AITA for charging a friend for a haircut?
I (30f) am I stay at home mom to three small children. I was working before I had my third and I’m now on maternity leave for six more months (I’m in Canada, so leave is up to 18 months and I get a small amount of pay the whole time) My husband (31m) makes an OK salary, but it isn’t great and things are tough with three children.
I am a hairstylist and do some cuts at home for extra money for $20 a cut.
We are best friends with another couple that I will call Matthew and Kim, also both 31. They don’t have kids, don’t plan on having any, and although they don’t make much money, they are significantly better off than us since they don’t have kids.
A few weeks ago, my husband was driving the family car and we got into an accident. No one was hurt, but it left us with only one vehicle. My husband needs it to get to work and I asked Matthew and Kim if I could borrow their second car so that I wasn’t stuck at home with the kids all day, especially if there was an emergency. (My kids aren’t in school or daycare)
They agreed although I think Kim wasn’t very happy about it. We had the car for two weeks until we replaced ours and then I returned it to them. I made sure it was gassed. A couple of nights later Matthew came over for a haircut and before his haircut, he told me that he was upset with how I returned the car because it was absolutely filthy inside and out, and he had to take it to a service car wash where they clean the inside.
I apologized but said that with three little kids, the car is going to get dirty of course. He said that if he borrowed a car from someone and it got dirty, he would clean it up. He said he would remember this the next time we ask them for favours.
I complained to a mutual friend who said I should have given him a free haircut in exchange to cover the cost of the car wash. I told her I could not afford to do that and she said that Matthew and Kim did me a huge favour and regardless of how I returned the car I owed them more than simply gas replacement and I should have comped him anyway.
So am I really TAH in this situation?
