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Antiwork

Looking for reassurance that I’m being reasonable.

This is going to be a bit of a rant, and explanation of my back story. My parents opened up a dealership during my junior/senior year of high school, and I’ve worked with them ever since. I had a bunch of money saved from investments while I was in high school, and gave them money to help open the dealership, and became an unofficial partner, as I was still a minor (once I turned 18, my name was added to the business.) Everything is running smoothly but there’s times where things get hectic between my dad and I, yelling going around back and forward, but I kinda grew up with that? Idk. Few years go by, we sell the dealership, and open up another dealership a few counties over, in a more rural part of town. My wanted to get away from the city with the intentions of retiring. So…


This is going to be a bit of a rant, and explanation of my back story.

My parents opened up a dealership during my junior/senior year of high school, and I’ve worked with them ever since. I had a bunch of money saved from investments while I was in high school, and gave them money to help open the dealership, and became an unofficial partner, as I was still a minor (once I turned 18, my name was added to the business.) Everything is running smoothly but there’s times where things get hectic between my dad and I, yelling going around back and forward, but I kinda grew up with that? Idk. Few years go by, we sell the dealership, and open up another dealership a few counties over, in a more rural part of town. My wanted to get away from the city with the intentions of retiring. So I help them move, transition, and things are good. I kept putting college on pause to help them run the business and going back to school on the slower seasons. Over these years, I developed severe anxiety, and really bad panic attacks. Not necessarily because of my dad, but he didn’t help with them.

When I finally decided what I wanted to do with my life, my dad asked me to take some time off and help him open an insurance agency, which is not what I wanted to do at all. When I kept saying I wanted to do something else, he kept interrupting me until I agreed I agreed to 6 months of my time to help run the business and get the business moving. I only agreed to shut him up in the moment. Like I said, bad anxiety and I was afraid of saying no. When my 6 month mark came up, I tried leaving, and they were shocked that I was trying to leave and i had apparently said i would stay for a year!

I get my first panic attack in front of my parents, and they get really worried. My girlfriend at the time, (wife now) has been extremely supportive through all this, and stood up for me when we had this convo with my parents that they really needed to take a step back from stressing me out because of work. Couple weeks go by and my close friend got his CDL, and started making good money, so I figured I’d get mine as well to get a job and RUN away from the dealer, to create that distance from them and have that boundary.

Fast forward 2 years (today), they tried recruiting my wife so she can get her license and keep the business running as my mom is not renewing any current customers and not accepting new clients (they’re going to close the business) all behind my back. They talked to her while I was at work and never mentioned the conversation to me. And my dad was blaming me that the business was going under because I apparently didn’t work hard enough. It was a new company and you simply can not pull customers out of their air. Was I on my phone when there was nothing to do? Sure, but he kept saying he wanted to run the business for me when I never asked for this. And there’s “always more work that can be done” according to him. Do I agree? Sure but I was the one who got us connected with the rest of the insurance companies. I feel like I already put in most of the work as he put a fraction of the work companies to me.

Am I out of line here? Or are my parents out of line on this one? I know this is a long ran, just wanted to give full context.

EDIT: my wife told me about the convo she had with my parents, and she thinks my parents are out of line here for this whole situation, and she’s on my side of things

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