Taking care of your possessions is very important to some people. Taking care of others’ things is even more important.
But some people can be very cavalier with their own and other people’s things. It’s just not a priority for them.
So what happens when these two personalities collide?
For one father on Reddit, the results weren’t good. So he turned to the “Am I The A**hole” subReddit for feedback on his actions.
Redditor 357996537 asked:
“AITA For my reaction when my brothers-in-law took my son’s gift?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“I (male, 32) have a 12-year-old with a chronic heart disease. His condition affected his life.”
“He can’t run, play football, skate or swim due to several issues. Including shortage in breath, getting tired quickly and now issues with arrhythmia.”
“He spends his time drawing or doing anything that doesn’t require a lot of effort. it saddens me to see him like this.”
“His birthday was last week. Last year he was in surgery and we couldn’t celebrate.”
“He mentioned that he wished he had a gaming device so he could play the games he sees on YouTube. I figured he’d be happy and excited with the Xbox that I saved up for despite struggling with money to pay for medical expenses.”
“My wife’s STAHM [stay at home mom]. I work long hours.”
“She wanted to handle planning for the event and called her two brothers Mike and Austin (both in their 30s) to come help the day before the party.”
“They showed up in the morning. I got home at 8.”
“My wife was at the shop. I found Austin and Mike sitting quietly which was unusual.”
“I went upstairs and in few minutes I discovered my son’s Xbox was placed on the desk and looked like someone was using it. I found that the device had several cracks in it.”
“The controllers were connected and the device looked damaged. I had no idea what happened.”
“I ran downstairs to ask Mike and Austin. But only found Mike who told me Austin had to leave cause his wife was calling.”
“I showed him the Xbox and he admitted that he and Austin borrowed it to play with it downstairs and were going to put it back but Austin dropped it causing it to break.”
“I was livid.”
“I screamed at him. He kept apologizing but blamed Austin.”
“My wife arrived when I told him to leave. I told her what happened.”
“She said I shouldn’t have treated her brothers like that after they helped out. I blew up at her asking why she thought it was okay for a 37 and 33 year old man to use and damage a kid’s birthday gift.”
“After all I worked hard to get this device to cheer my son up and do bonding activity for us . I demanded they pay for it but she called me unreasonable since they barely afford rent and Austin has kids to feed.”
“After a lot of arguing I told her they weren’t even allowed to come to the party after this. She said I was being unfair, that this’s their nephew and our son will understand it was an accident.”
“In-laws were upset that I didn’t let them come to the party and said both of them are sorry but it was an accident and I should have let them attend but instead I overreacted.”
Redditors weighed in by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Redditors decided unanimously OP was not the a**hole.
“NTA. If it was an Xbox series X, they just damaged a $600+ console for no reason.”
“Even worse is that they took it out of the container, played, damaged it, and placed it in your son’s room.”
“On top of that, they weren’t even going to tell you until you had to push them to confess that they damaged it and replied with a sorry instead of pooling the money together and getting THEIR NEPHEW WHO’S SICK a new one.”
“Even if you invite them, you would be resenting them while they acted like they did nothing wrong.” ~ Kitsumekat
“How goddamn hard do you have to drop an Xbox to crack the console several times?”
“NTA for being upset and banning the idiot brothers from your son’s party.”
“Your wife and her family are all AHs. Why does your 12-year-old have to be ‘understanding’ but his 30 something uncles aren’t required to be responsible?”
“You break it you buy it. The in-laws think the fact that these grown men are ‘sorry’ fixes anything?”
“It sure doesn’t get you a new Xbox for your son. The whole family is excusing their retched behavior.”
“Guess we know why they are both total d*ckheads.” ~ Capital-Philosopher6
“NTA, I would be livid.”
“Why would two grown men open a child’s birthday present and start playing it?”
“They 100% should pay for it.” ~ ChrystalTeleia
“…and the guy who broke it ran away so he didn’t have to face the music.” ~ Jeremy_Crowhurst
“I had to read this post twice because I thought the two were kids…but they are adults.”
“I hate people. NTA.” ~ Mesapholis
“They were not adults. Normal adults do not take a child’s birthday gift, play it and break it before putting it back and doing a runner.”
“They need to own up to their responsibilities, replace the kid’s X-Box with a new one and they shouldn’t be allowed to set foot in OP’s house until they do so.”
“Utter bellends!” ~ devster75
“The brothers are a bunch of lowly cowards.”
“They need to pay to replace the gift, and the wife needs to place her husband and son first, not her entitled brothers.” ~ chickenfightyourmom
“Yup. Even if they have to pay it off in monthly installments. They are adults.”
“They need to act like it. And your wife needs to woman up and stop enabling their bs.” ~ emherrera1960
“She’s enabling them, and so is her entire side of the family.”
“They act like children because those around them have tolerated this kind of behaviour for 15+ years.” ~ Unknown2809
Redditors all agreed the OP’s anger and actions were justified.
His in-laws and his wife needed to be responsible for their actions and put the needs of the 12-year-old child ahead of making excuses for the irresponsible behavior of two grown men.