'I was giggling': Strict parents force their adopted 19-year-old daughter to break up with her boyfriend even though she's an adult, boyfriend gets $300 of petty payback

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Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Nov 9, 2025 5:00 PM EST

Being adopted is already a very emotional journey. Whether you were adopted at birth or later on in your life, it is still a path that takes a lot of self-reflection, love, and patience. We always hope that the parents adopting children deserve to have this family, but sometimes, they are not doing their best parenting. This adopted daughter was dealing with her strict adoptive parents even after she turned of adult age. 

 

She was dating her boyfriend and after turning 18, she started to inquire about moving in with him. Her parents were very much taking advantage of the government assistance that comes with adopting and she had it. She wanted to be with someone who loved her for her. However, her parents forbid it and guilty her to the moon and back. So, with a broken heart, she broke it off with her boyfriend. 

 

However, her heart wasn't the only one that was broken. So while the now ex-boyfriend was trying to move on, he needed money for a new and nicer apartment. He remembered the concert tickets he had bought his ex's family months ago. That were $300… Do you see where this is going? He went into the system, sold the tickets, got $300, and didn't even alert the family. 

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  • "My Ex's Mom"

    'I was giggling': Strict parents force their adopted 19-year-old daughter to break up with her boyfriend even though she's an adult, boyfriend gets $300 of petty payback
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Here's a little story for you. When I was 18, I was dating this girl. She was nice, sweet, and innocent, and I didn't know better - think homeschooled with a Christian education foundation in all of her classes and adopted.
    via handdagger420
  • She came from a family where her dad had a construction company, and her mom was a stay- at-home wife.
    via handdagger420
  • Well, her dad was hurt at work and ended up receiving disability for life due to his arm being caught in a garage door.
    via handdagger420
  • Due to this, the family was set back. All of the sudden, the kids were being diagnosed left and right during their teenage years with some sort of disability, with the mother doing the talking and being friends with their PCP.
    via handdagger420
  • It was to the point where they all had some sort of mental health issue and were put on SSI income, paid in full to my ex's mother, of course.
    via handdagger420
  • My ex was on SSI because she was coerced into faking dyslexia as crazy as that sounds.
    via handdagger420
  • So, while her mother is receiving her checks as an adult, she decided to take over as all of the kids' PCA (caregiver).
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  • She would collect money at a wage of $16/hour for each child... there were four of them at $64/hour (my ex confirmed this by showing me a picture of the pay statement, knowing that it was wrong), all while not spending a moment of her time with them and living her own luxury lifestyle.
    via handdagger420
  • I had been dating one daughter who had nothing wrong mentally and admitted to helping her mom manipulate the system.
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  • Trying to do something nice for her parents, I purchased them tickets for Christmas, online, to see Journey, her mom's favorite band.
    via handdagger420
  • 'I was giggling': Strict parents force their adopted 19-year-old daughter to break up with her boyfriend even though she's an adult, boyfriend gets $300 of petty payback
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • The wild goose chase they were sent on was much deserved and we are happy to see that now, years into adult age, the adopted kids cut ties with the mom and are off living their best life. 

  • My ex started wanting to move in with me after a year and a half of dating.
    via handdagger420
  • I said yes to her. She explained this to her mom, and the mom outright lost it, saying that she was financially ruining the family by leaving the family home the PCA - payments would cease.
    via handdagger420
  • Her mom started blaming me, blaming my faith because it was a different Christian denomination from their faith, and saying that I was only interested in my ex's SSI payments which I was interested in ending completely because I made enough, and she was very capable of working any job.
    via handdagger420
  • Her father was threatening to physically harm me at that time. My ex was being torn in two, and I wasn't going to force her to pick me over her family.
    via handdagger420
  • She broke up with me. I was very unhappy at that time. I was trying to move forward in life and got accepted into a nicer apartment.
    via handdagger420
  • There was only one problem - I was about $300 short of meeting the security deposit requirement.
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  • I had a brilliant revelation... I, swiftly, logged into my Ticketmaster account. The tickets I paid for were still there and the concert was in two weeks.
    via handdagger420
  • I scanned over the screen and found the "sell" option. You better believe that I sold those tickets and immediately got that apartment locked down.
    via handdagger420
  • This was seven months after giving them the tickets. Two weeks later, my phone blows up from my ex's whole family telling me what a piece of shit I am.
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  • I sat back and looked, and a sick grin came over my face. My ex reached out saying that I made her parents "so mad." They drove for three hours just to bed turned away at the gate.
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  • They tried to find someone scalping or reselling concert tickets, but the show was completely sold out, and they had no luck.
    via handdagger420
  • 'I was giggling': Strict parents force their adopted 19-year-old daughter to break up with her boyfriend even though she's an adult, boyfriend gets $300 of petty payback
    via Unsplash+ (and Michael Fousert)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Moral of the story? Don't be a piece of shit to others, or you may receive the same in return.
    via handdagger420
  • I don't regret doing that one single bit. TLDR: My ex's parents financially abused their children and ruined my relationship with their daughter.
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  • I bought them concert tickets as a Christmas gift when I was with her, had them in my name still, and resold them while they were under the impression that they still had the tickets.
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  • They drove for a total of 6 hours and couldn't attend the concert.
    via handdagger420
  • OP handdagger420 Though it's been about 5 years since I heard anything from any of them, the last I heard is that they all moved out, and while they keep in touch with their dad, they don't deal with their mom. My ex was fighting to get reevaluated to have her medical records changed. As for me, I'm 29 now with an eight year old blessing and have been dating the woman of my dreams come true!
    via tk
  • Cupcake_Implosion Good for you! That was the pettiest of petty revenges and not even close to what parents who emotionally abuse and exploit their children deserve. I can only imagine how much of your then-girlfriend's pain you witnessed and experienced by proxy (and directly too, since her mother sounds like a full-blown shitshow) I hope you are in a good place, wherever you are. It's obvious you had affection and respect for your then-girlfriend and tried to do best by her. I also hope she and
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  • OP handdagger420 Believe me, I was giggling. It was 5 months after the breakup, and she definitely was, but I was fully recovered. It was completely petty and unexpected, but it felt just at the time.
    via tk
  • allhaillydia As a dyslexic person you don't get SSI for having dyslexic.
    via tk

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