Woman bans niece from house after she accuses her daughter of theft. AITA?
When this mom is annoyed with her niece, she asks Reddit:
'AITA for banning my niece from my house after she made a weird accusation?'
I (F40s) live with my husband (M40s) and our daughter Laura (F15). I have a niece, Kelly (F26). I'm quite close with my siblings and their children but in recent years I haven't seen much of Kelly as she has moved to another city that's around 3 hours away.
Kelly has been around more often with the holidays coming up, and a few days ago I hosted a family dinner and she came along. The next day, I get a phone call from Kelly. She's furious, and tells me that Laura has apparently stolen her airpods.
I ask her what the heck she's talking about, and she said that she had her airpods in her handbag in our dining room, and that now her airpods are gone. She said that Laura was 'acting suspicious' and 'being guilty'. I hadn't noticed anything, but there was a bit of unrelated drama going on at the dinner so I was distracted.
I told Kelly I'd talk to Laura then call her back. I talked to Laura. She immediately denies stealing the airpods. She said that she's been nowhere near Kelly's handbag, and that it's not like she doesn't have her own headphones.
I can usually tell when Laura is lying, and she's never stolen things in the past, so I'm pretty inclined to believe her. I know I'm biased because she's my daughter but I do know her very well.
I called Kelly back a few hours later and told her that I don't know what happened to them, but Laura has definitely not stolen her airpods.
Kelly insisted that Laura stole her airpods, and starts telling me that me and my husband must buy her a replacement. I told Kelly that that's just not the case, and that I'm sure they'll turn up. Kelly even went around telling all our extended family that Laura stole her thing and that shes a liar and a thief and I'm enabling it.
The day after that, I get a text from Kelly telling me that she found her airpods, and that they were in her car the whole time. I find this whole thing disgusting.
Kelly seemed to think it was really funny but I told her that I really do not appreciate that she jumped straight to calling my daughter a thief when she misplaced her own airpods. I told Kelly she's not welcome back into my home after the stunt she's pulled.
Kelly got really upset and accused me of trying to cut her out of the family, and being too harsh on her. Now my siblings are mad at me for banning Kelly from my house and said I'm being horrible and bullying her.
MDKG writes:
NTA. A adult woman accused her teen cousin without hesitation. She just automatically went for the jugular without any proof. She should be embarrassed and the family members letting her behavior slide are a?‘s as well.
professionalvast77 writes:
Yup, trust is now broken. Acting like OP's trying to cut her out of the family when she went around spreading lies with zero proof is ridiculous, just like not checking her damn car before accusing her cousin. OP's daughter shouldn't be made to feel uncomfortable in her own home. NTA, OP. Sounds like your daughter can trust you to have her back.
taliagordon writes:
Yeah but a public apology also shows the extended family that Kelly went bad mouthing Laura and her mother to that Kelly was wrong and Laura is innocent. Kelly went and ruined a kid’s reputation and possibly her relationship with other family members and Kelly needs to fix it.
NTA and I’d tell Kelly she’s welcome back after she apologizes AND tells everyone she jumped to conclusions without evidence or reason to believe Laura did anything wrong. Then MAYBE she can be welcome again, but I’d watch her like a hawk.