Kate Hackett
u/CattFen took to the Am I The Asshole reddit community with a problem: was she wrong to charge her sister £2500 for a painting the sister’s child ruined?
The original poster is a painter. She specifically told people to stay out of her studio, but it seems the nephew went in anyway and ruined a painting worth about $3,400.
Backstory, I’m 26 and a fairly successful artist. My sister, “Lucy” (24) and her child “Ethan” (9) were at my house during a late New Years celebration. I had a sign posted on my art studio saying “DO NOT ENTER” and specifically made it clear to all guests that nobody was to enter that room. I’d also like to note that all my guests were asked to leave their kids at home as this was for ADULTS but ‘Lucy’ couldn’t do that because she couldn’t find a sitter. Anyway.
Note : I also set up my boyfriends PS4 for him to play on so he wouldn’t be bored.
She also generously put the PS4 together and permitted the 9-year-old nephew to play on it.
It’s 10pm, and I hear a loud crash from my studio, I run up and see paint all over my recently work that so far had taken 15 hours to do. Ethan was sat there laughing, rubbing paint into my work, it’s now unsalvageable and I have to restart the work, as it was a specific request from a client. Which also puts me behind for the rest of my work now!!
Okay, WHAT? This kid is now vindictively LAUGHING about ruining the painting? And making it worse?!
I immediately asked Ethan and Lucy to leave, and the next day I sent her a bill for the work. £2500 (which is LOWER than I would’ve gotten for the work anyway).
Seems damn reasonable to me!
She’s absolutely screaming about it, the whole family is divided. My mom hates me, my dad completely agrees with me. Surprise, my dad is an artist, my mum is more ‘smart smart’. My sisters husband agrees with me.
I will admittedly say, I don’t enjoy kids. Or their company. But I’ve always been a great auntie, presents at Christmas, gifts from vacation, everything he’s wanted.
Am I the asshole for charging my sister £2500?
The crux of the issue is could she be an asshole for “using” this situation because she doesn’t like kids. And, uh, no.
Check out what Reddit said:
NTA – this is your livelihood, art supplies aren’t cheap, and not to mention the time it’ll take you to recreate what was lost.
The kid’s 9 and still straight up disobeyed you in your own home? Yeah, I’d be pissed off, too.
Also, your sister sounds like one of those moms that can’t be bothered to take responsibility for her own children, so maybe this’ll open her eyes a bit.
NTA. Nine is old enough to know how to read a do not enter sign, and to know that destroying others’ property is unacceptable. If they were younger, the blame would be a little more questionable but there is no mistake about this. You should certainly be compensated, but I might lower the price to be proportionate to how much time you actually spent, not a loose figure around the price that you would have gotten.
