My family is all on my cousins side for this issue, and I wanted some outside judgement.
My cousin (25m) has always been the golden child of our generation. He’s funny, good looking, and out going, not to mention a boy amongst girls. He’s always loved to mess around and play pranks. For the record, I really dislike this cousin. I think he’s irresponsible, childish, and annoying.
I have had hearing problems for years. I recently got a $6,000 pair of hearing aides.
Recently at my grandmothers birthday party we were all eating and drinking on the back porch. My grandmother has a pool. My cousin decided he was going to throw me in the pool because it would be funny to ruin my hair that I just got done that day. I repeatedly told him to stop and put me down, in a very serious and not playful at all tone.
He threw me in the pool, and my hearing aides were ruined. Afterwords when I told him what happened he basically said whoops, didn’t know you had hearing aides now. When I told him the cost of them and that he would have to replace them he freaked out, and said no way.
My family didn’t want me to make him pay for them because i significantly out earn him and also everyone else in the family. He was in college at the time, barely making ends meet in a call center job. His girlfriend and him have a baby and they live in a one bedroom apartment.
He refused to pay, so I took him to court. I won. He refused to make the payments after, so I took him back to court and his wages are now being garnished for the maximum amount, which is 20% of his total wages. It pushed him over the edge of what he could afford, so he’s had to work extra and drop out of college to be able to pay their rent.
My family is absolutely fuming at me. I think he made one bad choice after the other, and he has never given a sincere apology during this whole ordeal. Had he gave a real apology after the incident and asked if he could wait till he finished school to pay me back I would’ve been fine with it. But the entitled little prick is digging his feet in at every move.
AITAH? The only reason I could see me maybe being the asshole is because it’s affecting his child and girlfriend.
NTA. Where he fucked up was not negotiating a payment plan with you that he could afford after he did it. A 20% garnish is a harsh way to learn his lesson, but he earned that lesson.