A mum appealed to the internet for advice on whether or not she should cancel Christmas for her two kids who had misbehaved.
The mum, who has seven children, said her five- and six-year-old had not only broken all her grandma’s Lilliput Lane doll houses, but then ate everything in a food hamper she had received from her dad.
She appealed to Mumsnet users for advice, writing: “I’m really disappointed in them, they have never done this before.
“DH [darling husband] thinks they shouldn’t have any presents and [we should] cancel Christmas for them. I don’t know what to do.”
Parents responded on the thread and it became clear there was one obvious answer: Don’t cancel Christmas.
“I think they are just being kids,” one person wrote. “Explain to them why what they did was wrong, and how they’ve made you feel, but cancel Christmas? I wouldn’t.”
Another wrote: “It’s very naughty of them - eating the stuff from the food hamper more than the boxes, but that was probably unintentional carelessness rather than actual naughtiness.
“For the Christmas hamper eating, I’d probably try to get them to understand by taking something they care about away from them and talking to them about how it makes them feel.
“But you definitely shouldn’t cancel Christmas.”
Another simply wrote: “Please don’t cancel Christmas for them.”
Some were more interested in how the mum would be able to cancel Christmas for just two of her kids.
“How would that work practically?” the person wrote. “Put them out of the house while the rest of you open presents/nosh the goodies? Odd.”
In the end, the original poster listened to the commenters.
“I’m just utterly pissed off,” she wrote. “I won’t cancel Christmas. I was thinking more of giving them less presents and not letting them have the nice food.
“But it won’t be cancelled for them however much I’m angry with them.”