Dad: " Are you sure this isn't mine"? Not again !

[Dave8338]

Just wondering: Does anybody else have a father who EVERY TIME he stops in for a visit, tries to lay claim to their tools? :mad:

I'm not one to complain and I haven't lived at home in nearly 30 years,
but this is getting a little ridicules ! ! ! Last night it was my 1/2 Craftsman breaker bar. I mean really... he goes into my tool boxes and I swear, looks for anything similar to what he has and always asks, "is this mine. I think it is. I know I have two of them and I can't find the other".

He also has the nasty habit of bringing down a tool box and insists on using his tools. THEN, when he doesn't have what he needs, continues into my shop and starts laying claim to my tools. Just don't get it ? ? ?

Is it only me? Is there more going on here than meets the eye? Any opinions or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.


Thanks


Dave

[jb2wheels]

Let him do it. Tools are cheap.

I wish my dad could swing by more often and steal my tools - he's 1800 miles away.

I actually have some of his in my toolbox. 2 I can think of and they have a good story. Jeez I have an emotional attachment to tools...

[El Camexican]

Too funny! At the age of 9 I started getting tools for Christmas and birthdays. Top of the line Craftsman router with carbide bits, 4" belt sander, air compressor, 1/2" impact driver, shotgun shell reloader, etc. Dad always would say "These are yours, but we share them until you move out". Guess I grew up and moved out faster than he expected. I'm 48 now and he seems to have forgotten they were ever gifts! I don't care, but my brother-in-law is a tool guy too and lives about 2,000 miles closer than I do.

Oh, and the other funny thing is his ability to lose tools. When I was a kid every lost wrench and socket was MY fault. Fast forward 30 years and I have a spotless shop and polish and organize my tools at the end of every thrash. If I need tools for my bike trips I don't steal from my tool chest, I buy specific dedicated travel tools. If I lose or break one I replace it. My Dad? HA! His socket drawer is missing 90% of the tools. Depending on the season about 50% can be found in either his snowmobile, boat or riding mover. The rest are likely rusting away in his garden following an after dark thrash on one of his rototillers.

I take no greater pleasure than rooting through his tool chests when I visit and asking "Where is your 3/8" ratchet Dad?" "Didn't I give you this 300pc Craftsman tool set AFTER I moved out Dad? Where are the other 250pcs?" 'Who lost THESE sockets Dad?" I only visit once a year, but I make it worth my while:)

[hoosierlogger]

Engrave them. My father in law has his initials on EVERYTHING he owns, right down to beer coozies. Most is written in yellow paint marker. Some more valuable things are stamped with letter punches. He said he doesn't do it as theft prevention, but as a way to easily remind him that if he sees something that's his to take it home.

We all joke about his casket having DVD written on it in paint marker when it is his time.

[tripledog]

I would give up every tool I have to spend more time with my Dad. He is nearly 86 years old and is not much longer for this world. Although it is frustrating to have your Dad lay claim to your tools, in the grand scheme of things it is a good problem to have.

[danbur55]

treasure the moments you have with them!!!!! didnt get the chance to have these adult conversations with dad but can surely imagine how that would go have several of his tools including a hammer we were not allowed to use as kids and wont use it to this day

[DohcBikes]

My suggestion would be to buy him tools for every birthday and holiday.

My toolbox has a warning sticker...Attention Theives: Please carry your I.D. so your next of kin can be notified.

[Dave8338]

You guys are right. I sound petty in my thoughts. What I have noticed, is that it is getting worse. So much so, that he has run out of room for his tools, twice. None of them new. He now has three Craftsman tool chests, running over with tools that unless he has spent thousands on new hand tools ( I Have spent several hundred in the last few years, alone) they are coming from somewhere. I keep losing ground...

I am VERY fortunate that I still have him in my life, I love him dearly. Thusly and until today, I have kept my silence and just dealt with it. My fear is that it is more a sign of a possible condition and less that he just has a thing with my tools.

I have this feeling that there is more to the story...

Thanks for the reply's. I need to vent this so as not to blow up on him...

Dave

[jakep53]

Too funny! At the age of 9 I started getting tools for Christmas and birthdays. Top of the line Craftsman router with carbide bits, 4" belt sander, air compressor, 1/2" impact driver, shotgun shell reloader, etc. Dad always would say "These are yours, but we share them until you move out". Guess I grew up and moved out faster than he expected. I'm 48 now and he seems to have forgotten they were ever gifts! I don't care, but my brother-in-law is a tool guy too and lives about 2,000 miles closer than I do.

Oh, and the other funny thing is his ability to lose tools. When I was a kid every lost wrench and socket was MY fault. Fast forward 30 years and I have a spotless shop and polish and organize my tools at the end of every thrash. If I need tools for my bike trips I don't steal from my tool chest, I buy specific dedicated travel tools. If I lose or break one I replace it. My Dad? HA! His socket drawer is missing 90% of the tools. Depending on the season about 50% can be found in either his snowmobile, boat or riding mover. The rest are likely rusting away in his garden following an after dark thrash on one of his rototillers.

I take no greater pleasure than rooting through his tool chests when I visit and asking "Where is your 3/8" ratchet Dad?" "Didn't I give you this 300pc Craftsman tool set AFTER I moved out Dad? Where are the other 250pcs?" 'Who lost THESE sockets Dad?" I only visit once a year, but I make it worth my while:)

Your dad sounds like me and my dad although I am a little bit better than him he loses everything IN the shed nothing ever leaves the shed but we lose everything we lose hammers ratchets rattle guns engines swingarms we are absolutely hopeless but it is very hard keeping a 200 ft by 50 ft shed clean lol

[dougspcs]

Not petty Dave, Dads can get under your skin in ways take boggle the mind..

But some day, hopefully long from now, you'll forget all of it and wish you could trade in everything you have in your man cave to hear his laugh again!!

[Chopsaw]

200 ' x 5' ,,, ? jake , that's not a shed it's a hallway .

My dad passed almost 2 years ago . I go over to help my Mom with stuff , and use tools that I used when I was very young , to help him work on cars , rebuild lawn mowers , or whatever else . Emotional for sure .

Here's what you do . Next time he stops by , find something you can live without , and say " Hey Dad , I think this is yours "

Chop

[jakep53]

200 ' x 5' ,,, ? jake , that's not a shed it's a hallway .

My dad passed almost 2 years ago . I go over to help my Mom with stuff , and use tools that I used when I was very young , to help him work on cars , rebuild lawn mowers , or whatever else . Emotional for sure .

Here's what you do . Next time he stops by , find something you can live without , and say " Hey Dad , I think this is yours "

Chop

Ooops I ment 200x50 lol

[danbur55]

maybe start sneaking a few of his back home with you and kind of let them rotate back to him venting is good for you and i think this is probably as good and safe avenue for it have a grear day

[pipeline triker]

My father in law does this to me sometimes. His shop burned to the ground about 12 years ago with everthing in it being lost. Tools mostly big stuff, he thinks is his since we had alot of the same equipment before the fire. He forgets that his burned up and see's mine and thinks, hey I had one of those. He has cancer and it has been a rough year for him and my wife. We are an hour + from a hospital and her parents do not drive that far any more, so my wife has been driving him down for doctors appointments every couple days. So ya time with your aging parents is truely a blessing.

[dman10]

You ain't even kidding, I never even got the chance to have this problem with my dad, as I never got the chance to move out, Seems like the better of several options.

[250rAL]

Kind of reminds me of my late father. Especially in his later years, he was always misplacing things, then he would get mad and say "someone stole it! (voice rising at the end). It kind of became a running joke whenever we couldn't find something. "Someone stole it... anybody can always use a good _____." Whatever it was. Funny thing was, most of the stuff he would lose would be some homemade tool or gadget that NO ONE else would have a use for. He didn't have a lot of nice, expensive tools but now some of them reside in my shop and they'll always remind me of my youth.