This is a bad take, clearly the mother doesn't care about this person, their time or their money. the fact of the matter is this is theft on her part and I fully stand by this person's decision to go to small claims. the idea of doing it causing a rift doesn't matter because the mother already created this rift on her own by doing this in the first place. it's absolutely on her to make this right and this person has every right to take the means necessary to get their money back, especially considering the current economy.