Man jumps in pool to save nephew, demands new phone from brother, brother says 'seriously?'
There's no chill way to tell someone they owe you money, especially a family member who finds the request rude on spec.
In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a man asked if he was wrong for asking his brother to replace his cellphone after he broke it jumping in a pool to save his nephew. He wrote:
"AITA for expecting my brother to pay for a new phone after I damaged mine saving his son?"
My (19M) brother (24M) was watching his son (3M) when they were over at our parents' place this weekend, but he got distracted for a minute and my nephew fell into the backyard swimming pool.
Thank god I heard it in time and jumped into the pool and saved him - we are all aware a tragedy could have happened, everyone is still in shock and my father already started working on gating the pool. I did have another kind of financial loss though, because I had my cellphone in my pocket when I jumped in the pool, and it's dead now.
I told my brother I will look to buy a new one and send him the bill; he thinks he is not responsible for paying and says he can not believe that’s what I’m thinking about after his son almost died. So I said it was HIS fault that his son almost died, he should be down on his knees thanking god and kissing my feet for saving his son’s life, and the least he can do is pay for a phone of my choice.
My mother says to give him time. AITA for insisting here?
Redditors had a lot to say in the comment section.
thenileindenial wrote:
How much time do your mother expect you to give your brother? I’m assuming you need your phone on a daily basis like the rest of us, and it can’t wait. Your brother should absolutely cover your costs. Having you saved one of my children’s lives, I’d buy you the most expensive version out there. NTA.
RayTX wrote:
NTA. But I highly recommend you send it to a proper repair shop and ask if they can try to fix the water damage. Chances are they can and the bill would be significantly less. That could help diffuse the situation. But over all, good job saving the kid. You did the right thing without thinking about the phone.
SunnyBunnyHopHop wrote:
NTA for wanting/asking your brother to pay for your phone. You damaged your phone because you had to jump in the pool to save his son, whom he clearly wasn't watching closely enough. With that, from a legal perspective, I doubt that your brother would be legally responsible to reimburse you for the phone. This is not a situation where his son directly damaged your phone.
You, in a most heroic fashion, assumed the risk to jump into the pool and save your nephew. Nonetheless, from a moral and ethical standpoint, I think you're correct that your brother should be grateful and him paying to replace your phone is a small gesture considering what could have happened had you not jumped in.
SuperJay182 wrote:
YTA. Purely for: "and the least he can do is pay for a phone of my choice."
No, he could replace your broken phone, not get you an upgrade.
Personally I think it's tacky to expect payment like this for saving someone's life - the whys of the incident not withstanding.
GetBakedBaker wrote:
A phone of your choice? YTA. Did you jump into the water to save your nephew or get a new phone? Because your motivation seems suspect. You are not a hero, You jumped in the water, and got your nephew. That is what a good uncle does. Go buy yourself a phone and congratulations on being a good uncle, but at this point you just seem stupid for thinking you deserve more than a replacement.
JGalKnit wrote:
NTA. You were thinking only of your brother's son when you jumped in to save him. If you had waited to remove your phone from being damaged, what would everyone had said? If you saved my kid, you could get whatever phone you wanted. My kid was safe.
Playful-Ad5623 wrote:
Define: phone of my choice.
You should be made whole and he should happily do that, but the "phone of my choice" phrase makes me think that the issue is less about replacing the phone than replacing a $300 phone with a $1500 phone.
Doubledogdad23 wrote:
YTA. First, aren't most phones water resistant these days? So i'm not really buying the whole your phone isn;t working. Did you do the whole rice thing? second, your phone was in your pocket when you went to save the kid. I feel like if your phone hadn't have been allegedly damaged, you would have found some other way to beg for money from your brother.
Clearly no one can agree on a verdict for OP, which means we really need you to weigh in with your two cents.