Step son used my bath towel

[Green0911]

Want to gauge if IABU here.

My and my husband's towels are in the bathroom. Teenage SS keeps his in his room. We each have a hand towel and a bath towel. They all get changed every 3-4 days. When it came to changing them, I realised SS didn't have his towels in his room. He said he'd put them to be laundered a few days before. When I asked him which towels he'd been using in the meantime (he'd showered at least twice during this period), initially he claimed none, then admitted he'd used mine.

I blew a fuse. Couldn't believe he thought this was acceptable. Husband has laughed it off and is accusing me of being dramatic/blowing things out of proportion.

AIBU?

Why would he have the ick? Sound like he did it knowing perfectly well what he was doing.

You don't know what the behaviour was so your post is pretty melodramatic actually.

Step parent or not, she is allowed to have boundaries. They'll raise an unpleasant kid if they let him walk all over other people because "he's a teenage boy, he could be doing much worse things!" Doesn't mean he gets to upset people.

Because teenagers have Teen Brain and their heads are filled with themselves, Fortnite and school problems - so many would take a few moments to even realise “you know she’ll be drying her naked body with that towel”.

Mind you it wouldn’t be MN if, for a thread about a teenage boy, someone didn’t imply he’s a pervert 🙄

I'm not sure I've ever heard anything more ridiculous. You say that your stepson is a typical teenager with little concern about personal hygiene, and had used your bath towel having showered at least twice during a three or four day period. Maybe I'm being stupid, but if he used the shower that means he must have used water and soap or shower gel, so would he not have been clean when he used the towel?

This! Ffs, how odd! And quite rank.

Well I do because OP said she “blew a fuse”. What kind of behaviour do you consider that to be?

Step parent or not, she is allowed to have boundaries. They'll raise an unpleasant kid if they let him walk all over other people because "he's a teenage boy, he could be doing much worse things!" Doesn't mean he gets to upset people.

And he’s allowed to make mistakes. All teenagers make mistakes, anyone who can list this as fuse blowing worthy should count themselves lucky. This isn’t a flatmate or a grown man he’s still a child FFS

Oh, good grief, it's a towel!
You "blew a fuse?!"
Only having your own set towel and waiting for it to be laundered sounds miserable.
Put towels out for everyone to use, and just regularly wash them!
YABU

well OP you have better take a pregnancy test and make sure "your" towel wasn't soaked in sperm...
sorry gal but your being melodramatic.

That sounds like a complete headache, just put towels out for everyone to use in the bathroom lol

But since you're both presumably clean after you shower, when you use the towel, what does it matter?? 😂

This whole thread is creepy.

And we shared a bath towel (bath! Not just a hand towel) for 3 days!

Noooo

😱😲🤣

sarcasm disclaimer

Sure, but the fungus that causes athlete's foot doesn't confine itself to your feet. 😬

I don't want to use other people's towels. Just NO. Yuck.

100% this from @JandamiHash

Me too! It's a free for all in our house! And I have teenage ds and dd!!

Can't you just wash the towels after use?!
This thread's making me think of Monica and her towel categories. Maybe it's one of the eleven 😁
Fancy..
Guest...
Fancy guests..
Teenagers.....

😂

If you blew a fuse over this, god help the lad when he does something serious.

I wouldn't love it but you've hugely overreacted, and agree with PP that you blowing your fuse with DSS over a towel may well be a red flag for your DP.

I'm mostly just fascinated with the logistics. Why does he have to keep his towels in his bedroom, why can't he keep his in the bathroom? Why individual hand towels - do you have a regular hand towel or is he supposed to bring his in from his bedroom every time he goes to the loo? Because that would be utterly mental.

Anyway, obvious solution is to keep your towels in your bedroom and he can take your spot in the bathroom.

I have a preteen and an 8yo. We are never ill, no fungal or skin infections ever, no salmonella (?!) and no accidental pregnancies from towel sharing.

What a pathetic rejoinder.

Decent people have boundaries. And he's a teen, not a toddler. Old enough to respect others and to manage his own towels.

On so many discussions here we wonder why so many men are shitty, self-absorbed, disrespectful, domestically incompetent and bone lazy.

I think those of you making excuses for this stepson and scoffing at the OP's boundaries are the type likely raising these shit men. Making excuses for poor behaviour and sneering at anyone who expects anything above lowlife standards.

Why are individual hand towels needed? Are you not washing your hands before drying them on the towel? Are your hands regularly covered in shit that you need to wipe on a towel?

So you're fine with (unknowingly) sharing a towel that has dried someone else's "nooks and crannies," I guess?

I don’t think misogyny and VAWG starts with a towel.

Maybe it’s not the DSS gleefully wiping his balls on OP’s towel as he rejoices “Woohoo I’m encroaching on her boundaries”. Maybe it was just a mistake.

I do wonder if there’d be quite so many pearl clutchers if this was a SD rather than a SS