Woman appalled as in-laws bill her $280 for a broken glass
A mum-to-be was shocked to find that her father-in-law had emailed her a $280 bill for a wine glass she accidentally broke.
The pregnant woman posted on parenting forum Mumsnet to ask others whether it was necessary for her to pay the hefty bill or not.
“Went to PIL’ (parents-in-law’s) home last weekend, had a glass of wine and I accidentally dropped it,” the mum wrote online.
“No big deal, they shrugged it off. I get on well with both FIL (father-in-law) and MIL (mother-in-law), have been with DH (darling husband) for 4 years now and we are having our first child in 4 months.”
The woman explained that her in-laws are “well off… very well off” and that she lives in a rental and is “definitely not as well off”.
“I didn’t know at the time, but said wine glass apparently happens to be pretty high end,” she said.
According to her father-in-law’s email, the glasses cost $280 each.
“FIL has this morning sent me an e-mail saying that I can just transfer the $280 to him or buy the glass online. He even attached a link and included their address, should I not know it by now(!),” she said.
The woman claimed that she thought the email was initially a joke but then remembered that it was out of character for them to have a sense of humour.
She decided to get recommendations on the parenting forum before explaining the situation to her husband.
Most people thought it was “bad taste” for the father-in-law to ask for money.
“Glasses often get broken, so you shouldn’t expect to get the cost of it reimbursed. And if you do expect reimbursement, you shouldn’t use stupidly expensive wine glasses for your guests,” one person said.
However, one person suggested that she should have offered to replace the glass after she broke it.
The woman said she didn’t think about offering to pay for it because they “shrugged it off as nothing”.
“FIL is a bit of a snob in general but MIL is usually lovely so I wouldn’t be surprised if she had no idea about this e-mail,” she said.
“She calls me every day to ask how I am doing and if we need anything whereas this is the first time FIL has initiated contact with me through phone/e-mail.”
Others suggested for her to let her husband know so he could deal with the situation.
What would you do in this situation? Let us know in the comments below.