When you work as a babysitter, two of the best qualities that your customers can have is honesty and communication. When you all know for a fact that you’re on the same page, everything runs smoothly. However, if you’re looking after the kids while their parents are changing the rules of your agreement or completely ignoring you, then it’s a disaster just waiting to happen.

Redditor u/poopfupa went viral on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit after sharing a babysitting story gone wrong. She explained how the kid’s parents were late coming back home and ignored her attempts to communicate. Not only that, there was the question of money, too… Scroll down for the full story.

Bored Panda got in touch with the author of the post, redditor u/poopfupa. She was kind enough to go into detail about what happened, gave us an update, and shared some spot-on advice for any babysitter who finds herself in a similar situation. Read on for the full interview.

Babysitting can be a nightmare if the parents don’t live up to their promises

Image credits: Liza Summer (not the actual photo)

A woman turned to the internet for advice when she realized that the parents of the kid she was looking after were ignoring her

Image credits: poopfupa

Image credits: Joseph Gonzalez (not the actual photo)

Here’s how some people reacted to the situation. Some shared tips, others made jokes

The author of the post later gave a couple of updates on what happened

Bored Panda reached out to redditor u/poopfupa to hear more about what happened and to get her thoughts on dealing with similar situations in the future. She explained what happened in more detail.

“When the parents finally came home late the mother, who I was texting originally, had gone through the back door and straight upstairs and didn’t see or speak to me. I thought that was strange. At this point, the child I was babysitting was asleep and the dad came in and just asked me if I was going to be paid through the app or by cash. I reminded him that we agreed on cash,” the author of the post told us.

“He walked out of the room and said he’d be back and honestly for some reason I got a little scared at this point. I didn’t know what he was going to come back with. He was very drunk and his face was red and his hair was a mess. He came back and pulled crinkled-up bills from his pocket and handed them to me. I counted it in front of him and I was just like, ‘Well what about the 2 hours?’ And I don’t really remember what he said, mostly because he was slurring and I couldn’t even understand him. Something about needing cash for the Uber and he’s ‘sorry’ and then just quickly switched the subject and asked if his daughter was good,” she explained what happened.

“I said, ‘She was great. Thanks a lot.’ And walked out of there. It was very obvious I was upset and why, but I wasn’t going to fight for it because I was just glad he came back with some cash and not a hammer to bash my brains in… I left and reported them immediately on the app for not paying me the full amount. I didn’t say anything to them afterwards. They didn’t say anything to me. Eventually, I just blocked them anyways.”

According to the OP, her pay rate was $19 an hour to watch the child. She added that she “was great.” However, the three dogs in the house were “horribly behaved and scary.”

“We agreed that they would be home by 10:30 latest, they knew that I lived 45 minutes away and needed to be up early the next day. They not only didn’t pay me the overtime hours but were also $13 short of the original agreed-upon amount.”

The redditor said that she’s not sure why her post went viral. “I think it ended up being a very controversial subject due to all the different opinions and stories people were commenting on it. Some people called me a crybaby and said it wasn’t a big deal that I had to wait over 2 hours for them. It wouldn’t have been that bad had I gotten paid for those extra 2 hours, but I didn’t. Some people agreed that it wasn’t right for them to tell me that they would return at a set time and instead leave me waiting and wondering for hours,” the OP told Bored Panda about the wide range of reactions that her post got online.

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“In no other job field is that considered okay. A surprising amount of people felt like I should have called CPS or the police. I wouldn’t have done that unless completely necessary, but I didn’t think a couple of hours called for extreme measure. I don’t know what to think of how Reddit reacted to my post, it’s a weird platform for sure. You get the weirdest people on here,” she said that some people messaged her directly asking her to babysit their children. Meanwhile, others asked her about things completely unrelated to the post, some of which weren’t something you’d hear out loud, in polite company.

“Some people even offered to send me money to make up for it. Some people just bullied me but I didn’t take it too bad, it was entertaining me while I was stuck at a stranger’s house. I actually got banned from Reddit for a couple days after this post, it’s happened before on another post of mine that gained some traction. I think a lot of people thought it was fake and would report me so I wouldn’t get karma or something. Whatever. I don’t see how I could’ve or would’ve faked such a lame story,” she said.

“I did however enjoy the attention that my online shop got after my post went viral so that was pretty cool. It brought a lot of people to my page and from there they found my artwork and I gained probably over a hundred followers from that alone. So I can’t complain too much. It wasn’t like it was my whole job, I just needed quick money. I didn’t get what I was owed from them but I’m not worried about it anymore. I’m just simply never going to watch strangers’ children again.”

Meanwhile, Bored Panda asked u/poopfupa about what advice she’d give someone who’s stuck in a similar situation as her while babysitting. “I would suggest getting payment upfront and having like double overtime charge. Maybe that would encourage parents not to run over someone else’s valuable time. I wish I did these things prior to the job, obviously, but I’m not really in the ‘nanny field’ so I’m not an expert on these things. I didn’t expect to be treated less than by people who are trusting me to watch their child. I don’t ever plan on nannying again for a stranger, just family if they needed because I know I can trust them,” she said.

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“If I did stick to nannying as a real job then I’d definitely have a double overtime charge. I’m sure I’d learn more lessons if I did it more but that experience left a bad taste in my mouth, so I’d rather just not deal with that again. I think it’s very telling if they are willing to hire a stranger, because then they will just move on to the next nanny and do the same to them. I feel bad for that child because she probably has a revolving door of strangers watching her, and not a good solid relationship with a reliable nanny.”

The OP also wanted to clarify one part of her story, regarding the do-not-disturb feature on the kid’s mom’s phone. “A lot of people made it a point to say that the do not disturb feature on iPhones can set automatically at a certain time, she was texting me periodically throughout the night checking in, up until I sent that message and it went on do not disturb and I was very clearly being ignored.”

The author of the post had found herself in quite a pickle. The kid’s parents were running very late. She was pressed for time. It’s not like she could just leave the child without supervision. And the couple completely ignored the message she sent them, trying to verify when they were coming back home.

But the cherry on top? The fact that the couple underpaid the babysitter by $13 once they finally came back home, drunk, two and a half hours late. All in all, it wasn’t a great night for the redditor. However, her story got a ton of attention online. At the time of writing, her post already had over 87.3k upvotes.

Reactions were mixed. Of course, there were plenty of people who completely sided with the OP. Some of them shared their own powerful personal stories about babysitting gone wrong.

Not all internet users were impressed, however. Some accused redditor u/poopfupa of making things up for attention online. Others thought that the OP may have overreacted.

It’s hard to know how to react in situations like these. Probably the best approach is that everyone’s on the same page before the parents leave. ‘Kidsit’ suggests finding out what time they plan to be home, whether there’s a chance that they’ll be late, and what the absolute latest time they might come back will be. The latter is important because that’s when you can officially start to worry and can reach out to the emergency contacts they left behind, if need be.

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All in all, try to be as specific as you can about all the details. If the parents are answering your questions with general statements like, “We won’t be late,” try to diplomatically press them for a concrete time. And if they do end up running late, don’t be scared to give them a call. You are working a job after all. The parents expect you to show up on time; and you should expect them to honor their side of the deal. However, this story shows that even if you do agree on the details, not everyone will follow through on their promises.

Meanwhile, here’s what some internet users said in the aftermath of the babysitting drama

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Some people had similar stories to share. Here’s what they said

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