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Guy Livid When Friend Refuses To Buy Him A New Phone After Her Toddler Destroys His

Towfiqu Barbhuiya/EyeEm/Getty Images

All kinds of mistakes can happen when kids are around.

It’s of course up to the parents or caregivers to take care of their kids and make sure nothing bad happens.

But that isn’t always how the parents feel, according to the “Am I the A**hole?” (AITA) subReddit.

Redditor business_socks4 recently needed a parent to make a situation right, only to meet resistance.

After multiple people took the parent’s side, the Original Poster (OP) wondered if he was in the wrong for standing up for himself.

He asked the sub:

“AITA for wanting my friend to pay for a new phone after her daughter broke mine?”

The OP recently attended a birthday party, where he lent a hand.

“My (19 [male]) friend “Jen” (19 [female]) recently had a barbecue to celebrate her birthday. One of the other attendees was our friend “Kat” (18 [female]). Kat brought her daughter (1 [female]).”

“Kat was supposed to constantly supervise her as Jen has a pool in the garden and it could be dangerous if she wandered off.”

“Jen’s father asked a friend (19 [male]) and I to help him carry the food from the kitchen to the garden to be barbecued.”

But when he was done helping, the OP came back to an unfortunate surprise.

“When we returned to our seats, however, we found that Kat’s daughter had gotten onto the table and made a h**l of a mess, including throwing my phone onto the patio, which smashed it.”

“Kat, meanwhile, had been talking to one of Jen’s sisters, oblivious to what her daughter was doing, apparently having expected another one of our friends (18 [male]) to supervise her.”

“I confronted Kat about the damage done to my phone as it had had juice poured over it and was clearly broken, and told her that I’d expect her to buy me a new one.”

“Kat apologized on her daughter’s behalf but thought that this was unfair.”

There were mixed reactions to the OP receiving compensation. 

“My parents agree that I should not be expected to buy a new phone when someone else’s child damaged it, and had Kat been properly supervising her daughter, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“However, I do see why Kat and some of our friends may see me as TA here, as I should have taken my phone with me and it is a lot of money to expect as compensation.”

“AITA here, Reddit?”

Fellow Redditors weighed in:

  • NTA: Not the A**hole
  • YTA: You’re the A**hole
  • ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
  • NAH: No A**holes Here

Some said a friend or parent shouldn’t mind paying for the damages.

“NTA. She is responsible for the damage that her child does. She needs to pay for the phone.”Adventurous-Dot803

“NTA. A friend would have offered to pay for it and not been insulted that they were asked.”AndFyUoCuKAgain

“I never leave my phone unattended especially if a pool is close. But the kid broke it so the kid’s keeper should replace it.”DwightMcRamathorn

Others pointed out the mom should be grateful more didn’t happen.

“NTA, that child was her mother’s responsibility and she is responsible for any damage the kid does. This is why, for example, my parents had insurance for me and my brother, in case anything like this ever happened.”

“The mother claiming she ‘thought’ the child was being watched is incredibly irresponsible, she should have made sure. FFS, there was a pool in the garden, the kid wandered off to the table, she could have just as easily wandered off to the pool and drowned, she was lucky. The mother is TA here.”s3lece

“NTA. You’re absolutely right, and although I’m sure money’s tight as a teenaged mother with a kid, this is also a lesson she really needed to learn – and not to put too fine a point on it, but she’s lucky it was the phone that was smashed from falling from table to the ground, and not her toddler’s skull.”

“Pool or no pool, you have to watch toddlers at all times. Once they’re mobile, you cannot let them wander freely, particularly outdoors, where there are hard edges and concrete/brickwork everywhere, all sorts of things to put in their mouths that could make them ill, etc. This is just a fact of parenthood.”

“Even if someone else had agreed to watch the child, the smashed phone would be her responsibility, simply because she let someone watch her toddler who clearly wasn’t up to the job. Until her baby is self-aware, Kat is both legally and morally responsible for the chaos and breakage that child causes. Period. You are NTA.”Dangerous_Beans74

“NTA. I question Kat’s judgment based on the fact that she simply assumed someone was watching her child. We all know how quickly things can go wrong with no supervision.”

“In this case, it was a phone, next time could be the kid. Your child breaks something that doesn’t belong to them, the parents pay for it.”Halloween141

A few even suggested how to save some money from the situation.

“NTA. Can’t you see about just having the screen replaced? I’ve had the one on my work phone done 3 or 4 times and it was only about $100.”

“I know it was an accident but she is the one who left the kid unattended. Thankfully it was just a phone that broke and not a baby drowning.”centerofthehive666

“NTA. Your friend should pay to have your phone repaired or if not repairable, get you a replacement phone identical to yours.”

“However, it’s not free upgrade time. If you want a brand new phone, ask your friend to contribute the cost of the repair to you buying a new phone.”evelbug

“The friend owes OP the value of what was broken, and nothing more. If OP’s phone was 5 years old, OP is not owed the value of a brand new phone.”If-By-Whisky

A broken phone could happen to anyone, but when a toddler breaks it, the subReddit was quick to agree that it’s the parent’s responsibility to see that it’s fixed. As long as the OP doesn’t take advantage of the situation, the OP and the mother should be able to work something out.

Written by McKenzie Lynn Tozan

McKenzie Lynn Tozan has been a part of the George Takei family since 2019 when she wrote some of her favorite early pieces: Sesame Street introducing its first character who lived in foster care and Bruce Willis delivering a not-so-Die-Hard opening pitch at a Phillies game. She's gone on to write nearly 3,000 viral and trending stories for George Takei, Comic Sands, Percolately, and ÜberFacts. With an unstoppable love for the written word, she's also an avid reader, poet, and indie novelist.