11 Year old knocked over shelf, Destroyed belongings.

[Anonymous]

DS is 11 has a few friends from his class come over at least once a week. They usually chill out in his so m or the living area and know the study is off limits. This Friday, they came over and all was going as normal until two of them,left my son's room went into my study. I was in the kitchen preparing dinner and heard this loud crash sound coming from the direction of my study. I ran like he'll to my study and an entire glass shelf made of glass and wood was on the ground! The glass on the shelf was completely shattered, along with a picture frame.contents on my desk were on the floor.An antique set of glass birds my grandmother gave to me were either cracked,Chipped, or completely shattered. My $800 Camera was on the ground and was beyond repair.. (Lens destroyed, Screen cracked, pieces of the frame were broken off.) Standing over on the other side of the room were two 11 year olds frozen in place. My DS had followed the other two other kids will into the room and was them running around fighting over a pair of controllers. I called the parent of both of these children (They were twins) and she said I should have locked the door and left. What the hell?They were fighting over the controller in a room I said was strictly off limits!I currently have not cleaned up the mess.The shelf was $500 for starters.That picture frame was $30 and was from my parents.The camera was $800,but I have a warranty for that. A few books were torn up, and a precious family heirloom (The glass birds) is destroyed, and now I have to clean up this mess. I have not gotten as little as an apology. What should I do? I want to go after the two kids who knocked it over,but their parents are absolutely entitled, and I don't know how I'll get them to pay me back.

[Anonymous]

As a lawyer, I predict your chance of getting money from the parents at about 0.5%. As a mom, I predict your chance of being deemed the crazy mom by anyone who hears the story at 99.5%.

[Anonymous]

Let it go and never welcome them into your home again.

[Anonymous]

This is life.

[Anonymous]

You should lock doors you don’t want kids getting into. That is all you should do.

Are you thinking of suing the parents?

[Anonymous]

The parents sound like entitled assholes. Not blaming you, but I generally keep doors of rooms that are off limits, locked. 11 year old boys don’t generally have great judgment and impulse control. Sorry this happened. It sucks.

[Anonymous]

You should have locked the door and/or been monitoring the activity in your house on your watch. You can see if your homeowner’s insurance covers the damage.

[Anonymous]

11yo should know how to behave themselves. They would not be welcome again in my home, at least not for a long time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let it go and never welcome them into your home again.

This. Nothing you can do. I can't believe they didn't even apologize or help clean up?

[Anonymous]

You won’t get any money from the parents. The kids would never be welcome in my house again, nor would my child be allowed to go to their house.

[Anonymous]

Please, it's not OP's fault that these kids didn't abide by the rules. She shouldn't have to lock the door. Our house is old and doesn't even have locking doors, and most interior doors only lock from the inside. This is craziness.

So sorry about the glass birds, OP. I don't think you can do anything to get them to pay you back, but they should at least apologize. It is NOT your fault for not locking the door. You told them. They are 11, not 3. They know better. You should bar them from your house unless they want to apologize and at least work part of it off or pay part of it back.

So sorry.

[Anonymous]

So sad the generation we are raising. I would have expected you to beat my ass with a belt regardless of who I was. My parents would have made me clean it up and of course apologize. But then again I would have never done anything like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You won’t get any money from the parents. The kids would never be welcome in my house again, nor would my child be allowed to go to their house.

Also, now you know where the kids get their sense of entitlement. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

[Anonymous]

Life goes on.

[Anonymous]

You need to calm down. There will be more to thisnstoryna d it will include your son. You can go the crazy mode and tell your son that he cannot hang with them or you can be honest and decide this was a one off trouble situation and refrain from inviting over for awhile. Your son is 11 and he should have controlled his guests or asked you for help which goes back to my guess is there is blame all around. I am sure you lostmitnwith the parents which is why you received no apology.