AITA for charging my sister £2500 for one of my paintings after her kid ruined it?

A Reddit user, a professional artist, faced a family feud after charging her sister £2500 for a ruined painting. During a New Year’s celebration, despite clear instructions to stay out of her art studio, her nephew entered, destroyed a commissioned piece worth more than the charge. The family is now divided over whether she was justified in sending the bill.

Read the full story below to dive into this dramatic family conflict.

‘ AITA for charging my sister £2500 for one of my paintings after her kid ruined it?’

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.

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!!

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). 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 a**hole for charging my sister £2500?

Here’s how people reacted to the post:

Stlrivergirl −  NTA. A) kids weren’t welcome at your event. She CHOSE to bring her child..
B) you CLEARLY marked off the room

C) she wasn’t supervising her child, which is how he was able to gain entrance to a blocked off room, and destroy your WORK You absolutely deserve to be compensated for your work.ETA (because it got buried in the comments): D). The kid is NINE. Not a toddler. Well into the age to differentiate right from wrong.

blueeyed_bashful96 −  NTA. It was already an issue that she brought her kid, but you were understanding about that. The least she could’ve done was watch her damn kid while there and respected your wishes of no one going in there. When you bring kids to an adult party it’s your responsibility to watch them, not the host or other guests unless other kids are involved

HeathenJack −  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.

unc0uth −  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.

DinosaursOvrEvrythng −  NTA: the kid is NINE not three, he’s old enough to know better. Can they afford to give you 2,500? Can you afford to live without the 2,500? If they legitimately don’t have 2,500 maybe you could let him work off some of the debt by helping you clean or doing other chores for you?

JimGrimoire −  NTA, while it sounds s**tty written out to a lot of people, that’s the same as if you ran a dealership or a high end gallery, and someone let their kid run around scratching cars or fingerprinting on museum pieces.

You said no kids, that had to be worked around, okay, but then the kid wasn’t even supervised, he realistically could have been killed toppling stuff like that. What the people saying YTA don’t realize it’s that this is your livelihood. Before I met my wife who is an artist, I might have said YTA, but I couldn’t fathom discrediting someone’s hard work like that now.

VansChar_ −  Oh man, reading that made me cringe. You backed yourself up so tthat something like this wouldn’t happen. You specified no kids, you made it clear that that room was off limits, and you set up a gaming system to accomodate your sister after she broke the first rule.

My sister is an artist, and painting stuff is expensive. I’m not the type to really understand the world behind selling paintings, but I do know there’s often a lot of dedication behind it.

And wtf, 9 years old is old enough to know that what he was doing was bad. I might of offered more sympathy towards your sister if we were talking 3 or 4 years old ( and even then, the kid wasn’t supervised so maybe not so much).. NTA

GwenDylan −  NTA. He’s 9. 9-year-old children know better. He was doing this to be an a**hole.

Ladyughsalot1 −  NTA. What’s…wrong with her child? At 9, intentionally destroying art like this isn’t normal. Is Ethan developmentally typical? The only thing I can think of is that Ethan has some sort of developmental challenges and that’s why you are being expected to drop this.

kabarisimba −  Is anyone going to comment about how old her sister and her sister’s kid are? 24 and 9? She got pregnant at 14? Only me? Please I need to comprehend this and cannot do it alone.

Was the artist justified in charging her sister for the damage, or should she have handled it differently? How would you handle a situation where a family member causes significant loss to your livelihood?
Share your thoughts and perspectives below!