A mum has caused a debate online after she stopped picking up her nephew from school when her sister refused to cover the cost of a TV he allegedly damaged. The stay-at-home parent had been regularly collecting her sister's nine-year-old son from school and looking after him for a few hours before his mum, who is a single parent, could come and get him after work.
However, the woman said she then discovered a "a bunch of scratches" on her TV, which the schoolboy said he wasn't responsible for. The mum says she had watched a film earlier the same day and there was no damage visible at that point, the Liverpool Echo reports.
She said the marks "were all in a circular pattern, like someone had tried to clean it, but with something rough enough to leave scratches." The parent also noticed some "discoloured wet spots" on the carpet under the TV, which she was able to clean.
Her husband tried to fix the scratched TV, but nothing seemed to help. The mum asked her sister to reimburse the cost of her £1,500 television, which she refused to do as she felt the boy should not have been left alone and should have been watched more closely.
Taking to Mumsnet's popular Am I Being Unreasonable? (AIBU) thread, the mother said she had told her sister that if she didn't pay for the TV, she wouldn't collect her son from school anymore. In a post titled 'Not picking up nephew because my sister is refusing to pay for tv he scratched', she wrote: "Last night I messaged my sister and told her that she needed to agree to pay for the TV or I wouldn't pick up her son after school and watch him anymore.
"He is her son and she is responsible for making sure he is picked up, not me. She didn't reply after that. Usually I'm not one to stand up for myself so I feel weird about it and I'm not sure if maybe I'm taking it too far considering that my sister doesn't have any other options and that she is not able to change her work schedule. It's just a few hours now until I normally pick him up from school and I can't get my mind off it. I've been stressing all morning."
The mum's post prompted a flurry of comments from fellow Mumsnet users, who saw both sides of the argument. One wrote: "Nope. I wouldn't be looking after him, purely because of her attitude. A 9-year-old is going to lie stupidly to try and get out of trouble. Mum shouldn't be trying to also make up excuses. You've been very clear. If he's stranded he's stranded and the school will phone her."
Another said: "I really couldn't push it this far with my own nephew. In fact, I don't think I'd ever ask anyone to pay for anything broken in my house by their own child.
"It goes with the territory. I am sure he lied but he's just a kid and probably scared. His mum may not be handling it well, but I think you are being unreasonable here. You want to completely end a family relationship over a television?"
Someone else added: "Sounds like an accident that your nephew tried to clean up and that the TV still works. I would be disappointed at the TV being damaged but I wouldn't charge my sister £1,500 and I also wouldn't jeopardise her job by cancelling childcare at this notice. If you don't want to watch him, give her some notice and stop. He doesn't sound especially unruly but if it is too much for you then fair enough."
Another Mumsnet user wrote: "She obviously isn't happy with the standard of your (free) childcare, so I think you'd be wise not to do it anymore and let her find someone else to supervise him more closely. She sounds ungrateful as hell."
One said: "I think you have both been unreasonable and escalated this situation to a point it's going to be really hard for this lad to fess up into. De-escalate and talk to your sister. It's not great that the TV is scratched but presenting her with a bill for a new one is overkill."
Someone else commented: "If you go and pick him up neither he or her will learn a lesson. He just needed to come clean and face the punishment of presumably not being allowed in that room again.
"She needs to accept you do her a favour watching him and he has damaged your property, you shouldn't be left out of pocket for a broken item, be that a repair/replacement/paying the insurance excess. If she can't do that then she needs to find alternative childcare rather than taking her own sister for a mug."
Another Mumsnet user wrote: "You can find a television cheaper than that for probably 30 per cent of the cost. Supposing your nephew has genuinely not done this and it was your daughter and you didn't notice earlier? Accidents happen, it's not your sister's fault and your nephew is a child. Claim on the insurance or leave it."
Another person added: "You are essentially asking a single mum to pay £1,500 for childcare. That's a frightening amount of money. A month's wages for many people. I think you are being very harsh."
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