Woman Reveals She Took Her Neighbor's Toddler On Vacation Without Telling Her
It was all a huge misunderstanding.
TikTok A woman's hilarious retelling of "the biggest mistake [she] ever made in her life," has gone viral after revealing that she unknowingly took a child she had been babysitting on vacation.
In a TikTok video, the woman, who is from the UK, explained that the incident happened in 1991 when she was 20 years old and had been asked to look after a child in her neighborhood.
She revealed that she took her neighbor's child on vacation without telling the toddler's mother.
The woman, whose username is @seenasyouasked, said that she when she was 20 and newly married, she had lived next to a family with a 2-year-old child.
"I used to look after him, sometimes babysit for a couple of hours [and] help his mum out," she said.
Since she occasionally looked after her neighbor's son, one day, the toddler's mom asked if she'd be able to watch her child overnight since she was going away for the evening.
The babysitter saw no problem with the inquiry, instantly agreeing to watch the little boy since she had done it on numerous other occasions, and knew the mom well enough to accept.
However, she told the toddler's mother, who said she'd bring her son over on Monday night, that she was going away on vacation on Tuesday for a week.
After informing the mother about her plans, she didn't seem perturbed by them, telling the babysitter "it's fine."
"We did not communicate properly," the woman pointed out. “Monday comes along. She drops off this sweet little boy — he’s really lovely, he stayed overnight."
“Early Tuesday morning, we all packed up in the car. I popped him in his car seat. We drove off to London — we lived in Birmingham … stayed in a hotel."
During their impromptu trip together, the woman acknowledged that the toddler had behaved well throughout the week.
“He was so lovely. I got him food and bought some extra nappies. (The mother) hadn’t sent enough nappies for the week, and I just went through the week with this little lad,” she recalled.
“During the day, I took him to the zoo, walked around Hyde Park. We had a blast!”
When she returned home with the toddler, she was shocked to learn his mother didn't know she'd taken him.
The woman pointed out that she was unable to phone the toddler's mother since she didn't own a cell phone.
Since she also didn't know his mother's number by heart, she instead wrote postcards throughout the week to update her on the well-being of her son.
"I bought postcards, and every day I wrote a postcard, posted it to her address, just so she’d know everything was OK and the kid was fine,” she said.
She eventually comes back and the end of the week with her son, and as they pull into the driveway she sees her neighbor come out to greet them.
The toddler's mother immediately embraced her son and was "all smiles" as she thanked the babysitter for watching him for the week.
However, after the greetings were over, the woman told her son's babysitter that when she said "that's fine," she meant she'd come back for him before she needed to leave for her vacation.
“I didn’t actually mean for you to take him on holiday for the whole week,” the mother told her.
Horrified, the little boy's babysitter was thankful that she sent his mother postcards so she didn't worry and think something nefarious had happened.
"I was like, 'oh my God! I'm so sorry, can't believe I took your kid!'" she said, but the toddler's mother was unaffected, brushing off her apology, and joking that she was able to "get a break for a week."
TikTok users were both shocked and amused at the woman's blunder.
"Accidental kidnapping is a thing? This is truly wild, glad all was okay though, lucky you thought to send the postcards," one user wrote.
Another user added, "I love how you just took a kid on holiday with no questions, glad it worked out on all parts though!"
"The mum got a much-needed break by the sounds of it and the kid had an amazing time. Sounds like it all worked out for the best," a third user chimed in.
A fourth user remarked, "this is such a great story I had to listen to it twice. Absolutely adorable, the trust of the mom, the misunderstanding, perfect. Adorable. Hilarious."
"I thought this was going to end with you coming back and her running out screaming about her son being kidnapped," a fifth user joked.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.