A recent post on the Reddit “Am I The A—hole” thread feels a whole lot like an episode of Judge Judy, and we are definitely tuning in. The man who wrote the post is an artist. He likes to “draw and try other mediums,” and his wife Sally “dabbles a bit.”
“As such, I’ve accumulated a lot of art supplies over the past few years,” he explained. “We’ve converted one of the rooms in our home to an art studio of sorts. There’s easily a few thousand dollars worth of art supplies in that room and we tend to keep it locked for that reason.”
Of course, there was one fateful day when they forgot to lock it, and of course, things went wrong. Sally and OP hosted a party for the family party and his brother-in-law, sister-in-law, 7-year-old niece, and 6-year-old nephew. About an hour into the party, he realized the kids weren’t around and so he asked his SIL if she knew where they were. She said they were in the drawing room.
“I immediately rushed over to the art room and found it was a total mess,” he wrote. “I yelled at them to get out and they started crying. My BIL ran over and started yelling at me saying they’re just kids and it’s just markers. I told him that the markers alone were $17 a piece and he said I was stupid for paying that much.”
“Sally tried to diffuse the situation but my BIL started yelling at her too saying we can’t have this many art supplies and not expect kids to want to use it,” he said. “I told him he’s paying to replace the markers and other supplies they ruined and he told me to go f*ck myself and left. Everyone left shortly after that.”
Yeah, that sounds about right.
The Marker Massacre
OP said his niece and nephew drew on an art piece he had spent the past week working on and that they ruined a piece Sally had just finished. But to OP, the most valuable things in the room were his pencils and markers “which were not cheap (Chartpak for those who care).”
“Most devastating was the fact that all my markers were ruined because the kids were using way too much force, causing the tips to fray.”
Time to Pay Up
OP totaled up the “damages” and realized he needed to replace about $375 worth of supplies. He sent his BIL a bill and was quickly blocked. And so OP called in reinforcements.
“I talked with my friend who was a lawyer and had him draft a claim for small claims court and a letter to send my BIL (I paid him for this of course).”
So What Do People Think?
Well, Sally agrees that the bill should be paid, but her family has been “mobbing us telling us we’re being ridiculous over some markers.” Only OP’s FIL “(who also has taken up painting recently)” and his SIL say that the bill is warranted.
So, is OP the a—hole?
“NO!” Redditors cried in unison.
“BIL could have apologized or at least paid half,” one person said. “But what did OP get? Not a damn thing. Not even a dime. That’s cold as hell, NGL.”
“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind burning bridges with people that think it is OK to come into my house, cause hundreds of dollars in damage and then tell me I am dumb for buying that stuff in the first place,” another commented.
“If it’s just markers, then they shouldn’t have a problem paying. It’s just money,” another reasoned.
And on and on it goes.
“Art supplies aren’t always safe for little kids to play with unattended,” one person pointed out. “Sure, they used markers, but my aunt had glue and shears, and toxic paint in her workshop. SIL should definitely have checked in about what was okay to use and accompanied her kids.”
“Parents have to clean up after their kids if they toss food around on a plane or restaurant, similarly, they have to clean up and replace what was damaged at someone’s home as well,” another said. “If they were normal people, they would have just Venmo’d you and moved on.”
“For those saying it’s no big deal, imagine you’re a gamer with a private gaming room with a vintage GameCube collection and the kids left out, stepped on, and broke an old game disk valued at $375 while playing unsupervised and without permission in a private room that no hosts expected people to be in,” someone wrote. “All good here?”
“Seems petty, but I’d die on this hill,” another said simply.
Sound Familiar?
If you’re having a sense of déjà vu, it’s because we recently saw a man charge his teenage niece and nephew $1.5K after they destroyed almost half of their aunt’s makeup collection. Redditors sided with the OP in that situation too.
“If the kids came into your home and destroyed a $1500 painting they would be expected to pay for it, right?” one Redditor said. “Makeup is expensive, and it’s unfortunate that they are in this position, but it is what it is. You break it you buy it. You’re not running a charity or a funhouse for their kids. This is a big learning experience for your bro and his kids; don’t touch other people’s things without express permission.”
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