Ex wants me to lie to DS

If ds has a phone worth so much it is likely insured surely? You are being taken for a ride.

Replacement iPhone battery replacement with a proper Apple approved service is only about £100 (less depending on the model). He’s scamming you.

Spell it out to DS, I don’t have the money, either Ex helps or you don’t get it. Be it phone screen, holidays, meals etc.

Also all of this.

Weird to even mention who paid to fix it tbh. Should just be an easy it’s fixed.

Clearly background with dad is the issue here.

Are you the op who son wouldn’t eat at her house? If so the ex seems a bit nicer now but still not that helpful and £200 would want to be an official store fix not some dodgy shop.

If your ex is arranging it why would your son ask you if you paid it all? In the unlikely event he asks someone it would be your Ex?

It's stupid toxic shit like this that ensures generational trauma just keeps on going down the line.

Pay for the phone, take your ex's money. If your DS doesn't like it (why would he even ask who paid?) he can go to therapy and tell his therapist that daddy gave mummy £100 when he didn't want him to.

Your Ex is conning you.

There's no way it costs £200. It's £70-80 absolute tops for a top of the range iPhone screen replacement.

Do not pay anything until you've seen a receipt.

Also this whole thing is weird, you need to take back control of the narrative and stop doing what your ex says.

This

So does this happen all the time? Who buys his clothes school supplies, other stuff such as bikes and game consoles? Do stories have to be made up about them too?

This is very, very troubling OP.

I don't know how you would do this, but he seriously needs to have some impartial therapy or he is going to grow up to be positively objectionable if not dangerous towards women.

£200 for new screen is a lot. Make depending I’ve paid £70 ish for an iPhone one

So DS is happy to live with dad but not for him to pay for stuff

I would tell him it’s a huge cost and you have paid half each. You will have proof sending money to ex

but I would also want to see the receipt of price as seems a lot

I don't think he does. If the son is misogynistic, then ex may be fostering that feeling. So he may tell DS down the line that he had to step in and pay (and didn't say anything as OP likes to take credit for stuff), which would turn the DS against his mum even more.

It sounds highly manipulative and much deeper than just a who pays for a phone repair issue.

Weird story. Essentially he wants his DS to think he’s really poor for some reason when he isn’t and having him believe you paid for the full repair plays into this. Why does he want DS to think he’s poor?

You and your ex are really going about this all wrong. Regardless of who pays for what, it's far healthier for you child to know that both of his parents are responsible for him, that both of his parents are looking out for him and that the parents will work together for his interests when needed.

He will grow up feeling a lot more stable than one parent pitting against the other. It's immature and totally not needed. Tell your son the truth, start putting an end to this games and stop playing along? Far healthier.

The clear truth is what you need. 'Dad and I are going half each.'

ExH asking you to lie is a power play. At some point he'll tell your son he paid half but that you didn't tell DS because you're greedy/grasping/using him for money etc etc.

The truth may not go down well with DS but that isn't an issue caused by you.

A 14 year old with a phone costing 200 to fix is way ott . My 3 teens had phones between them that didn't cost me 200 quid...

This is odd. How old is the child? Why's it costing £200 to repair? I've taken phones to places near us to have screens repaired in the past and it's nowhere near that expensive.

I ask age because if this had been my 20 or 18 year old they would have to pay for it themselves. If it were my 14 yo, he would be expected to pay towards the cost as £200 is far too much. And if that meant waiting months and months for him to do car washing or whatever to earn that money, so be it. They need to learn that we won't swoop in and fix their messes when they're very expensive and not an emergency.

This sounds weird. I wouldn’t get into all this nonsense tbh. Tell the truth and if your DS for some reason kicks off about it just tell him that both you and his dad have equal responsibility for providing for him so paying 50/50 on a phone repair is not anything unusual. Also do you think that DS would actually have a problem or is this just your Ex being weird?

I would think OP, that if DS would be upset at the thought of his parents working together to pay 50/50 then it would be best if he payed for his phone repair with his own money.

Edited to add that I suspect that Dad will tell DS at some point in the future that he also contributed to the phone repair and use it to make you look bad,

Let me get this straight...

Your son is misogynistic
Your ex wants to lie he contributed
Then your ex is going to tell your son he contributed and you lied
To reinforce his misogyny.

You are being manipulated OP and your DS needs help, and soon.

There are obviously big problems here.

I wouldn't lie to your son, if it comes up I'd just be honest and say you and his father paid half for it each. I'm not sure why your son thinks that his broken screen is fully your responsibility to pay for. At that age my parents would have made me pay for it and if I couldn't afford it (I did have a pt job at his age but I am aware it's much more difficult now for that age group) then I'd have to earn the money from them to pay for it.