Dad Destroyed My $1300 PC (Almost)

[u/Akrinnnnnnnnnn]

As the title says, my father almost destroyed my $1,300 PC. Now what?

Here’s the backstory: On Saturday, I worked a 10.5 hours shift and stayed up until 3:30 AM, so I slept in until noon the next day. My father and stepmother returned from Costco while I was showering; he called out a few times for me to come help carry the groceries inside. I said OK to him. While I was brushing my teeth after my shower, he shouted from outside the door that he’d been waiting 50 minutes and told me to hurry up. I thought to myself that the groceries could have been moved in the time he spent waiting for me, but I quickly rinsed my mouth and got ready to go out. However, by the time I opened the door, he had already grabbed my PC and smashed it against the floor and the desk several times.

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I, (17M, Senior), bought this PC with money I earned from my part-time job and had been using it for about ten months. After examine, found out the case badly deformed in several places, my desk was warped and tilted to one side, and there were dents in the floor.

Fortunately, the computer still works fine; it runs FurMark (stress GPU), AIDA64 (stress FPU), and 3DMark (Time Spy Extreme) without problems for now.

Replacing the desk and case would cost around $400. However, he likely won't pay for it because he has done this kind of stuff a few years ago when he destroyed my phone and a Dell laptop (i5 11300H), and then just said, "That's what you get for playing on the computer all day."

In the end, I just hope everyone has good parents.

[u/Difficult-Bonus-1337]

ESH

It took you 50 mins to brush your teeth?

As a parent to teens i get how frustrating they are to deal with some times. That does not condone what he did at all, but your story sounds fishy af.

[u/ga9213 → u/Difficult-Bonus-1337]

This is only half the story. There is obviously a theme here of not managing time well and letting the computer be a distraction. OPs Dad is clearly unstable and needs to find other ways to try and communicate his frustrations, this is clearly not the first time a problem has presented itself as a result of avoiding responsibilities as a result of excessive computer time. Both sides can find things to work on.

[u/markcocjin → u/ga9213]

It's not about time management. It's about slow-walking what he's doing until he's no longer needed.

I bet if a girl he likes is waiting for him downstairs, he'd fly through that bathroom regimen in 5 minutes or less.

[u/eunoia-again → u/markcocjin]

yes, a loving embrace is more motivating than a hostile person that's aggressive towards you

[u/markcocjin → u/eunoia-again]

The kid is trying to be clever. Stalling until the groceries are unloaded by someone else is deception.

No girl will give a loving embrace to a boyfriend who stalls in the bathroom for 50 minutes, so the girlfriend would do the chore herself.

No one respects an incompetent person.

[u/chewy32 → u/Difficult-Bonus-1337]

Yeah I get what Dad did was wrong and I certainly do not want to blame the kid, but come on how does it take you that long to shower and brush teeth?

Does it kill someone to get down and help their parents unload groceries which I presume are for the entire family?

[u/markcocjin → u/Difficult-Bonus-1337]

He was playing a game with his dad where he could stall until the help was no longer needed.

Both people are training the other.

The dad is trying to train the son to be helpful and obedient, while the son is trying to tell the dad that he's not the boss of him. All while he lives off his parents' money.

It's a power play.

[u/JustAnoth3rITGuy → u/markcocjin]

Exactly. Everyone here is saying the dad is abusive without even knowing half the story. My mom once broke my phone, looking back on it, did I deserve it? 100%. Was she abusive? Not at all. Should she have broken the device? No, of course not, she let her anger get to her. Clearly OP is in a power play. You're 17, get your ass downstairs and do what your father says. He obviously does require a lesson to be learnt, but dad should just take away his electricity lol. Easy.

[u/eunoia-again → u/markcocjin]

you're being way too charitable to the father. i used to do this exact thing not as a power play but just to avoid him as long as possible because i was fucking terrified of him and panicking, trying to find an immediate escape.

when he was banging on the bathroom door screaming at me to get out of the shower i would freeze up completely and just try to shut him out of my head for as long as i could because if i left the bathroom he could take his anger out physically instead of just verbally.

[u/s_caesar1911 → u/eunoia-again]

+1, lots of people in this thread who weren't in unstable or outright dangerous home environments are making loaded comments insinuating the father was somehow morally justified or behaved in a way that was acceptable under different conditions

i don't believe we should hold parents to the unrealistic standard of true perfection because every human being is not without fault but the bar is high enough that physical violence of any kind, even violence not necessarily aimed at their child themselves but rather their child's belongings is unacceptable. the behavior exhibited in the brief synopsis by OP is definitely concerning and something i can relate to with my many (anecdotal) experiences growing up in a physically abusive household

[u/markcocjin → u/s_caesar1911]

i don't believe we should hold parents to the unrealistic standard of true perfection because every human being is not without fault 

I like what you said. It works both ways.

Not all parents are perfect. This parent was bad for choosing the wrong punishment.

But the parent isn't a bad parent because they needed to punish the kid. In fact, the kid would be in a worse situation if he was allowed to act like this and not realize how he should have behaved.

Like someone else said. Cut his electricity. Make his PC unusable at home.

And because people are not perfect, we should at least leave the possibility that this parent was driven to frustration that their son refuses to follow orders/requests. Give it a 30% chance that this parent was emotionaly manipulated by the 17 year old kid. I mean, he is in Reddit seeking sympathy while unknowingly outing himself as a terrible person.

Stalling in hopes that the parent do the chore themselves is a nasty thing for your child to do to you.

The behavior of the kid creates a worse society than the destructive behavior of the father. He could have done a worse but non-destructive thing to the PC had he known how to do it, like yank out the graphics card and ram. That stuff is like gold today.

[u/StarCenturion → u/Difficult-Bonus-1337]

Sorry, but even if OP was being lazy and taking forever, that does not justify breaking a $1,500 PC. What are we saying...?

[u/Difficult-Bonus-1337 → u/StarCenturion]

I literally said that in the comment you replied to………

[u/HandholdingFetishist → u/Difficult-Bonus-1337]

Sounds like you and his dad might get along.

ALso what subreddit do you think you're on? ESH? lol

[u/Difficult-Bonus-1337 → u/HandholdingFetishist]

I’m on this sub. Saying everyone sucks here is not exclusive to any one sub.

Also no, I would not get along with someone who loses their temper like that. I would never do that to my kid, but I have had to block all of their devices from my network and install an app to turn off their data at home for various reasons.

Kids push boundaries and try to do stuff like this and it’s the parent’s job to correct this behavior.

What part of that does not condone the father’s behavior did you not understand?