Mom Praised for Sending Kids to Ex's In Tie-Dye After He Sold Their Clothes

A woman is being supported for sending her kids to her ex's apartment in cheap tie-dye clothes after one of her daughters said he was selling their nicer clothes online.

The mother, u/Ok_Antelope4554, shared her story to the popular Reddit forum r/AmITheA**hole, earning over 12,900 upvotes and 900 comments in eight hours for her post, "AITA for having my kids wear tie dye when with their dad?"

The original poster (OP) says that she divorced her daughters' father about five years ago. The two girls are 7 and 8 right now, and they visit him every other weekend. Recently, though, she began to notice that not everything that her kids brought to their father's apartment was coming home—clothes, toys and electronics. Though she initially thought that it was just so the girls would have something to have over there, that turned out not to be the case.

"However, my 8 yr. old got upset when she was packing. I asked her what was wrong. She told me her dad takes her clothes and sells them on line. That she doesn't want to take her favorite shirt over there," u/Ok_Antelope4554 wrote.

She says she called up her ex, and asked him to return the clothes—but not wanting to pin the blame on her daughter for spilling the beans, she just said the kids were running low on clothing for school. He told her that he threw out the "too small" clothes—but when she brought up that one of the missing pairs of jeans was brand new, he got angry.

When the OP and her ex went through the divorce, she says they had a old mobile home on a large plot of land. In the divorce, he said he wanted the couple's savings and the new truck they had recently bought. In return, she got the old trailer and the land. But now, OP's ex says that it's "only fair he got some cash" because he had originally owned the trailer and land.

"If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be doing this good," u/Ok_Antelope4554 reports him saying.

At this point, the OP decided to fight back. She took the kids to the dollar store and bought five sets for each girl of shirts and pants. They then tie-dyed all the clothing hot pink, and the kids decorated the shirts. The impromptu craft night was a hit, and the girls got a kick out of making their own clothes.

"The following week Ex sends the girls home. I could tell he is mad but, he didn't say anything. The clothes were not returned. No fear I knew this would be a issue. We made extras. When the girls went back they were wearing tie dye," u/Ok_Antelope4554 wrote.

In that visit, OP says the girls were only with their dad an hour before he called OP, demanding that she bring over a different outfit. OP refused, saying the kids "love those clothes"—which wasn't a lie—and he countered that he was going to take them to a "major family party" at his parents', and that they couldn't wear tie-dye. OP hit back that if that was the case, he should go and buy his daughters clothes if he doesn't like what they're wearing, and he called the OP "petty."

Clothing is a surprisingly controversial topic when it comes to shared custody. In one story, a girl's stepmom had been taking her nice clothes and giving them to her own children—before telling her mother to take the girl out of private school, deeming it "unfair," as the stepmom couldn't afford to send her kids to the same school.

In another case, a father with primary custody of his daughter was supported for giving away the clothes her mother had bought. However, it was because the mother in the situation hated her daughter's style and bought clothes that only pleased her, even though her daughter didn't want any of them.

And sometimes parental fights over a kid's clothing don't happen between a divorced couple. One man's wife lied about picking up their daughter because she objected that the teen wore thrift-shop clothing instead of designer wear, because she felt it gave "a false impression to people that we're poor."

Redditors were horrified at the girls' father's actions, and urged u/Ok-Antelope4554 to keep records of the missing items.

"[Not the A**hole]," u/G**sy-Nyx wrote in the top-rated comment with 15,800 upvotes. "Keep a record of what goes over there and back. As you can have the child support changed to show he is taking it back"

"Mighty bold of you to think that man pays child support. If he's stealing clothes from his daughters to sell, I highly doubt he's actually paying child support," u/wheres_the_revolt replied, earning 11,600 upvotes of their own.

"Clothes and electronics. If I were OP I'd file a police report," u/murdocjones added.

"[Not the A**hole] - You need to take this man to court. He is stealing from his children and doesn't care that it is causing them clear and understandable distress," u/Forward_Squirrel8879 said.

"[Not the A**hole]. Get a Bedazzler. They're not expensive and they're a blast for girls this age," u/Sparky-Malarky suggested. "Also fabric markers. Puffy paint. You might have a whole set of new hobbies by the time your girls are teens."

Newsweek reached out to u/Ok-Antelope4554 for comment.