My Parents Tricked Me Into Thinking They Cared, So I Tricked Them Into Regretting It.
A Lifetime of Neglect
My parents tried to manipulate me for financial gain, so I let them and gave them more than they bargained for. Now, my mother is at my doorstep demanding money I don’t have, not knowing she has just made the biggest mistake of her life.
When I was 6 years old, I got up at 5:00 a.m. one Saturday and cleaned the entire house before my parents woke up because I wanted just one thing: for them to be proud of me and tell me that they loved me. But they just looked blankly at me, turned on the TV, and told me to go change because I of sweat.
This is a perfect summary of my relationship with my parents. I did everything for them to love me; I’d even go as far as mowing lawns on weekends just to take us out for family dinner every Sunday.
And yet, they barely even acknowledged me.
“I love you.”
I can’t recall a single time either of them told me. But by far the biggest shock came when I, now 23, was enrolling in college 5 years ago.
My parents told me they wanted me to go to college out of state so I could finally be out of their lives. I felt incredibly devastated, so much so that I teared up in front of them and was told by my dad to man up and stop crying.
I packed my bags and moved to my friend’s place for the summer that night. But despite feeling crushed, I felt a small sense of happiness because moving away was my first step towards healing.
The Graduation Scheme
Fast forward to last May when I was graduating. I was in a much better place mentally, having gone from the shy, anxious, depressed, people-pleasing teenager to a much more confident, self-assured young man who knew his own worth.
But then my parents shocked me one last time, but this time it was in a positive light. They reached out to me, telling me they were proud of me and asked if they could attend my college graduation.
I actually teared up when I read that; I felt my inner child being healed. We hadn’t even spoken in 2 years, but it still felt every bit as surreal and amazing.
I didn’t even consider the possibility of this being a power play on their part. I immediately replied yes, saying I’d love nothing more than for them to be there.
I didn’t realize at the time, but my graduation day was the calm before the storm. My parents applauded as I received my diploma, and I even teared up during my speech because seeing them there meant so much.
Then, 4 days after my graduation, I got an email from my mom. I felt my heart race, genuinely thinking they were attempting to rebuild the relationship.
But instead, the email was a receipt naming every expense they made to attend my graduation. Flight tickets, five nights at a luxury hotel, breakfast, wine, Uber to dinner, etc.
They demanded I cover their entire trip—the entire $3,235. There wasn’t anything else in the letter; no congratulations, “Great seeing you,” anything, nothing.
I stared at my screen like a deer in headlights, my stomach twisted, and I felt like I wanted to puke. My roommate found me red in the face, my fist angrily banging the table, seconds away from screaming.
The Millionaire Lie
I felt so many emotions at once; money wasn’t even the issue. I had the money.
The issue was that I had specifically asked my parents if they wanted me to pay for the tickets in the first place, and they refused. At first, I wanted to blame myself for this, just like when I was a kid.
But the more I thought about it, the angrier I became. The very next day, after an impromptu session with my therapist, I made a decision.
I wrote them a check for the exact amount, even giving them one extra dollar as a thank you for attending. But that’s not all I did; I also sent them a message.
In the message, I let everything out, reminding them how I used to cry watching TV, seeing other kids receive love from their parents while my own ignored me. How I used to cry myself to sleep because of how they neglected me.
How I paid my dad’s car off when I was 16 to get them to appreciate me. How I endured their emotional abuse; that’s what I called it—emotional abuse.
I finished off the letter by lying to them. I lied that in the past couple of years I had become a self-made millionaire and that before receiving their email, I was planning on buying them a holiday for just the two of them as my way of saying thank you for coming.
But now, not only were they not getting the holiday, they were also not getting the house I planned to buy for them when my dad retires in a few years. I even included a bunch of fancy crypto-jargon to sell them that I was a millionaire and hit send.
The Ambush
After sending the check and the message, I blocked them both. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but at first I got silence—radio silence.
But then, of course, a few days later, the messages started: my parents, aunts, uncles, everyone bombarding me, calling me selfish, an a-hole, a disgrace. But there was one particular message that stuck it out.
It was from my mom.
“We’re flying over to your house now. You better have answers prepared.”
I started panicking. I checked the flight schedules and there was indeed a flight from their city arriving in 3 hours.
I called Tyler frantically to warn him about my parents’ impending visit, but my phone died right as the call connected. Just my luck.
I grabbed my charger and ran to my car, getting stuck in afternoon rush hour traffic. Every red light felt like torture as my anxiety kept building.
I kept thinking about what they might do, what they might say, how I could possibly handle facing them again. When I finally got to our apartment, I found my worst fears had come true.
My parents were already sitting in our living room. Tyler was there, looking uncomfortable, like he’d been trapped in an awkward conversation for too long.
The weird thing was my parents didn’t look angry; they looked almost pleasant. That scared me more than if they’d been yelling.
“There he is,”
my mom said, standing up to hug me. I stood stiffly as she wrapped her arms around me.
“We’ve been having such a nice chat with Tyler.”
“Help me,”
Tyler shot me a look that clearly said.
“What are you doing here?”
I asked, stepping back from my mom’s hug.
“Sweetie, there’s been a huge misunderstanding about the graduation expenses,”
my mom said, her voice dripping with fake concern.
“We never meant for you to think we were charging you. It was just to show you how much we spent to be there for your special day.”
As she talked, I noticed my dad wasn’t looking at me. He was subtly angling his phone around the apartment, taking pictures.
I watched him snapshots of our living room, the kitchen beyond, even zooming in on some mail on the counter.
“Dad, are you taking pictures of our apartment?”
I interrupted my mom’s monologue.
“What, no, just checking emails,”
he said, quickly pocketing his phone. Tyler stood up.
“I just remembered I need to meet some friends. Text me when you’re done here,”
he said, giving me a meaningful look before grabbing his jacket and heading out. As soon as the door closed behind Tyler, my parents’ demeanor changed.
My dad leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“You’ve caused quite a stir in the family with your lies,”
he said.
“Everyone thinks you’re some kind of millionaire who’s refusing to help his parents. You could fix this,”
my mom added.
“If you just helped us out financially, we could tell everyone it was a misunderstanding.”
