One mom's holiday generosity backfired in a major way, and now her family is blaming her for it.
The frustrated mother and aunt took to Reddit to share an incident that occurred with her son, her sister, and her nephew. She explained that her son, 11, and nephew, 13, were pretty close, even though she has a strained relationship with her sister.
The original poster (OP) knows her sister isn't great with money and decided to do something special for her nephew as a result. She'd recently bought her son a video game system that he loved, and she purchased the same one for her nephew. She was excited to give it to him on the holiday.
When they arrived to celebrate, the kids went off to play. That play led to the very expensive video game console being destroyed. She was willing to believe it was an accident until her nephew made it very clear it wasn't. She turned to her sister for backup and got none. With that, she decided to take back her generous gift, spawning a ton of family drama.
A frustrated aunt and mother is being blamed for ruining her teenage nephew's Christmas after he engaged in some seriously bratty behavior. An attempt to be generous during the holidays quickly devolved into a big family drama. She took to Reddit to find out whether or not she was in the wrong.
"My sister and I have always had a strained relationship," OP explained.
"I usually just let things go and try to keep the [peace]. We both have sons who are around the same age. My nephew is 13 and my son just turned 11. For my son's birthday I bought him the new gaming system he has been wanting. He was absolutely thrilled and he plays nonstop."
OP decided that she wanted to do something nice for her nephew for the holidays.
"My sister is bad with money. I usually have to lend her money for bills and stuff for my nephew," she explained.
"I know my nephew doesn't always get the best Christmas gifts so this year I went a little crazy and I purchased the same gaming system for him for Christmas. I already had it ready and wrapped under my tree."
"Yesterday my sister's family came to visit. My son asked me if they could go play video games. I said yes and reminded them to be careful," she continued.
"About 30 minutes later my son comes running to me crying."
"I asked him what was wrong and he led me to the front hall. When we get to the stairs I see the new system smashed on the floor. Someone had thrown it from the upstairs and it was now smashed to pieces," she revealed.
"I asked my son what happened and he sobbed and pointed at his cousin."
OP asked her nephew to explain why he'd do such a thing.
"I asked my nephew if he did this and he started to laugh. He said that it was a 'stupid baby toy' and that he saw people break them online," she wrote.
Naturally, she thought her sister might be of some help in setting him straight. She thought wrong.
"My sister came in and I told her what happened. I explained that this was an expensive system and that her son needs to be disciplined for what he did. I told her I wanted her to pay for what her son broke," she wrote.
"She laughed and said no."
In fact, she went so far as to blame OP for letting the kids play the game:
"She says I shouldn't have let them play unsupervised. That it was my fault and that I am a bad parent. She said my son will get over it and that it was not important."
OP couldn't believe the situation. Not only was her kid totally crushed, but no one saw a problem with her nephew being bratty about the situation.
"Seeing my son sitting on the ground next to his broken system trying to put the pieces back together tore my heart out," she explained.
"I walked over to the Christmas tree and grabbed the system that was meant for my nephew. I pulled the gift wrap off and it gave it to son and told him to go upstairs and set it up."
That confused OP's sister, who didn't see why she'd made such a big deal if she already had a second game system. That's when OP explained herself.
"My sister asked me why I was making such a big deal when I had another one already. I then laughed and told her that was her son's Christmas gift," she said.
"That since it wasn't important and it was just a stupid baby toy then they obviously won't miss it. I then told them to leave."
When her nephew realized what he'd done, he lost it. Suddenly, OP's sister was trying to smooth things over.
"My nephew realized what happened and began to cry that my son had stole his system. I said no his was the one that he smashed," she said.
"My sister was livid and told me that I will never see them again. I just said okay and slammed the door."
When the story spread to other family members, many took OP's sister's side.
"Other family members have now been calling me nonstop and saying I am an [expletive] and that I ruined my nephew's Christmas. I don't think so though," she leveled.
"My nephew is 13. He is not a stupid kid and he knew what he was doing. I don't care that it was over jealousy, he is old enough to know better. My sister was not going to make the situation right so I just did what I had to do.
“They all think I should buy another new system for him but I don’t have that kind of money.”
“Your sister’s terrible parenting ruined her kid’s Christmas. Your nephew’s jealousy ruined his own Christmas,” one commenter said.
“It’s entirely possible that your sister has spun a lie to the extended family, so be sure the flying monkeys have the full story in your responses to them.”
Then, the commenter suggested a response for family: “What part of my nephew deliberately smashing my son’s console, telling us he’d seen it done online, and insulting the gaming system is acceptable in your eyes? How is my sister refusing to take responsibility for the damage or for disciplining her son acceptable in your eyes? I bought 2 consoles, my nephew deliberately smashed one, I won’t be buying a third. If you think that sort of behavior deserves to be rewarded, feel free to buy a console for nephew yourself.”
Another commenter did point out that OP's unwrapping the gift in front of both kids escalated the situation greatly:
"I dunno that I'd have made a show of giving your son the new game console while they were still there (and from under the Christmas tree? It's not even Thanksgiving yet!), but the nephew breaking your son's console just for the sake of being an [expletive] and your sister's reaction were wholly unacceptable. I personally wouldn't let them come back over to your house."
OP responded: "I shouldn't have done this in front of either child. I was just so angry that they were basically laughing at my son's pain that I snapped. I have never seen my son so devastated that it broke me."
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