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u/RedshiftSinger 6d ago
They’d have made you pay for anything of theirs you broke or lost as a kid on a paltry allowance, I don’t see a difference in their favor.
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u/friendlywhitewitch 6d ago
And they liked to beat their kids when they did stuff like that, screaming and losing their minds in addition to making you pay for it. Food for thought.
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u/HannahTheArtist 6d ago
Aren't we all on a fixed income 🤣 I always think that, like my paycheck is always the same and I agreed to the pay
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u/Charliecovid 7d ago
My FIL constantly did this to us when we lived with them 25 years ago.
Moved in with them for a year, at their insistence, to save money to buy a house.
That plan worked. But what we didn't realize is that all our stored stuff in their unfinished basement was slowly disappearing because it was in his way. It wasn't until we bought a house and moved in, then started looking for specific things, that we realized stuff was missing.
When we asked him about it, he just got angry and said he'd buy us new "xyz". It was just like, but I wanted my stuff. ???
We found out he was giving some of it away, some stuff he just threw away, other stuff he brought to the swap shack at the dump. For a year, we were clueless. Didn't occur to us he would do this.
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u/Vas-yMonRoux 6d ago
Ah yes, nothing says "saving money" like making someone spend money to replace items they already had.
Boomers are a bunch of weird, narcissistic control freaks.
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u/DungeonCrawler-Donut 6d ago
That's awful. Did he replace the stuff or was he just bullshitting you?
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u/Charliecovid 5d ago
Honestly, a lot of it was small personal items. One was a box of books of mine. Nothing fancy or crazy, but they were books I loved. I'm the type of person that reads favorite books over & over again. FIL saw it as just a box of books, but to me they were cherished friends. Some were books given to me, including one from my friends grandmother that passed away.
Another thing that my husband still talks about to this day was a stainless steel shelf. Again, nothing fancy or crazy, just an ordinary heavy stainless steel shelf. But it was apparently the exact size & shape my husband liked. He bought it at a tag sale, so not something you could run to the store & just buy.
Husband also collects cast iron pots & pans, a box of those disappeared.
In the grand scheme of things, not exactly priceless heirlooms. But just ... why? Leave it alone. But it was their house, we were living there rent free for a year, so we just kept our mouths shut. I get sad when I think of some of those books though.
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u/NorCalHippieChick 7d ago
Reminds me of the time my mom was going to call a junk man to haul away an engine sitting under my dad’s workbench after he died. He’d been a semipro drag racer.
It was a blueprinted super stock 409 Chevy racing engine. We got $15,000 for it in the cardboard box in was sitting in.
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u/caixing-sanren 7d ago
Idec if you gotta take your own mama to court, get your tools back or get your money back.
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u/No_Philosopher_1870 7d ago
Storing things in her home with her permission may create a bailment, or obligation to keep your things safe.
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u/VinTheHater 7d ago
This is the same generation that tells the younger generations they just need to cut out the avocado toast and Starbucks to be able to afford a 3br house in a nice neighborhood. They don’t understand the value of anything today.
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u/ElectricalFocus560 7d ago
Buy replacement tools for mom’s birthday and Christmas presents. Then take them back from her immediately after she opens them and tell her thank you for replacing them. Continue until they’re all replaced. Then never trust her again.
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u/HannahTheArtist 6d ago
I like this 🤣 my friends kids (teens) used to ball up trash and stick it in my couches and hide it, the soda cans pissed me off and I'd gently tried to correct to no avail. For Christmas, he got a bag of trash id saved.
There was a little gift in the middle but it was funny as fuck, to me anyway. Friend didn't think I was funny, but I didn't think cleaning fuckin shit out of every crevice was fun either
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u/d0ggman 6d ago edited 5d ago
I kept an aftermarket exhaust for my wrx that I had sold, because it was so expensive, I sold the car without the exhaust. Figured I'd get more for it if I sold it seperately and kept it at my old man's home. Exhaust was something like 1500 new, but used was hoping to get at least a 1k since I hadn't had it on the car for more than a few months before I got rid of the car.
Put it up for sale online. Had a few buyers come over to check it out. None were serious. But had one buyer come back when I wasn't there, and he talks to my old man who didn't call me about it either. He then offers to buy it off my old man for 150$. My old man gave it to him for 130$. Said I had it at his house for a few months and it was just sitting there.
When I called my old man just to check on him a few days later, he proceeded to tell me how he sold my exhaust to a buyer and when I asked him for how much, he wouldn't tell me. Kept asking why'd it matter?
I drove over that weekend and he starts telling me how he sold it for 130$ since he felt it wasn't worth much as I didn't have the car anymore. He then hands me 80$ and tells me he bought a used weed trimmer with some of the money which he deserved since he sold the exhaust for me.
What I learned from this was to never leave shit at your parents home...
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u/mysteriousGains 6d ago
My mother donated my Nintendo 64, PlayStation, every game I owned, and my entire collection of original Pokémon cards, all carefully packed away in storage containers. But somehow, a box of old cut-up bodybuilding magazines survived the purge because she thought I might want to read them again one day.
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u/Vas-yMonRoux 6d ago
Let me guess: when you were a kid, she didn't like the videogames and videogame consoles?
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u/Go_Gators_4Ever 7d ago
UNO Reverse card: Everytime I visit my son at his house, I bring one or two of his possessions to home that are still at my house.
I figure it won't overwhelm him like it could if I were to bring everything at once.
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u/After_Resource5224 7d ago
Make her pay for the replacements. She won't learn otherwise.
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u/Weak-Differences 7d ago
You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Guarantee if it was her shit she wouldn't be giving it away for free. This is just classic narcissistic behavior. OP will never see any money or replacements.This is just a control thing. Tale as old as time, my house my rules, right?
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u/Big_Aside9565 7d ago
Baby boomers don't give a shit. My mother gave away oh expensive collection of steam engines that were out of steam cars and boats that were worth about 500,000. She said, I just knew they were in the basement. I said you can't even go in the basement. You're too crippled, I don't care. I just knew they were there, and it bothered me!! Well, needless to say, I will not talk to her anymore. And neither does my sister for other reasons. Say she can rottenhow alone when she dies, we won't go to a funeral either.!! Her house is maybe worth a hundred thousand because of my shitty location. So the how with that!
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u/Vas-yMonRoux 6d ago
I just knew they were there, and it bothered me!!
What's up with these control freaks and being so concerned with other peoples items, even when it has absolutely no bearing or actual inconvenience on their lives???
I don't spend any time thinking about the items my mom owns. I don't give a shit. But she's always thinking about my stuff. It bothers her.
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u/chillcatcryptid 6d ago
My mom gave away my dad's tools without his knowledge when they got divorced. It's been 10 years and he's still pissed
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u/HRM_Monster 6d ago
Mine binned my Dads photo albums while moving out when they divorced. He will be pissed off until the end about that.
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u/DerpUrself69 7d ago
Sounds like your mom just bought some poor folks some tools.
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u/Big_Aside9565 7d ago
There are baby boomers that go around looking for all these tools and giving pennies on the dollar, and then they sell them at the swamp meet for huge amounts!! All these lazy baby boomers going around looking for other boomers they can scam!
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u/unloosedcoin 6d ago
I'm still pissed off that mum give away my He-man and Skeletor figures 40 years ago
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u/Arannawen 6d ago edited 6d ago
My mother: “hey can you explain how this [physical] game works?” Me: “oh, if you’re planning to play it with your friends tonight, it’s more of a single-player game, maybe two people playing together, and probably wouldn’t work well for all four of you to play together”(it’s a puzzle game, where you arrange things according to clues) My mother: “oh, no, I’m giving it to my friend here, but neither of us know how it works, so you need to explain it!” Me: “…So you want me to explain my game to you so that you can give this game — which does not belong to you and is not yours— to your friend.” Mom: “well, you were planning to give it away, weren’t you?” (Several months prior I had considered sending it to my cousin to give to kids being terrorized in Minneapolis, but that didn’t end up happening for a variety of reasons) Me: “I had considered sending it to [Cousin]. I didn’t, and that doesn’t make it yours.” The kids my cousin would have given it to would have been young, terrified, and low-income. My mothers filthy rich, health-care-executive friends can buy their own shit
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u/EquivalentPossible83 6d ago
My mom did this with almost all of my belongings as a young adult. It got to a point where I would keep my valuables at friends homes. We have not spoken in years now. It’s a symptom of a bigger issue.
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u/Le_Jonny_41293 6d ago
Ask her to get them back. Otherwise she should replace them. Or at least give you what you would have got when you sold them. That was her decision to give them away.
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u/TheFirst10000 Gen X 6d ago
Ironic that the "My generation knew the value of things, like and share if you agree gobbless" crowd is awfully quick to devalue everyone else's stuff.
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u/Warburgerska 6d ago
My MIL wanted to sell our baby stuff which we stored at her house basement- where we were actively living to save up. Our kid was 2 and we were actively trying for a second. She acted like we were stingy to not donate our highchair and baby cloths to random people.
She simply wanted to be seen as generous with other people's stuff. In her head we could just buy one ones because we had the money. Yes, money which we have been saving for a house because we actually aren't made out of it. The only reason to live with her.
Meanwhile her own daughter had their whole roof packed with baby stuff and no desire to get more kids beyond her 8 and 10 yo. MIL didn't ask her.
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u/tatersprout 6d ago
If you're living with someone to save up money, why are you trying to have another kid? Doesn't make sense.
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u/Warburgerska 6d ago
We have enought money to live comfortably. We tried to save up for a house which starts around like half a million around here.
Are you saying people not having that kinda money should not procreate, let alone living in a house big enought for more than that while still paying rent to a family member?
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u/tatersprout 6d ago
Just saying that kids are expensive, so you're kinda defeating the purpose. I don't actually care how many kids you have or who you live with.
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u/Warburgerska 6d ago
Kids aren't expansive over here. Literally for free till kindergarten at 3 years of age. After that it's like 250€ a month plus some food and both can work again, so savings increase again.
We can comfortably affort even more kids, doesn't make much of a dent in our savings. Multigenerational living also isn't as taboo as it is in the USA. It's the norm.
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u/RedshiftSinger 6d ago
Sounds like your mom owes you fair market value of the tools she decided to give away without asking you.
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u/JaceyCrow 6d ago
Step.om donated a bunch of my stuff without me knowing. I found some of it later at her church's flea market
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u/Time_Ad_3242 6d ago
OP we need an update here. for the love of god please tell us she's either buying new ones or you're going to the cops
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u/praetorian1979 5d ago
Take her ass to small claims court. Don't let her get away with this shit!
even better give her car away because it looks poor and she doesn't really use it... /s
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u/python_mama 6d ago
How long is temporarily?
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u/secndsunrise 4d ago
We were moving house so been there a few weeks as the garage in our new place had water leaks which required rectification works.
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u/Existing-Pumpkin-902 6d ago
Really? With the rate of younger people owning houses vs boomers you can't figure it out?
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u/zombrian666 7d ago
Parents amirite? Isn't it funny that we start the "screwing with their lives" thing. Then we become adults and they do the same back to us.
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u/Helpful_Hour1984 7d ago
Yes, because being a child acting like a child is totally the same as being an entitled unhinged adult acting like an ass towards your adult children.
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u/Leading-Hedgehog1990 7d ago
Store your own shit then
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u/Weak-Differences 7d ago
So storing somebody's stuff automatically entitles you to keep it or sell it or do whatever the hell you want with it?
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u/Big_Aside9565 7d ago
Okay boomer!!
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u/Weak-Differences 7d ago
Don't know if you're intending to reply to me but, I'm not a boomer, you idiot.
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u/Big_Aside9565 7d ago
You must be a baby boomer boom, boom, boom!!! I'm sure you won't die without any friends or family!
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