What’s the damage? (Picture: Getty)
From their ‘no filter’ comments to those adorable tantrums, being a parent can be… interesting.
And now, a mum has found herself in a tricky situation thanks to her four-year-old son.
The woman took to Mumsnet to explain how her son had caused a neighbour dispute, and needed some advice.
She wrote: ‘My kids were playing on our street yesterday and one of them ran inside saying that my youngest, who is four years old, had thrown a stone and it has marked the neighbour’s visitor’s car.
‘I immediately went round and before even seeing the damage I was very apologetic and said I would cover the repair damages.’
But the situation changed when the mum realised other children had been behaving badly.
‘When I looked at the car there is the tiniest chip mark,’ she continued. ‘A few kids were around us at the time and I asked who started throwing the stones, because my son wouldn’t just do that, he copies people.
‘It turns out it was said neighbour’s daughter who is 11.’
The mum then went to check CCTV footage, explaining it showed that the 11-year-old daughter ‘was sat throwing stones at another boy on his bike and in the street.
‘She has also taken my stones from my garden and thrown them out onto the road.’
So now, the mum doesn’t want to pay for the damage – or see it fit to.
‘I am a reasonable person and if my child caused damage I would pay for it,’ she wrote at the end of her post.
‘But the fact he has copied their daughter makes me reluctant.’
Replies to the post questioned why a four year old was allowed out alone – and that something was bound to happen, as he was unsupervised.
‘Surely very few parents are negligent enough to allow a four year old to play unsupervised in a road,’ wrote on commenter. ‘Pay up and supervise your child,’ wrote another.
Others said that, regardless of who her son was copying, he was still guilty.
The comment read: ‘If your child damages someone else’s property then you pay. It’s irrelevant who started it and who he was copying. If he is a child that is easily led then you need to supervise him before something serious happens.’
Another added: ‘It doesn’t matter who started it. All that matters is that your kid damaged someone else’s property so you have to pay.’
According to Citizens Advice, you have one of two options if your car is damaged by a neighbour.
Either, you can sort it out between yourselves and ask whoever caused the damage to pay for repairs.
If they refuse, you can take them to court for ‘damages due to negligence’, but only if you can prove care wasn’t taken to prevent the accident.
Alternatively, you can go to your insurance company and make a claim, giving the details of the person who damaged the car.
In this case, the mum should pay up or leave it to her neighbours to go through their insurance.
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