Woman Refuses To Pay For Sister’s $2,000 Gaming System Her Son Broke Because She Didn’t Baby-Proof The Room
She made sure to warn her sister that her office was off-limits because of her expensive gaming equipment.
Tomsickova Tatyana | Shutterstock A 25-year-old woman admitted that she might've reached her "breaking point" with her older sister after her 3-year-old son completely destroyed her office and gaming system. The kicker, she warned her sister that her office was off limits, and she still refused to take responsibility for the destruction.
Posting her dilemma to the subreddit "r/AmIOverreacting," the young woman explained that she had graciously allowed her older sister and nephew to spend the night at her apartment, unaware that it would lead to a complete blow-out fight between the two of them over the actions of her toddler and an expensive gaming system.
A woman refused to pay for her sister's $2,000 gaming system that her toddler broke because she didn't baby-proof the room.
"So, I am a student software developer and a pretty serious PC gamer in my free time. I live alone in a one-bedroom apartment that I’ve spent years making cozy and functional. I saved up for a long time to build my dream PC setup … triple monitors, custom mechanical keyboard, ergonomic chair, the works," she began in her Reddit post.
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She explained that, altogether, her gaming system is worth over $2,000, so she makes sure to take good care of her electronics. Recently, her older sister had asked if it would be okay if she spent the night at her apartment because her place was being fumigated and her husband was out of town. With her was her 3-year-old son, Max, whom the sister said can be a bit chaotic and unruly.
Before welcoming them to stay with her, she said her older sister swore up and down that she would keep an eye on her son so he wouldn't get into anything he shouldn't. After hesitating for a bit, she decided to allow her sister and nephew to spend the night. "They show up Saturday afternoon, and immediately it’s clear she wasn’t kidding about Max being a handful. Within ten minutes of arriving, he’d pulled four books off my shelf, thrown my houseplants on the floor, and spilled juice on my area rug," she continued.
The woman was told by her sister that under no circumstances was her son allowed into her office, where her gaming system was.
Despite the mom's laidback attitude about her son going into the office, she made sure the door was shut so the toddler wouldn't have access. The mom still insisted that her son was "just curious" and "exploring."
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However, the very next morning, the sister woke up to her worst nightmare. Somehow, her nephew had woken up before his mom and managed to get into her office, where he destroyed much of her gaming equipment and PC setup. Naturally, she's incredibly upset, made worse by her sister's lack of reaction to seeing the destruction that her son had caused.
Instead, the mom tried to shift the blame onto her sister, claiming she should've baby-proofed the room before the toddler came over if she didn't want this to happen in the first place. Aghast, the sister insisted that her older sister cover the damages caused by her son. "She said she didn’t have the money right now, but maybe in a few months she could give me a few hundred. I told her that wasn’t acceptable and that she needed to take full responsibility."
The whole family turned on the sister, claiming she was overreacting.
Sadly, her older sister, their mom, and even her brother seemed to think that she overreacted to her destructive nephew. She wrote, "My whole family is blowing up my phone. My mom says I’m being 'materialistic' and should understand that my nephew didn’t mean it. My dad said I should’ve 'locked the door' if it was that important. My brother actually said, 'Why do you even need three monitors anyway? That’s kind of overkill.'"
Just because they don't appreciate her choice of hobby doesn't mean that what her nephew did was acceptable, however. It also doesn't mean that the child's mom should be able to simply say "oops" and walk away from the damage without at least offering some, if not all, of the cost to repair her system.
Psychiatrist Abigail Brenner, M.D., explained that dealing with difficult family members is a delicate game, but your own well-being always comes before keeping the peace. She wrote, "While you want to be respectful and attentive to others as much as you can, you don’t want to bend over backwards or twist yourself into a knot just to make someone else happy or satisfied, or to keep the peace. Never allow any personal interaction or relationship to infringe upon or challenge your own well-being."
While baby-proofing her room might've helped prevent her nephew from destroying her expensive equipment, she did let her older sister know that her office was her workspace, not a playroom. The boundary was definitely crystal clear before they even got settled for the night, and she wasn't even trying to be mean about it either. Considering she'd given a clear warning ahead of time, it was her sister's responsibility to ensure that her toddler didn't get into anything that he shouldn't have.
At the end of the day, she had trusted her sister to keep her word and supervise her son, and it doesn't make her selfish to expect that her space and belongings would be respected while they were staying there.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
