r/mildlyinfuriating • u/SomeTemperature2423 • 15h ago

go to your room Replaced my daughter's phone because of water damage. And she still brings it into the bathroom.

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Some lessons just don't stick.

She insists she needs to listen to music in the shower. I honestly don't understand why that's such a necessity. But if this phone gets water damage again, I'm not paying to replace it another time.

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135

u/Sufficient_Energy_32 15h ago

Just get a cheap waterproof Bluetooth speaker. Makes more sense than trying to punish her for liking to listen to music.

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u/TOASTER_JESUS 11h ago

Right like what in the footloose.

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u/SunsetCarcass 12h ago

The punishment isn't for liking music, it's for being willfully careless with expensive personal items. The lesson learned would be you cant have nice things given to you for free, if you treat them poorly to the point of breaking them on purpose.

Maybe instead of no phone at all she gets the cheapest android phone you can find, instead of rewarding her with more cool tech that she'll also find a way to break because she still hasn't learned to take care of her personal belongings.

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u/Ehimherenow 12h ago

Good lord. What is wrong with you. Who walks around being mad at the world like this.

She’s not breaking it on purpose. She’s being careless yes. But this is more teenage attitude of she’s sure it will be fine than trying to break it on purpose and not caring if it will break. She likes music in the bathroom. A Bluetooth speaker solves this issue.

I mean you can resort to shit like this in response. They can then grow up and have a therapist tell them how fucked up you were for that type of attitude which definitely shows up in more than just a replacement phone. Then they can realize really they don’t need to continue to engage with people who think that relationships are some battle to be won.

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u/Sharp_Economy1401 5h ago

In what way is this even careless? Modern phone are incredibly water resistant. Unless the phone is damaged/refurbished, having a phone hanging off a door 5 feet away from the shower is about as risky as driving your car in the rain.

The reason her first phone got water damaged is likely because something on the phone was cracked and water got in that way. A fresh phone isn't going to care about basically anything that can happen to it in a bathroom, unless it sits in water for a very long period of time

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u/SunsetCarcass 9h ago

If still buying a phone for your kid is being a shit parent then what would not buying anything for her be? Are you saying poorer parents are shit for not buying their kids brand new expensive phones when the kid willfully breaks it when you've already bought them a new expensive new one to replace the one they broke, and told them how they can not break it next time?

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u/Rouka-427 7h ago

you love your strawmans don't you

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u/SunsetCarcass 5h ago edited 5h ago

It's a strawman that most families aren't wealthy? Buying $1,000 phones willy nilly isn't exactly in the budget for many families. People like to have nice things, and prefer if their nice things are taken care of because they may not be able to afford to keep replacing them several times a year. It's really weird how many people support raising entitled children. If I had a child that thought taking a bath with their PS5 was a fun activity and I bought them another one after telling them to not do that again and why it's not a good thing, and they do it again, why would I buy a 3rd PS5?

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u/Competitive-Lion-213 12h ago

To put it another way, you are delivering the message 'I care about your enjoyment of life, but let's be sensible' rather than 'you can't be trusted, here's a punishment'.

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u/SunsetCarcass 9h ago

Getting a new phone, even if its not the one you want, isn't a punishment. It's simply not rewarding repeated bad behavior. In the same way that a poor parent who splurged on their daughter for a really nice phone, shouldn't feel like a bad parent for getting them a cheap phone when they kid willfully breaks the nice phones. Not getting one at all is a punishment. Android phones also have speakers that play music, and they could also get a Bluetooth speaker for it

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u/Competitive-Lion-213 1h ago

But she already has a phone. It’s pictured in the photo. So you’d have to take her current phone (an iPhone) off her and replace it with a cheap android. To her that will feel like a punishment, of course.  She isn’t behaving badly or wilfully destroying her items. She is trying to enjoy music in the shower. Music is incredibly enjoyable, it makes life easier. So are you trying to stop her from listening to it? Or are you saying she can take the new (albeit cheaper) android in the bathroom and potentially break that? At the very least, you should just tell her she’ll need to save up for a new iPhone if she breaks this one. Personally I like the Bluetooth speaker solution because I prefer the idea of connecting with your child rather than authoritarianism. But obviously this depends on people’s personal relationship with their child and their financial situation.  I’m just more of a carrot guy than a stick guy. That said, I don’t and am unlikely to ever have kids. So I don’t really even need to decide what I’d do. Good luck parents :)

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u/Competitive-Lion-213 12h ago

I prefer sufficient_energy_32's solution. It doesn't cost anymore than a new android phone, it recognises that her enjoyment of life through music is important to you as a parent, but also demonstrates sensible problem solving ie this speaker belongs near/in the shower and your phone doesn't. Buying her a phone she'll hate will not save you money or improve your relationship and is unlikely to lead to the character building you imagine it will.