Nephew broke my cell phone screen. Deduct repair from his graduation gift?

[Anonymous]

OP, if you know who the father is, you could ask him what you should do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok. The punk was lying about what happened. He was rifling through the purse to see what he could steal. When he pulled out OPs shoes the phone flew out and broke. He made up the story after the fact because he saw a pair of shoes in the purse and had to think quick. Once the phone broke he knew he needed a cover story for going in your purse. Had it not broke you would have never known he had rifled.through it and if you were missing some cash you would just figure "Gee I thought I had $40 not $20 in there".

Obviously it's all sisters moms and aunties, no adult males to keep him in line. Because they're all in jail, or with other baby mommas. Well he'll surely soon be joining them because he's no longer a juvenile and sooner or later he will put his fingers in the wrong purse or wallet and get them chopped off.

Did you even read the thread before you posted stupid, PP?

Let's help you out with a summary.

OP broke her phone less than a month ago. She doesn't like bulky covers, so she paid a lot of money to fix her phone, but didn't bother to spend money on protecting it from breaking again. She keeps her very important (for "business") unprotected phone in her purse, where she also keeps her shoes. Her family has a tendency to keep shoes in purses. Nephew went looking for an aunt's shoes. OP does't say anything about that being odd or that he didn't have permission to search for the shoes, so it appears that nephew going to look for shoes is not particularly shady. She does say he is clumsy (another trait that is apparently common in her family). He pulls out the wrong shoes from the wrong bag and the phone falls, breaking again. OP believes this is what happened, so there is no worry about him being a punk or a thief, rifling through her private belongings. He's clumsy.

OP is enraged at nephew for being clumsy. Her initial post seems to indicate she wanted to reduce his graduation gift as a punishment for breaking her phone. But her later posts are more confusing about that point. It seems she is ok with just giving him less for a gift and not telling him about it, so punishment is apparently not her goal. She also won't accept payment from her sister and acknowledges that clumsy nephew has no job to pay for the broken phone.

Why OP posted this "problem" is unclear. Her anger is pretty extreme, especially since she broke her own phone less than a month ago and didn't bother to buy a case so such an accident wouldn't happen again. She seems to want validation to change her gift budget line to pay for it. Considering no one will ever know and this is her only preferred method for handling the issue, I fail to see the problem. OP will essentially be paying for her phone, which makes sense, and nephew will be suffering by receiving less money as a gift, which makes no sense as the gift and the phone are unrelated.

[Anonymous]

Pp, sounds like you think its ok to go through someone else's purse without their permission and break their stuff without paying for it, too.

Are you a thief too?

[Anonymous]

OP, perhaps a way to solve this break, which is costing you money and time, is to ask your nephew to be in charge of getting it fixed -- taking it the shop, getting a cover, etc.,. on his time, not yours. Give him a date/deadline and the place but he has to run the errand. You can decide whether he should contribute money to pay for it.

On another note, I'm probably the only one who'll post this or perhaps even think it, but if I had an aunt who thought that 'being like my mom' meant she could/should 'chastise and punish me like [her] own kids' I'd wonder what on earth was going on -- and I guarantee my mother would have been throwing hissy fits (she was/is very much in the camp of aunts and uncles aren't parents with a right to punish.....). Words like 'chastise and punish' are pretty strong....and at least in my very little corner of the world had very little to do with relationships with aunts and uncles.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I would deduct it. $250 is A LOT for a graduation gift anyway. I'd try and get to the bottom of why he was in my office, going through my purse, and touching my phone. He was lying when he said he was looking for shoes. I'd go through my purse and office to see what else is broken or missing. He was probably looking for money.

OP here. I have no doubt that he was being honest about this. I had shoes in my purse and I guess he pulled them out thinking they were hers. He's just clumsy as hell. I swear, every time he's over he breaks or drops something. I still have a hole in my drywall from him goofing around.

I'm just REALLY pissed. My phone just got repaired about a month ago from when I dropped it. Now, here we go again. And it's totally non-functional. Pretty sure the LCD is done because the screen won't even come on.

Someone had to tell him the shoes were in your purse. He was clearly doing what was asked of him. I think you're coming down hard on him. So he's a clutz. Love him for who he is and suck it up as just one of those (annoying) things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pp, sounds like you think its ok to go through someone else's purse without their permission and break their stuff without paying for it, too.

Are you a thief too?

Reading is fundamental and reading comprehension an essential life skill you should work on cultivating, PP.

OP never said either way whether or not nephew was out of line looking into her purse for the shoes. OP also said she believed her nephew was not stealing from her.

You embarrass yourself trying to lamely insult me when it is you who can't read.

[Anonymous]

I was waiting for someone to ask whether the shoes and phone were made from petroleum based products...no? DCUM you have let me down! LMAO

[Anonymous]

So he made an honest mistake, and your plan is figuring out how to punish him?

It was an ACCIDENT. He is your nephew and you supposedly love him, right? Jesus, let this go, blame it on the fates. If he is so hapless and clumsy, give him $300 as a gift to show him that you love him even though he is a dolt sometimes. Be the bigger person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So he made an honest mistake, and your plan is figuring out how to punish him?

It was an ACCIDENT. He is your nephew and you supposedly love him, right? Jesus, let this go, blame it on the fates. If he is so hapless and clumsy, give him $300 as a gift to show him that you love him even though he is a dolt sometimes. Be the bigger person.

That's right, enable his destructiveness or clumsiness or thievery or whatever his "problem" really is. I'll bet this one still jumps on couches, too.