Lock ’em up!

That’s not a phrase you typically hear about Christmas presents, but that’s the beauty of Reddit’s “Am I the *******?” page…

You never know what you’re gonna get!

Was this person wrong for the suggestion they made at Christmas?

Get all the details below and see what you think…

AITA for suggesting we lock up the Christmas presents after what my niece did last year?

“Every year, my siblings and I, alongside our families, spend Christmas with our parents.

We stay at their house for a few days. Everyone opens gifts together. It’s hectic but a lot of fun. The kids enjoy having one big sleepover with their cousins, my mom likes having everyone home again. We all pitch in. It’s a win win.

Last year, my brother married “Sally”. She has a 7 year old daughter, “Mindy”. This was their first Christmas with us. It seemed like they were having a fun time.

Christmas Eve, all the kids went to the finished basement to sleep. We told the kids to not open up gifts without us and to wake us up when they did. This was repeated several times. Once the kids were asleep, we put all the gifts under the tree and eventually went to bed ourselves.

They were in for a surprise.

The next morning, around 6 AM, I wake up early and head downstairs. I find the living room a mess. Half of the gifts were unwrapped. Several of them had been ripped from their boxes.

There was Mindy, playing with some of the toys. Most of the ones weren’t even hers. She knows how to read and they were all labeled, so she knew this. I was in shock. I went and got my brother, Sally alongside the rest of the adults. Sally was super embarrassed. My mom was very upset.

This was not good.

The other kids weren’t up yet, so we tried to salvage what we could while Sally talked to Mindy. Not everything could be fixed and she had broken a couple of toys completely. The broken ones weren’t even her own toys.

Luckily, not everything was damaged and even the boxes that were, the kids didn’t notice. But my nephew (sister’s son) had one of his big gifts destroyed and he was sad when everyone else got theirs while he was told he’d have to wait for a new one to come back in.

Sally and my brother reimbursed everyone. Mindy didn’t get to open gifts with everyone but joined the festivities later. She apologized, but kept making excuses. She said she didn’t want to wait and she wanted to see what everyone else got.

We’re all preparing to go to my parents’ again this year. I put in the group chat that we should either lock the door to the living room this year or put a gate around the tree so no one can get to it. I didn’t even name names, just specifically said “no one”.

Not everyone was cool with this plan…

Sally and my brother got mad, accusing me of treating Mindy like a baby or an animal. I said I’m not, but this is a precaution so none of the kids are tempted. They said this isn’t necessary and I’m holding a mistake over Mindy’s head. I said no, I’m not, I’m trying to make sure we have NO repeat.

Because I know it’ll be asked: Mindy doesn’t have autism or ADHD and even if she did, my daughter has ADHD and both my sister’s kids are on the spectrum. They knew better. I don’t think Mindy was malicious. She was only 6. But I do think precautions should be made. My parents agree with me and my brother is mad that I put it in their heads.

AITA?”

Check out what folks had to say about this.

One Reddit user said Mindy ruined Christmas.

Another person said they’re NTA.

One reader said there needs to be a sit-down about this.

One person has a good idea…

And this individual said that things have changed…

To lock up the presents or not to lock them up…

That is the question…

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.