Dear Sasha, I don’t love kids, but that doesn’t mean I don’t support my friends who do. I guess they are cute and I try my best to put on a smile and deal with them. But this weekend my friend came over with her two year old and she turned my apartment upside down. Now I have a stain, of I don’t know what, on my chair. It’s not coming off and I’m pissed. What do I do? T
I take it the question here is if you can ask your friend to pay to clean the chair or not, right? The legal answer is obviously, yes, but your friendship contract means it's not so clear cut.
Look, I get that this is a total piss off, but it’s kind of the risk you take when you have snotty nosed tyrants running on the loose. They smear sh-t around, barf on stuff, and get their dirty paws on everything. But you know what? The same thing happens with drunk ass grownups; sometimes sh-t gets wrecked and you just have to suck it up.
For me it all boils down to how bad the stain or destruction is. If it’s going to put you out 50 bucks, then I’d say pay for it yourself. However, if it’s more than that I think it’s fair to call your friend up and see if she’ll split the cost with you. Here’s hoping she’ll feel guilty enough and offer to pay for the whole thing.
I think the lesson for you moving forward is that you just really shouldn’t invite your friend’s kids over unless you’re: a) willing to accept that there’s a chance that there will be spills or b) you saran wrap your apartment.
Hope this helps! xx
