Babysitter Questions If She Was In The Wrong After Calling Police On Mom Who Was Home Late
What would you do?
Matt Kush / Shutterstock Babysitting can be stressful at times, especially after you have waited hours and the parents still aren't home. But would you call the police if you had waited too long?
This happened to a woman who posted about her experience on Reddit. The woman described herself as a 28-year-old female who babysits on weekends to make some extra money — but her side hustle is caused a moral conflict after an incident during one of her babysitting gigs.
The babysitter called the police when a mom didn't come home on time.
"The mom is never home on time," she told Reddit. "She used to not give me return times but finally, I started asking as it made it impossible to get anything done on the weekends."
Despite finally getting times from the mom, the babysitter found that the mom would completely disregard any set time and return home whenever she wanted without any communication. After experiencing miscommunication multiple times about pickup time and getting frustrated waiting hours for the mother to come home, one night was the final nail in the coffin for the babysitter.
The babysitter wrote on the Reddit post that she got to the house at 6 PM and was supposed to leave by 9 PM, after which she had plans with her friends. The mother promised her that she would be home on time, but once again, she was late. Hours go by and after multiple calls and texts, the babysitter left the mom a warning.
"I call her and leave a voicemail saying if she's not home in the next hour, I'm considering the kids abandoned and calling the cops. I also text her this," she wrote, not knowing any of the kids' family members or father to contact.
After giving the mother a grace period of 15 minutes and calling again, she finally called the cops.
"They showed up and I showed our agreement in text from earlier in the week confirming that she'd be home by 9," she says.
The police tried to contact the mom, who didn't answer, and then told the sitter she could go home while they took the children to the police station.
Finally, at 3 AM, the babysitter was awoken by a frantic call from the mother. Wanting to know where her kids were and why the babysitter wasn't there, the woman told the mom to check the police station. The mother then cursed her out and the babysitter hung up and went to bed.
"The next day, she sends me an essay saying the kids' father was called and there's a DCF investigation launched against her. She called me every name under the sun but I didn't think I was wrong until I spoke to a friend with kids. She said I should've just waited it out and refused to ever sit for her again. She asked if her potentially losing her kids was worth me being petty," wrote the babysitter.
Did the babysitter do the right thing?
On the Reddit thread, lots of users agreed that she was justified in calling the cops.
One user commented, "One thing I’ve learned from True Crime is the wait 24 hours to file a missing person thing is a myth. She wasn’t where she said she’d be when she said and wasn’t responding to any communication. She was in fact a missing person at that point."
Another user commented, "I 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000% agree," and said, "As a Firefighter, I have witnessed first hand the tragic results when someone fails to make the phone call on an abusive or neglectful mother. The end results of not making the calls are small-sized coffins."
Someone else also commented, "Furreal. She was 6 six hours late and not responding. That’s a are-you-dead-in-a-ditch type situation."
According to findlaw.com, The common misconception regarding missing persons is that they must be absent for at least 24 hours. However, this is rarely the case. Multiple law enforcement agencies often stress that a missing person case should be reported as early as possible.
Therefore, fortunately for the babysitter, lots of other users were on her side, and after initially doubting her decision, she now hopefully realizes she wasn't in the wrong.
Megan Hatch is a writer at YourTango who covers news & entertainment, love & relationships, and internet culture. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.