When I was about 4 years old or so, I accidentally took some trinket I liked from our distant relatives' house during a family gathering and brought it home. In my childhood, the principles of gentle parenting were not yet known, so the lesson I learned was painful, both mentally and physically. But I learned the lesson instantly - and for life.
The author of our story today, the user u/Efficient_Way6064, recently encountered something similar with her own niece - and the result was a major family quarrel with her sister, who was offended by the "too petty" revenge plan. However, let's not get ahead of the course of events in our story and just read on.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post has a whole collection of small ceramic figurines at home, standing on a shelf
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The figurines aren't very pricey and have mostly sentimental value for the owner
Image credits: Efficient_Way6064
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Recently the author's sister and her daughter came over and after they left, the author found that some figurines were missing
Image credits: Efficient_Way6064
Image credits: karlyukav / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Soon after, the author saw these figurines standing in the niece's room on social media - and demanded them back
Image credits: Efficient_Way6064
After the sister tried to hush up the case, the author decided to hold onto her niece's belongings until her figurines were returned - and it worked!
Well, the Original Poster (OP) has a whole collection of small ceramic figurines at home, which are displayed on a shelf. So recently, when her sister and her daughter came over to visit, the adults went into the kitchen to chat, while the girl played in the living room. But after the guests left, the author discovered that several figurines were missing.
At first, our heroine thought that they were simply misplaced, but then, while browsing her social media feed, she saw these figurines in a photo from her sister's house. She saw them standing in her niece's room. The OP texted the sis with a soft but firm request to return the figurines, which actually have more sentimental than financial value for her.
The sister willingly agreed to return the stolen items - but when she and her daughter came over again, they didn't bring anything with them. Then our heroine came up with a plan for some petty revenge. She collected all the niece's belongings that the girl had left at her house for all her previous visits - and told her mom that she'd return them only after she saw her stolen figurines.
Literally the next day, the sister brought all the figurines - and even added a few new ones from herself. The author refused to accept the extra ones, but the relationship with her sister got strained after that. Moreover, even the sisters' mother took the side of the OP's sis and niece, saying that our heroine overreacted here. The OP, in turn, is quite sure that she did nothing wrong.
Image credits: pvproductions / Freepik (not the actual photo)
"It seems to me that this is a completely reasonable sequence of events. First, a polite request to return her stolen things, and then, when there was absolutely no reaction, a transition to more severe actions," says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, with whom Bored Panda got in touch over this situation.
"In any case, explaining to children that taking someone else's property is unacceptable under any circumstances is one of the most important responsibilities of any parents. So the grandmother here shouldn't have taken someone's side in the conflict, but took a position from the point of view of the correct ethical upbringing of the child."
"Another important nuance in this story is actually the child's age. Because it's one thing if she's preschool age, and quite another if she's already rather old enough to understand at least some of the consequences of her actions. Be that as it may, I do believe this woman did the right thing in the described situation," Irina summarizes.
The vast majority of people in the comments also unanimously supported the original poster, noting that she simply got her things back, and at the same time taught her niece an important life lesson. In fact, as some responders also wrote, the girl's mom should've thanked her sister for this lesson, and not bickered with her. By the way, whose side will you take in this story?
Most commenters backed the original poster, claiming that it was the sister's poor parenting that was mainly to blame in this situation
