Sometimes, doing the right thing becomes a whole lot harder when other parents decide the rules don’t apply to their kids.

What would you do if your child’s iPhone was stolen and subsequently smashed by a kid from school, but the parent who promised to help you pay for a new one stopped responding to messages?

Would you find another way to get your child a phone? Or would you press charges against the child to prove a point?

In the following story, a mother and her son find themselves in this situation.

Here’s what’s going on.

AITA for wanting to charge an 11 year old for theft and destruction of property?

So about a week and a half ago, my son’s phone was taken from his bag at primary school.

I managed to track it using Find My iPhone, and it led me to a house.

From that house, I banged on the front door and was answered by a mum. I explained that I tracked my son’s phone to this house and, from there, discovered that her son and 2 of his friends had just been there. She calls him, and then I follow her in my car to a second kid’s house.

When she got home, she received a phone call.

At this house, all 3 kids are there, and I tell him I don’t care who stole it, just hand it back, and it’s done.

All 3 kids swear black and blue that they have never seen it and know nothing about it. I exchanged numbers with the mum from the first house and the dad from the second house. Then I have to leave, knowing full well one of them has it.

I get home and receive a call from the mum from the first house. She has checked the security cameras from her house and discovered the kid from the second house, who swore that they have never had a phone, is miraculously holding a phone in the footage.

It turns out that the phone got destroyed.

This has already been sent to the dad, and the next minute I get a message from the guilty kid’s mum asking if she can come to my house.

She and her son arrive teary-eyed and apologetic. I just ask for the phone back, and she shakes her head, saying that he has smashed and destroyed it.

It was only an iPhone XE, so not expensive, but as a single mum working full time, it was my means of communication with my son.

Now, the mother won’t respond to messages.

She asks if she can go buy me a phone now, but I ask if she just contributes $100, and I’ll find a similar phone on the marketplace, as I prefer an iPhone, as I connect it to mine and can monitor parental controls and other settings.

She agrees and is happy to pay that.

It has been over a week now, and she has now stopped replying to any messages and won’t answer any calls. The last message I sent was me saying that if I didn’t receive payment, I would report and charge her 11-year-old son.

AITA?

Yikes! Kids can be so mean sometimes.

Let’s check out how the readers over at Reddit feel about her question.

This person suggests she charge the boy.

According to this comment, the boy should learn about consequences.

Here’s someone who thinks she was too nice.

For this person, she should’ve just taken the woman up on her offer.

She should just do it!

If the boy never has to pay for his actions, he’ll never learn.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.