Mom teaches important lesson to daughter who ruined stepsister's $3000 quinceanera dress

While toddlers are notoriously challenging, parenting hormonal teenagers, particularly step-siblings, can be equally, if not more, demanding. Reddit user u/Otherwise-Cycle-2441 recently shared how the  relationship between her 16-year-old daughter Bethany and her 14-year-old step-daughter Maria was "overall good." That is, until the storm of teenage melodramas set in.  

Despite being in each other's lives for around nine years, the siblings seemed to have developed a rift, mainly due to Bethany's jealousy. The tension started when Maria's parents began planning her quinceanera and purchased a $3,000 dress. Bethany was overwhelmed with envy over the lavish quinceanera party and its rituals rooted in Maria's Mexican heritage. The mom wrote, "I’ve informed her it is part of the culture just like when she had a huge sweet sixteen party with her friends. I spent more time with her to try to make her feel better about it and got her own much cheaper dress for the party."

No matter what her mom said or did, Bethany was still not happy about celebrating a special milestone of her step-sister's life and even ended up ruining the quinceanera dress in a fit of her anger. Bethany's mom describes the situation saying "She scribbled sharpie all of the expensive dress and ripped the back. Long story short everyone was pissed." What started as a teenager's tantrum put the whole family in distress as the day of the grand event drew near. 

Bethany's mom solved the dress situation by offering money to her husband and his ex-wife. But her own daughter's outburst needed immediate fixing, so she decided to punish her by making her pay back the $3,000. "I informed my daughter she will need to get a job and pay back the full price of the dress as punishment." However, Bethany did not take her mom's punishment lightly. They both got into a huge argument where Bethany accused her of choosing Maria over her. The Reddit user sought the community's opinion saying "We got into a huge argument over it and how the whole situation isn’t fair that I am choosing Maria and being a huge jerk. Am I being a huge jerk?" She wanted to know if asking her daughter to pay back the full price comes out as too harsh for a punishment.

The Reddit community lauded the mother for her fair and square decision. One user, u/Sha-Nanegins, wrote "NTA. Your 16-year-old destroyed someone else's property. It is her responsibility to make restitution." Another user,u/BonAppletitts, pointed out "You’re a good parent. You’re fair and let her face deserved consequences. NTA. Lots of teens work after school, on weekends, holidays or even all together. She‘ll survive it,". A few people offered suggestions to ease the situation. One user, u/lululululululu_hi wrote "I would suggest you allow your daughter to read these at some point. Print out the response, hopefully, she will feel remorse, I think it will be a difficult situation to handle but it could also back you up if/ when she throws another tantrum. It's not 'you being harsh' she should hear this."

Editor's note: This article was originally published on November 1, 2023. It has since been updated.