Mother Teaches Kid Who Bought Her Son A Broken Present 'A Lesson' By Asking Him To Return It & Get Him A New One
It's the thought that counts.
Ivan Samkov / Pexels After a mother hosted a birthday party for her son, she was disappointed to discover that one of the gifts he received was broken. She decided to confront the guest that brought the particular gift by “lightly scolding” him and encouraging him to buy a new one.
However, not everyone was in agreement with the woman’s choice, considering that the gust was just a child. Now, she is wondering if she should have just let the situation go.
The mother instructed the boy who bought her son the broken birthday gift to get him a new one.
Sharing her story to Reddit's, r/AmITheA–hole subreddit the 32-year-old woman sought the advice of others asking if she was wrong to approach the 12-year-old. She began her post by revealing that she recently threw a birthday party for her 7-year-old son. He invited a few of his close friends, including his neighbors and classmates.
One of his party guests was a 12-year-old boy, who came in hand with a light-up robot doll as a gift. However, the woman was quick to notice a small detail in the doll that had not been picked up before after her son opened it. “Even though my son was happy to receive it, I noticed that the toy had a cracked shoulder,” she wrote.
The following day, the boy who had brought the gift came over to play with her son. While he was there, she decided to confront him about the broken toy. “I showed him the broken part and lightly scolded him,” she claimed.
The mother says that she was trying to teach the boy a ‘good life lesson.’
“I simply told him that if he was going to spend money buying something, he should've checked the thing,” she told the boy. She then gave him back the toy and insisted that he go back to the store and exchange it for a new one. “I thought it was a good life lesson and that he'd remember this. It would help him when he buys something later on. It would teach him not to waste his money,” she wrote.
However, the boy’s mother disagreed and called the woman after her son returned home with the gift.
“Later that evening his mom called me and told me that I was very rude to her son,” the woman shared. His mother stated that when someone gives you a gift, even if it is not in the condition you wanted it, you still accept it and thank the person, especially if they are just a kid. “Turns out, he bought it with his own pocket money, and he put a lot of thought into it,” she added.
While the boy did replace the broken gift, he stopped coming over to play with the woman’s son. She revealed that she did not intend to hurt his feelings and that she only gently explained her beliefs surrounding gift-giving etiquette to the boy.
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Redditors slammed the mother over how she handled the situation and treated the boy.
“You crushed that kid. My heart breaks for him,” one user commented.
“So you want a 12-year-old to thoroughly inspect something in the package? You want him to try and return an opened toy?” another user pointed out. “Instead of being grateful for a gift, using it as an opportunity to teach their child about gratitude, or use their f–king imagination for once, they used it as an excuse to s–t on a young kid.”
“OP [original poster] doesn't even know if the toy was cracked after it was gifted to their son,” another user noted. “Their behavior was rude and tacky.”
“This would have absolutely devastated me as a kid,” another user added.
It looks like the real-life lesson the mother should have been preaching was to appreciate birthday gifts that are given to you. She later follow-up on her post to share that she would be apologizing to the boy.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.