Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to not pay to repair the au pair's phone?

106 replies

Scorpiostar · 13/01/2017 14:54

Our au pair has a super swanky iPhone 6 Plus. Last night while she was babysitting, she sent me a text saying that the screen was broken. Her story last night was that DS pushed her and caused her to drop it so we are responsible for paying to repair / replace it. This morning, she said DS was blocking her way and she dropped it trying to get past. This morning I asked the DCs individually (before they had time to speak to each other) to tell me what happened to the phone. Their stories were identical: her phone was in her pocket and it fell out as she was going downstairs. This sounds entirely plausible. He phone is huge, her pocket is small. Two thirds of the phone sticks out of the top of the pocket of her jeans. I asked DD where DS was when it happened and she said he was upstairs. Given that she would normally take any opportunity to get DS into trouble, her story seems believable. DS is an anxious child and I would have expected him to look worried and guilty this morning if he had done something wrong. He didn't. Now I'm left with a dilemma. Who do I believe? I don't want to be the kind of parent who is blind to their DC's faults but I can't see much evidence that they are not telling the truth. The story about DS pushing her sounds implausible because it would be totally out of character. On the other hand, if I take the DC's word over the au pair's and she's telling the truth, the trust is broken.

OP posts:
VladmirsPoutine · 16/01/2017 13:47

I'd fire her and be done with. She's coming across as a petulant child.

ReasonsToBeModeratelyHappy · 16/01/2017 20:06

I dropped my phone this evening, as I got out of the car, and broke the screen. The thing is, I'm fairly sure your DS pushed past me (or I may have pushed past him, I forget now...). Could you pay for the screen to be fixed please?Grin

threestars · 16/01/2017 20:16

I just had the screen on an iphone 6 plus fixed. Apple wanted £140+ money to do it, as pp suggested. An independent store/workshop charged me £90. Looks as good as new now.
Even if her story were true (although it seems unlikely!), she is responsible for looking after her phone. I would not pay for it.
If I felt very generous, I would lend her the money to fix it and take it out, in manageable instalments, from her pay.

roses2 · 17/01/2017 14:04

I give my an au pair a sim from ID Mobile (Carphonewarehouse) which I took out under my name under their advice as she has no credit history or UK bank account.

For £5/month, you get 250 minutes, 5000 texts and 1.5gb of data.

www.idmobile.co.uk/?_ga=1.139913589.714491194.1481701335

There is a maximum monthly cap you can set so she does not exceed the allowance by more than £5.

She puts the sim in her own phone.

ErnesttheBavarian · 18/01/2017 10:26

What did you do in the end? Did we ever find out?

Sparklyglitter · 21/01/2017 10:06

I agree I would get rid of her, tell her you are getting in touch with your insurance company and then put in motion to get another au pair. Don't make it obvious what you are doing unless you can let her go straight away.
Not a nice situation! Sad

New posts on this thread. Refresh page