August 15, 2025 at 3:35 am

He Wanted To Be The Fun Uncle And Let His Toddler Niece Hold His iPhone, But When She Broke It, He Sparked A Family Showdown Over Who Was At Fault

by Benjamin Cottrell

toddler holding an iphone

Pexels/Reddit

Accidents happen when toddlers get their hands on expensive gadgets.

So when a man let his young niece play with his work-issued iPhone and she broke it, tensions quickly escalated over who should foot the bill.

Read on for all the drama.

AITA for not buying my brother in law a new iPhone after my 2yo daughter broke his?

My family and my brother and his partner spent the 4th of July at my parents’ house.

But it didn’t take long for disaster to strike.

It was fun and festive until: my brother’s husband was playing with my toddler daughter, he let her hold his phone, which she immediately dropped, and the screen broke.

It didn’t crack, but the display became striped and distorted and unusable.

Turns out, he really needed this phone in working order.

Brother-in-law (understandably) freaks out. The phone was new and given to him from work as a perk of his job. He can’t be without it for even the rest of the afternoon.

Fine, I say—I’ll take it to the Apple Store to see if they can fix it on the spot.

But they didn’t have much luck there.

At the Apple Store, they look at it for like 2 seconds before determining it has an aftermarket screen on it, so they can’t do anything about it. They won’t even touch it.

I get home and relay this news to my BIL, who then insists I buy him a whole new phone. I refuse.

But this isn’t what they agreed on at all.

I was willing to pay for a repair, not buy him an upgrade. I think the reason it even broke so easily is that the screen wasn’t high quality to begin with.

He insists the phone was brand new, but according to the store, it clearly was not.

Now the rest of the family is divided over who’s at fault.

My parents think I should just buy him one just to keep the peace. But at most, I think I should have to buy a cheap aftermarket phone, not a better device.

Besides—I didn’t give my daughter the phone, HE let her play with it.

AITA for not buying him a brand new iPhone?

They gave their brother-in-law an inch, but he tried to take a mile.

What did Reddit have to say about all this?

Something doesn’t smell right here.

Screenshot 2025 07 22 at 4.11.16 PM He Wanted To Be The Fun Uncle And Let His Toddler Niece Hold His iPhone, But When She Broke It, He Sparked A Family Showdown Over Who Was At Fault

Future lesson for the brother-in-law: don’t willingly hand a toddler something valuable.

Screenshot 2025 07 22 at 4.11.46 PM He Wanted To Be The Fun Uncle And Let His Toddler Niece Hold His iPhone, But When She Broke It, He Sparked A Family Showdown Over Who Was At Fault

This user doesn’t buy the brother-in-law’s story.

Screenshot 2025 07 22 at 4.12.23 PM He Wanted To Be The Fun Uncle And Let His Toddler Niece Hold His iPhone, But When She Broke It, He Sparked A Family Showdown Over Who Was At Fault

Toddlers are destructive — it’s just a thing.

Screenshot 2025 07 22 at 4.13.01 PM He Wanted To Be The Fun Uncle And Let His Toddler Niece Hold His iPhone, But When She Broke It, He Sparked A Family Showdown Over Who Was At Fault

The moment he gave a child his phone, he gambled with the outcome.

No one else should have to cover the cost of his careless choice.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.