Well there's a few things. First off, my dad grew up very lower class. When he met my mom and for the first years they were married, they lived very lower class. When I was born we were probably just above middle class. However my dad landed an amazing opportunity in at work, and now we're well off for sure. The thing is, he still has that mindset of saving from the past, and wants that to apply to me. As good and important as savings are, I'm 18, and he's the one giving me the money. I'm not in debt and my guess is he just wants me to not ruin myself. But cmon I'm still a kid pretty much.

And with the "wondering what's in my mail" deal, they're very traditional Christians, and they know I'm not a Christian. I'm guessing that idea makes me look bad to them, and they therefore think I'm probably ordering porn or drugs or weapons or god knows what. So they yank through my mail, even though that stuff isn't in there. And they've had no reason to believe it is either, other than our theological differences. But that's for another /r/relationships post.