Tardy mother returns home to her children very, very late: her babysitter reports her for child abandonment to the police
Many families resort to the services of a babysitter when they need it, especially if they are single parent or if they work long, busy or out-of-hours shifts and schedules. For example, some moms just cannot avoid getting a trusted person to look after their children or pick them up from school. But what are the rules that babysitters and the families must observe and follow? A 28-year-old woman complained to Reddit users after spending an entire evening trying to phone, without success, the mother of the children she was babysitting. The issue then got heated, with both women accusing each other of "child abandonment".
The point is this: how should a babysitter behave if the mother does not come home at the agreed time? We think you will all agree, that in addition to the babysitter, the mother also has great responsibilities in this regard.
via Reddit / Electronic_Professor
The babysitter told her story in a detailed Reddit post, recounting her experience of babysitting for a certain mother that would hardly ever respect the schedule she had agreed with her, and almost always came home later than the appointed hour. One afternoon, the babysitter repeatedly advised her mother to return home on time as she had a busy schedule in the upcoming evening. The agreement was that from 6 pm to 9 pm the children would be with the babysitter, but thereafter, the mother would have to be home - no excuses accepted, full stop! But despite this arrangement, something went wrong.
"I arrived at the house at 6 pm and the mother had to be back by 9 pm" wrote the babysitter, "I informed her that I had plans for the evening and that she needed to be back on time. But by 9 pm, she still wasn't back and I did not know how to contact any of her family, including the father."
Unsplash / Not the actual photo
Receiving no response to the constant calls and messages sent to her mother, the babysitter sent her a final warning: if she did not return within the hour, she would go to the police. The woman never replied to the message and failed to show up in the next hour. Tired of the mother's habitually tardy behavior, the babysitter called the police. The police officers went to the house where the babysitter was working and checked the messages the babysitter had sent from her phone. At that point, the police released the babysitter and took the children to the safety of their precinct. Finally, at 3 am, the children's mother phoned the babysitter. She was livid because she had not found anyone at her house. And as if that were not enough, the woman then laid a charge against the babysitter, despite her having done everything possible to get in touch with the mother.
The babysitter doesn't believe she made a mistake in contacting the police, but she also wanted to confirm this with Reddit users by asking for their opinion. Most user agreed with her actions, but there are also some who argued that she should not have gone to the police and that, at most, she should have waited for the children's mother and demanded to be paid for the extra hours she worked. In any case, this babysitter will no longer be working for this unreliable mother.
This is not an easy case to decide: what's your opinion? Tell us about it in the comments!
