Would you sue your mum over a bad birthday card?
It would appear that someone has…
Two adults in Illinois have spent two years suing their mother, with their claim being that during their childhood she caused them “emotional distress”.
The children who are now aged 20 and 23, decided between themselves that the courts would be the best way to rectify and air their examples of “bad mothering”. The brother and sister live with their father in a $1.5m home in one of the wealthiest areas in Illinois, and as part of their claim against their mother they made a series of outrageous allegations which include:
1. Sending a birthday card featuring a group of tomatoes (one even had googly eyes!) but their mother failed to enclose some cash or a cheque with the card.
2. Telling her son, who at the time was aged 7 to wear his seatbelt or she’d call the police.
3. “Haggling” over the amount she spent on her daughter’s prom dress.
4. Calling her daughter at midnight asking her to come home from a party.
The siblings decided that they had been subjected to such cruelty during their upbringing, that they had not choice but to sue their mother for $50,000.00 with the help of their father (who happened to be a lawyer).
Thankfully the courts saw sense on this one – and the County Judge presiding over this case dismissed the ruling, and reiterated that none of the mother’s conduct during their childhood was “extreme” or “outrageous”, the judge even went as far as believing the mother’s lawyer, who stated that this all appeared to be a way for the ex-husband to seek further revenge. The children were never subjected to any form of cruelty or mistreatment, and in my opinion these children should be more worried had their mother not told them to put their seatbelt on!
With this case being dismissed (luckily!), at least there will not be thousands of new cases opening where children attempt to sue their parents for making them eat vegetables, not getting all the presents that they would have liked or having to share a bedroom!
Have you heard of any other (slightly ridiculous!) cases like this?
Rebecca x
#janlawblogpost
