Woman raging as nephew scratches her TV and sister refuses to pay for it

To help out with childcare, a boy’s aunt would pick him up from school and take him to her house until his mum could pick him up, but a recent incident has left her raging

A woman is refusing to have her nephew round after school until his mum pays her the money to fix the TV which he scratched. The unnamed auntie took to Mumsnet to explain that her sister has a nine-year-old boy and to help out with childcare she will often pick up the boy after school and take him to her house until his mum is able to pick him up.

In the post which was in Mumsnet’s ‘Am I Being Unreasonable’ forum, the aunt wrote: “I am a stay at home mum to a 2 year old girl. My sister has an 9 year old son. She is a single mum and needs help with childcare.

“So I will pick her son up from school and watch him for an 2-3 hour(s) after school until my sister gets off work and picks home up.”

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The woman explained that her nephew will usually just sit and do his homework and once he is done will go and play some games in the back room.

“If he doesn’t have any or finishes it he will play games in our back room where we have the big tv and all our game systems,” she explained.

“We have a rule that no snacks or drinks are allowed in that room. He has broken this rule before and I punished him by banning him from the back room for a week.”

The aunt went on to say that she normally sits in her office while he is there but will check on him regularly to make sure he is ok.

But recently when she went to see if he was ok, he seemed to be acting off and was sat reading a book, rather than playing a game, which appeared slightly odd to his aunt.

“I had expected him to be in the back room. He also seemed to be acting off,” she explained.

“I asked him if something was wrong. He said no and that he didn’t feel like playing games after all.”

Given his slightly abnormal behaviour, the woman decided to go to check the back room and when she did she was less than impressed with what she found.

“I noticed some discoloured wet spots in the carpet by the TV. The TV screen also look messed up and upon closer inspection there were a bunch of scratches all over it,” she said.

“They were all in a circular pattern like someone had tried to clean it, but with something rough enough to leave scratches.”

When she confronted her nephew he denied doing anything wrong and put the blame of the scratches onto her two-year-old daughter.

Soon after this, his mother came to pick him up and when she got to the door she was confronted with her sister asking for £1500 to fix her TV as her son scratched it.

“My sister shrugged and said I didn’t know for sure it was him because I didn’t see him do it and it could have happened anytime,” she explained.

“Except I was in that room earlier that morning watching a movie and it was fine. The only other person in the house beside me and my daughter was him.”

The sisters clashed later on that evening over text as well as her sister was not wanting to pay the money to get it replaced, but her sister gave her an ultimatum.

“I told her that I was not going to pick him up or watch him anymore. He is her son and she is responsible for making sure he is picked up, not me. She didn’t reply after that,” she said.

Many have been quick to support the aunt in response, with one saying: “I’m surprised at the behaviour from a 9 year old too! It sounds like something my 4 year old would get up to if not supervised!”

While another said: “I wouldn’t be looking after him, purely because of her attitude. A 9 year old is going to lie stupidly to try and get out of trouble. Mum shouldn’t be trying to also make up excuses.”

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