EDIT: This thread is just one big wall of misunderstandings for the most part. I try my best to salvage some of the damage in this response further down the page and the one following: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/parent-logic-and-pinball-it-makes-no-sense#post-1934584

But yeah, most of what I originally wrote is extremely easy to take out of context, making it seem more like I'm spoiled and unable to handle money, thus it was a mistake to post it. I apologise for that and will learn to be more careful in the future.

Anywhoo, original post follows for anyone still curious:

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Allow me to relate a conversation I just had with Dad a couple hours ago.

For sake of context: I do indeed live with my father right now, but only until my own projects start to get somewhere financially. As it stands, I make less than livable income off of Patreon support for my web show and am in the midst of coding my first game since 2007. I don't have a day-job because I suffer from a sleep disorder which makes adhering to a regular schedule impossible. I also do not own a pinball machine yet, but we have plenty of space for one and it'll be in the basement anyways, where Dad NEVER goes. I've only been living with Dad for a year as I sold my house last year (after owning it for nearly 10) due to my own failures to get my income going again and to help pay off Dad's debts. I only intend to get ONE pinball machine so I can practice and keep my interest alive and am not going to start building a collection until I actually have a livable income again and am once again living in my own place.

Ahem...

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ME: I'll probably be buying a pinball machine in the next couple days.
DAD: How much will it cost?
ME: $1,000
DAD: This is foolish.
ME: ...why?
DAD: Do you even have $1,000?
ME: Yes.
DAD: ...you shouldn't do this.
ME: Why not?
DAD: You're spending $1,000 on a TOY.
ME: Well, it's not like the money's disappearing. If I ever need the money back and keep the machine in good shape I can sell it for virtually the same amount.
DAD: (no answer)
ME: Besides, you have all your artwork you spent thousands on and all it does is sit on the wall and look pretty.
DAD: Well, I've made hundreds of thousands of dollars.
ME: So the fact that I'm making $250 a month now doesn't mean I can get something I can sell again later if I have to?
DAD: It's your money. Do what you want with it. (Dad's goto cop-out "agree to disagree" line.)
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Also, I know I don't have to say this on Pinside, but absolutely ridiculous responses are ENCOURAGED. I plan to show this thread to Dad sooner or later to see if I can get him to relent. (Not bloody likely, but you never know.)

I'll also definitely post if and when I get the machine I plan to get. Not a done deal yet, but pending!

_{Post edited by Gemini: This really did not come across very well at all... trying to prevent more misunderstandings... x_x;}

31. I've only been living with Dad for a year after selling my house last year. Most of the money from the sale went to Dad to pay HIS debts.

My reasoning is buying one pinball machine, just ONE, with money that's been sitting in my bank account since the sale doing nothing but earning 30 cents of interest a month, is that it lets my money do something enjoyable and I can recover a good chunk of it easily enough if I have to.

I do pitch in to some extent now that I have an income at all. Four months ago I didn't.

Added some more context to my initial post... 'cause I kinda realized I sounded whiny and spoiled and really, that's so incredibly far from the truth when you sell your house and give 90% of the money from the sale to your father. : P

Yeah... context is REALLY necessary to understand the humour in this conversation... now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't have posted it just for that reason? ... *shrugs* Oh well. Let's see where this goes! : B

Before I reply to some of you, Dad came back to me a few hours later in a more curious mood than contradicting mood, asking me questions about the whole process, the maintenance, how the machine could possibly only be $1000 knowing from prior conversations that they can get far more expensive, (it's a mid-80s pin that's not rare and very low in demand), and even threw in an "I'll play it with you" at one point mid-sentence, suggesting he's actually more interested than he's letting on. That, or he's doing his two-face routine he sometimes does where he'll be completely negative about something at first, then will be completely positive later because he's actually had time to think it over and not just spout words off the top of his head since he's fairly disapproving of just about everything I'm interested in. : B

But yeah, there's not really a financial issue in the pipe here. I want to clarify this very much: Dad's SOLE reason for calling it "foolish" is because he perceives pinball machines as TOYS that no one, NO ONE, should spend hundreds, let alone thousands of dollars on. : P

Every one of my friends I told this conversation to so far laughed at it, which is why I thought of sharing it here... guess I kinda forgot just how much context is really necessary to see the humour in it so yeah, kinda regret posting it now since it's giving the wrong impression of everything going on. Sorry about that, guys. I'll be a bit more careful from now on. : )

Anywhoo... REPLIES! : D

Actually, I have a good chunk more than $1,000 to my name as I'm really good at not spending money I don't have to. (Dad doesn't actually know how much I have saved up.) It's all been sitting in a savings account for a year doing nothing but building up tiny amounts of interest. It's only been in the last four months that I've started making money again, but unlike before, this is money that's pretty much guaranteed so long as I don't anger the fans of my web show by doing something extraordinarily stupid, and so long as I keep delivering new episodes on my regularly scheduled basis. I figure now that I'm on a net increase per month I can afford to buy a cheaper pin with a portion of those savings so I can get practice both in play and in maintenance and can worry about buying more when I have a REAL income from any other work I do and my own house to put them in. :B

Besides which, I don't splurge at all. I only eat at a restaurant once every month or two, always buy sale items when I can (not if they're unreliable though, since then it can just make things more expensive), I virtually NEVER spend more money in one month than I presently make, except once a year when I decide to purchase something special for myself to keep me from going stir-crazy from how little spending I do. I even did all this back when I still had a house so I could weather my lack of income as long as possible after my sleeping issues got worse to the point of ending my last day-job rather badly... >_<

My sleep specialist and I have tried about four different treatments over the course of a year including light therapy, CPAP, and drugs. None of it's worked. :/

But I do think positive, contrary to the way I come across sometimes. I know exactly what needs to be done to get myself back where I need to be and I'm on the right course for sure, regardless of my screwy sleep patterns where I'm asleep during the night one week, during the day the next, and having 12-hour and 30-hour days completely at random next to my "typical" 25 to 26 hour day cycles.

YOLO! XD

I will admit, this is a small part of my reasoning, but well calculated since, if something super-bad happened which the rest of my savings couldn't cover then a $1,000 pinball machine is probably not going to be enough to make the difference, and if it COULD... it would actually make more sense to just borrow some money from my sister, my brother-in-law, my father, or my mother, THEN sell the pinball machine, pay them back whatever I get for it, and if it's not enough to cover what I borrow, give them the rest later on when I can make it up to them. : B

I actually get along really well with everyone in my family... including Dad. It just bugs me a bit how little interest he has in absolutely everything I enjoy.

*shakes head* I'm VERY careful with how I spend my money. I definitely want more than one machine someday (the list I'm making so far has about 12 on it) but I also know what my financial limits are without straining what money I have, and just because of the size and weight I also know it would be an absolute PAIN to have to deal with more than one in a house that's not my own. To that end, having one, relatively inexpensive pin for now, fills a gap in my life that I never realized was there until I rediscovered pinball, and it will satiate that part of my psyche until I finally can have more than one in a suitable, responsible way.

In short, OF COURSE I want more than one! But, being smart about my future comes first! : B

Besides, for the moment, if I want to play other pins, there's always our monthly league nights! ; )

Whoops, more responses 'cause of how long it took to write that last one!

I... don't want to go into specifics about why I gave Dad most of the money from the sale of my house, but it was more of an immediate thing than an ongoing thing. Not because of legality, but out of respect for his privacy. (I don't mind making fun of his logic though, he does it to me sometimes!)

As for my house, I bought it back when I had a professional programming job. Got it right out of high-school, though it wouldn't be until much later in life that my friends and family told me it was extremely lucky, as I had taken it for granted given my lack of workplace experience.

Also, back then, this whole notion of suffering from a sleeping disorder didn't occur to anyone, not even me, because of the nature of it, so it went completely untreated for many, many years. The last day-job I had aggravated the problem so badly that I lost a lot of the control I had over it and during one period where it prevented my working for several days on end, my manager told me I couldn't go back to work without a doctor's note, and that's when I really started to clue in as to just how disruptive this was for leading a "normal" life.

Treatments didn't work, but I couldn't find a doctor who was willing to sign disability papers because there's not only this whole stigma still that sleeping disorders are not that big a deal, but that they can ALL be fixed. >_>

So, that left me in a position where I could continue bouncing between jobs I couldn't keep or move up in, or try to re-focus on my own efforts so I could eventually make money on my own accord. I chose the latter route, with permission from my father, fully aware that, even without the issue he ran into, I'd probably have to sell my house before too long if my savings dried up before I could make any real progress on my own goals.

I started making real progress a few months ago, so I know I'm on the right track now. Yeah, maybe it is a little impulsive to want to buy a pin before I'm completely back on my feet, but the whole process is exciting and that excitement just makes me want to do even better at what I'm already doing! : )

...heh, kinda feel like I'm telling my life story now... *shrugs* : B

Been a member since May! Mentioned I was going to league nights somewhere in my wall of text responses to everyone to try and undo giving a seriously wrong impression of everything going on in the initial post. ^_^;

Hey wait... I can link directly to specific post numbers in the thread... *goes to edit the original post some more to prevent more misunderstandings*

Yeah... as I just edited into the top of my original post, there's so much context necessary to see the humour in the conversation we had that starting this thread was a mistake for sure. Even with the edit there's probably still going to be misunderstandings. : /

OH. One more interesting piece of context: For a period of 13 months about a year and a half prior to me selling my house, DAD WAS LIVING IN *MY* HOUSE. He was selling his house to move into the city, but the people purchasing his house screwed him over big-time and as such, it took about a year for him to get paid, during which time he didn't have anywhere to live nor money to purchase a house because most of his funds were tied up in other assets.

See what I mean? There's SOOOOOOOOOO much context necessary to see the humour in what I posted... *shakes head* Oh well. I'll learn from my mistake. It's the best I can do by this point. : P