'AITA for not paying money for damages my daughter caused at her friend's house?'

"AITA for refusing to pay for the damage my daughter partly caused in her friend's house."

SubstanceDazzling325 writes:

So my (36F) daughter (8F) was playing at her friends' house. She and her friends (2 sisters, twins, both 8 as well), were doing some arts and crafts in the sisters' room, and ended up making an absolute mess.

I have no idea what they were thinking; I'm given to understand from my daughter that they thought paint could be washed off from the walls and all the other surfaces that it ended up on. There was green paint on the curtains, floor, walls, doors, doorknobs, EVERYWHERE!!

The parents were out, but the sisters' grandmother was in the house (in her room, downstairs) so they weren't completely alone in the house. I knew about this arrangement, and didn't mind it.

However, when I got the call from the angry parents in the evening informing me what happened and asking me to shell out 50% of the expenses, I was a little taken aback. To be clear, they weren't rude at all, and I think they're good people, so they expressed their demands politely but firmly.

However, our family is pretty strapped for cash these days (won't go into the details). We have had to borrow from my husband's parents for the past few months to merely maintain our kid's lifestyles while my husband and I have to reconsider even a 5-6 dollar purchase these days. Had this not been the case, I would've complied in a heartbeat.

I tried to explain to the parents that the children should've technically been under your supervision given that they were in your house and they're 8 years old. I understand that 8 year olds should still know better than to behave this way, and that in an ideal circumstance I should've paid 50%, but this time I just gave a lousy, half-hearted explanation as to why I shouldn't have to. So, AITAH?

Here are the top comments:

Back_Again_Beach says:

I'm pretty sure if you're letting small children play with paints in your house with minimal supervision then whatever happens is on you. NTA.

Liss78 says:

I don't think you should pay half. Technically you're only one-third responsible, as she has two guilty parties and you only have one. Also minimized by the fact that there was not adequate supervision.

My suggestion is to offer to help clean it up, and help repaint. They are probably suggesting hiring someone because they think you're paying half. Hopefully you can reason with them.

YouSayWotNow says:

NTA. Why wasn't an adult actually supervising the kids PROPERLY? That's on THEM! They need to go through their home insurance to cover the costs, that's what it's for and this should count as accidental damage. But sh%t, what if one of the kids had had an accident, having grandma doing her thing (or sleeping) upstairs isn't adequate adult supervision for that age group.

Comfortable-Bug1737 says:

If they were supervised it wouldn't have happened, so I wouldn't pay.

What do you think?