'AITA for returning my nephew's birthday present after he destroyed my property and his parents refused to pay for damages?'
"AITA for returning my nephew's birthday present after he destroyed my property and his parents refused to pay for damages?"
Edit: MY nephew is 9.
I 19(F) am a college student, I worked overtime to get everything I have now. I worked overtime to get my new car, that I have been saving up for for four years, my new steering wheel cover etc.
My nephews birthday party is scheduled for tomorrow. I got his present a week ago, I got him a new computer, because he wants to play computer games. My fiance pitched in to help get the computer as well.
Today everything took a wrong turn. My nephew and his mother(my sister) were at my home today. My sister doesn’t like to discipline her son. I love my nephew, but at times he is a spoilt brat.
She lets him talk to people however he pleases and lets him do as he pleases. I have tried to work with my nephew on this, and I have complained to my sister about his behavior many times. I looked past it the past couple days because his birthday comes up tomorrow.
Today I was fed up with their behavior. My sister was outside with my nephew, he was playing in the yard. I figured since my sister was with him, I could go inside to put the chicken in the sink to thaw out for dinner.
I heard a loud breaking noise outside. I go outside to see that my windshield was shattered. I was in shock, I go into the car and see a huge rock in the car. I was furious.
We have cameras in our back yard and a dash cam in our car. We looked at the cameras to see that my nephew took a huge rock and threw it at our windshield. I was shaking because of how upset I was. I worked hard for that car.
I asked my sister, “Why weren’t you supervising him?” My sister said, “I was.” I said, “If you were you wouldn’t have let him throw a giant freakng rock at my car. How do you plan to fix the situation?” My sister looked at me like I was insane, and said, “You should have been out here watching your car if you were so worried about him causing damages.”
My fiance told her and my nephew to leave. They left shortly after that. An hour later I go to the store where I bought his computer, luckily I kept the receipt. I returned it, I should be getting the money back that I paid for it soon.
I used a debit card to do the purchase, so those can typically take 3-10 days for the money to hit the account. If I had paid cash the refund would have been immediately(learned the hard way I should have paid cash instead)
A few hours later my sister texted me, she said:
“Can you bring (nephews name) gift to me today? I want to have all his gifts there for his birthday party tomorrow.”
I responded, “(sisters name) I will not be bringing (nephews name) gift to the party. He damaged my car, which by the way will cost a lot of money to fix. You didn’t seem to care that your son damaged property that wasn’t his. I returned his gift to get the money back, to pay for damages since you won’t pay for damages.”
My sister didn’t text me back for a while, she called our mother and father. My mother and father screamed at me saying I made my nephew cry because he won’t get a present from me at his party.” AITA?
Here is what readers had to say in response to the OP’s post:
Nope. NTAH. Your sister is the AH.
Zealousideal_Cow8869 (OP)
I was so pissed about the car, I still am. To replace that windshield, because it was completely broken, it will cost me 400$ to replace. I tried to make a claim to insurance, to see if there was anything they could do, because it wasn’t caused by an accident from another car, there’s nothing they can do.
I'd give him a bill for the remaining fees. Or send the cops over since you have evidence. Your sister needs the lesson as well as your nephew. NTA!
Zealousideal_Cow8869 (OP)
I have it on video, I sent the video to my sister and parents.
Your parents are terrible. No wonder daughter is like that.
Zealousideal_Cow8869 (OP)
I’m so annoyed and sad because I spent so much money on my car. My car that I saved up for since I was 15, costed me 7000 dollars. The windshield will be 400$ to fix.
Since the family has gone scorched earth, match the energy. File a police report, most insurance does not cover glass. So you may need to go to small claims court unless your sister decides to be responsible.
In any event, this kid is going to be a real handful as he gets older. Better start now to make sure he knows his aunt is not tolerating his crap. ****Note to folks commenting on ins coverage for glass replacement. It’s not the same in all states, or all policies. It’s not automatically covered depending on the policy or coverage.
NTA. He is a brat who needs to learn that actions have consequences. Your sister has a lot to learn about being a parent.
Returning the gift was the right choice. It is past time for the child to learn there are consequences for actions since no one else is teaching reality.
NTA. His birthday gift is a new windshield! Yay!
Your sister is jealous and that’s why she let him do that / wasn’t watching. If they don’t want to pay you can make a report to the police and see if you can present to their homeowner/rental insurance. To save money you can see if you can get a windshield from a junkyard and have it installed. But neither the sister or nephew would be welcomed at my home.