AITA? my mum keeps stealing my clothes?

A Reddit user (16F) shares her frustration about her mom (50F) repeatedly taking her clothes without permission. Despite being two sizes larger, her mom stretches out her clothes, denies they’re borrowed, and insists they belong to her. The user wonders if she’s in the wrong for feeling upset and unsure how to address the situation without causing further tension. Read her story below.

‘ AITA? my mum keeps stealing my clothes?’

My mum (50f) for some reason keeps stealing my (16f)clothes. Honestly I suppose I wouldn’t mind but she keeps stretching them out and when I tell her oh your wearing my (whatever she’s stolen) she denies it and says it’s hers and no offence but it doesn’t look good on her either it’s tight because she’s a size 24 and I’m a size 14.

Don’t get me wrong I like baggy clothes but it just annoys me that she takes my stuff without asking, stretches it out then tries to gaslight me into thinking it’s hers. Today for example she was wearing one of my dresses at a top and when I commented on it she was just rude and said that it was her top and for me to drop it.

I don’t know why she keeps stealing my stuff when it’s too small for her. I don’t know if it’s a self esteem thing but she can’t keep doing this it’s getting out of hand. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do because I feel bad telling her it’s clearly mine as it’s too small for her.

Check out how the community responded:

unimaginative_person −  Please write your name with a sharpie on the washing instructions tag. It is usually near the bottom on a side seam. You could just walk up to her and flip out the tag. But as others stated, you should only use this to start a discussion. Do not approach her like an attack – just turn over the tag and say something like “Mom, I love you – what is going on?”

Waste_Worker6122 −  NTA. Your Mom seems to want to pretend she’s 16 again – size 16 or age 16 not sure which.

ConsitutionalHistory −  STOP feeling bad and flat tell her to stop taking your clothes and put a lock on your door.

nikkesen −  NTA. Your mother isn’t respectful of your boundaries as an individual. It is reasonable to expect someone to ask permission before borrowing anything of yours. It doesn’t matter if they’re a parent, it’s your property and you have final say over it. Really, the worse part is the lying.

DumbCantDoIt −  I would hazard a guess that the mother who’s g**lighting their kid and stealing their clothes is the arsehole. Not the kid getting their clothes stolen. She probably is going through something, who knows what? Nonetheless – in this situation, your mum is the arsehole

The1Eileen −  You are so sweet for trying to support your mum, but you are NOT responsible for your mother’s emotions. She is the mum; you are the daughter. You don’t need to “help her through this”, you just need to not make it worse for her on purpose and you need to keep yourself safe (and I mean emotionally). I say this as someone with a mum that sounds like yours and I took to my 30s-40s to figure it out. I hope you can learn sooner than me, you are not responsible for your mother. She is responsible for herself.

Big_Flan1486 −  Wear her favorite dress and cut it short with scissors, and totally ruin it for her to wear, and dny it and say it’s yours like she do to you. I don’t promise it will go well but in the best chances she will stop taking your clothes.

Legitimate_Rule_6410 −  No. This is just weird that your mom does this.

ada-byron −  Actually it’s kind of sad about your mom. Her actions scream ” Low Self Esteem “! Don’t know what you can do, she wants to be young and thin again instead of accepting who she is and work on her vision of herself.

Ok-Chemistry9933 −  Hide your favorite clothes! Your mom is having issues.