Babysitter fakes emergency after parents fail to return home, ignore calls and texts
By Merryn Porter |
Taking on a paid role as a babysitter is a rite of passage for many teens eager to take on added responsibility and earn some cash.
But a young babysitter took drastic ?action after the parents of her young charges failed to come home at the designated time, concocting a story that their garage was being broken into.
Now, after she was taken to task by the children's mother, she has asked the internet if she was in the wrong.
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The 15-year-old girl took Reddit's popular "Am I the A---hole?"advice column this week to admit "I lied to the people who I was babysitting for to get them to come home."
She explained she babysits to make money after taking both a first-aid course and a babysitting course.
The previous weekend, the parents of her little sister's classmate asked if she would babysit while they attended a wedding.
"I asked how late they would need me and if I should pack an overnight bag if they were going to be staying out all night," she wrote.
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"They said that they would be home by midnight. So I checked with my dad if that was okay because he is my ride," she said, adding "he doesn't want me alone in a car with adults that he does not know."
"So my dad was there to pick me up at 11:50pm. The kids were all asleep and I was watching TV.
"I had texted them at 11pm to double check that they would be on time. The mum texted me back 'yes'.
"12.30pm they still aren't there. I texted again. No answer. I called my dad and he was pissed. Not at me."
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The girl said that at 1am she called them but there was no answer. Her dad went home to make a coffee and came back, and was soon "ready to blow."
After texting "every 15 minutes" with no response, she said she had an idea at 2.20am.
"I texted them that someone tried to break into their garage but that the alarm scared them away," she wrote.
It did the trick, with the couple finally arriving home "drunk in an Uber" 15 minutes later.
"My dad made them pay me for my extra time before we left," she said, adding he also said she was "not allowed to babysit for them again unless I charged them for an overnight stay."
But things took a turn when the girl saw them at school while picking up her sister.
"She gave me s--- for scaring her and her husband," she said, adding "they had checked their security cameras and no one tried to break in."
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"I said, 'Sorry the alarm went off, so I called you.' She called me a liar. Which is fair. But I don't feel bad about what I did. They lied to me first.
"My mum says I should have just sucked it up but my dad says that they broke our deal.
"I kind of feel bad for tricking them into coming home from their party. But they could have told me it was an overnight or texted me that they were going to be late."
The girl said at one stage her mother wanted her to call the police in case they had an accident, "but I thought that if they were still at the wedding it would cause a scene."
More than 1600 people have so far commented, with many saying she was not in the wrong.
"The fact that the parents said yes they would be home at 12 and then couldn't/wouldn't respond for two hours is bulls---. Where she gets off being pissed at you is crazy," said one.
"They were neglectful parents. They are in the wrong. Their poor planning is not your problem," said another.
Others suggested being more than 30 minutes late without letting her know was considered "child abandonment" and she was within her rights to call authorities.
Another said her lie was probably the only thing that got them to come home. "They would have stayed out all night leaving a teenager to take care of their children if [she] hadn't lied to make them come home. They're more concerned about their property than their children or the person they left to care for them."
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