Who should pay for accidental damage by child

fosswire

Just looking for views on the following scenario:

My 8 year old daughter accidentally broke my partners reading glasses.

The glasses were left on the arm of a sofa and were knocked to the floor and the frame was cracked and the lens came out.

My daughter wasn't jumping around on the sofa or anything like that, just simply knocked off the sofa.

My view is the glasses should have not been there on the arm and/or should have been in a case.

They now need repairing.

How should pay?
1) Me because it was my daughter
2) My partner as they were hers and it she should have had them in a glass case.

Georgiegirl256

You should pay because your daughter damaged them.

I never have my glasses in a glasses case because although I don't wear them all the time, I do put them on when I go out in the car, and sometimes to watch tv, so they're always either on the arm of the chair or on the cabinet.

To be honest, you should be offering to pay, your partner shouldn't have to ask, they can leave their glasses where they want to.

itchyextremist

you should pay - your child = your responsibility

Kaye1

Really? You have to ask?
You. Your daughter, your responsibility. Doesn't matter that it was an accident.
Agree with previous poster- your partner shouldn't even need to ask.

lovinituk

Doesn't sound like much of a partnership if you need to resort to asking this on a forum instead of resolving it amicably between yourselves!

Lunar_Eclipse

My first reaction is you're a 'unit' of sorts so it's a bit of a bizarre question, unlike damaging something at a friend's house for instance.

But since you did ask: the child is 8 (financially dependent) and this was an accident, so I don't think it's something to make a statement about and thus whilst it doesn't matter who pays, you have the obligation.

Assuming you like your partner, don't want to give your daughter a complex about accidents and don't have major financial restrictions, I would offer to repair or replace the glasses gracefully.

But I do think it's very odd that you asked...

fosswire

Thanks for your reply.

If my daughter was the child of both of us, would your reply be different?

If it was OUR daughter, it would come out of our joint finances.

But as it was MY daughter so should I pay when the glasses were left out of their case. Aren't accidents part and parcel of life when you have children visiting.

David301

This is quite interesting actually, many points to consider;

How serious is the relationship?
Do you share a home/bills?
Do you share money in a communal way?
Is the child considered a part of the partners responsibility?

My personal thoughts are, the fact that this needs asking, is that to keep the peace you should pay for them.

Accidents do happen, and if an item needs replacing because of an incident, morally the person responsible should pay. In this case I don't think the child can do this so it falls to the parent as the person responsible.

However without knowing the living arrangements, relationship status, and general way money is distributed in the the partnership it is not possible to give a fair answer

fairy_lights

I think the bigger issue here is not who should pay, but the fact that you needed to ask an internet forum. Don't you discuss things like this with your partner?

Lunar_Eclipse

fosswire wrote: »

But as it was MY daughter so should I pay when the glasses were left out of their case. Aren't accidents part and parcel of life when you have children visiting.

You wouldn't be asking if you were both the child's parents.

The glasses being out of the case is irrelevant. (As an aside, I don't know anyone who keeps glasses in a case, besides sunglasses. DH & I both wear glasses; I don't even have a case for mine.)

Accidents are part and parcel of life, yes. If anyone broke something at someone else's house, they should offer to cover the cost of the damage.

I get the impression you feel the 'blame' lies with your partner for not using a case, which is totally absurd.

HappyMJ

fosswire wrote: »

Just looking for views on the following scenario:

My 8 year old daughter accidentally broke my partners reading glasses.

The glasses were left on the arm of a sofa and were knocked to the floor and the frame was cracked and the lens came out.

My daughter wasn't jumping around on the sofa or anything like that, just simply knocked off the sofa.

My view is the glasses should have not been there on the arm and/or should have been in a case.

They now need repairing.

How should pay?
1) Me because it was my daughter
2) My partner as they were hers and it she should have had them in a glass case.

In a relationship most things come out of the joint pot. I'd be paying for this out of that pot. If you have a pot of your own money then I'd be offering to pay out of that.