I always wonder how these people make decisions about real issues

mrsconn23

Dear Prudence, 
My 3-year-old son is undergoing a series of doctor visits as part of an autism evaluation. At a recent visit, he was sitting at a desk performing basic skills (lacing beads, pointing to matching pictures, identifying letters) and after about 30 minutes of this he wanted to move around. He reached up and jostled a framed degree on the wall, which tipped off its nail and fell to the ground, knocking down a second degree with it. One frame broke upon hitting the floor, and I promptly cleaned it up while the doctor and my son moved on to other parts of the evaluation in a different room. My wife and I disagree about our obligation. I feel we should replace the frame, as our son broke it. She feels differently, saying the doctor should have the room more kid-proofed as this facility exclusively sees children with behavioral issues. Clearly the office could have done more, but my son is still the person who caused the frame to fall. What are your thoughts?

—Anxious Dad

baconsmom

I would have offered right there, but yeah, I'm pretty sure the office should then have said, "Oh, no, don't worry about it." 

But you should always offer to replace something your kid broke - or to make some other sort of amends - if it wasn't the direct result of someone else's actions. (Like, kid throws a ball in the house, my kid ducks, ball hits a frame. I'm not offering then, duh.) 

I'm also picturing these frames hung really, really low on the wall, and wondering if the doctor is a midget. 

GBCK

I'd offer and probably be somewhat annoyed if they took me up on it.

^completely unfair of me, don't care.

PMeg819

She should have offered although I do agree that the doctor is a dumb ass for putting a picture frame that could break in a room used to evaluate kids. I don't think everything has to be child proofed but if you do autism evaluations, JFC it seems sort of obvious that these kids probably aren't going to understand how to be careful.