Photo: BAZA Production / Shutterstock
She didn't have any experience watching a diabetic child.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Dec 31, 2022
Working as a babysitter and looking after children can sometimes be a grueling effort.
There are a lot of factors that are taken into account when hired for babysitting gigs, including making sure you're aware of how to assist a child in cases of emergency.
One babysitter had to turn down a job after learning an important detail about a child she had been meant to look after.
Posting to the subreddit "r/AmItheA--hole" (AITA) — a forum where users try to figure out if they were wrong or not in an argument that has been bothering them — she described the events.
In her Reddit post, the 18-year-old woman wrote that she often babysits for multiple families in her neighborhood.
For her latest babysitting gig, one of the women she routinely babysits for recommended her to a woman that had just moved into their neighborhood.
"She contacted me on Wednesday asking if I could babysit her two kids on Friday evening through Saturday afternoon," the teenager said.
"Apparently it was her friend's birthday and they were spending a night in the mountains to celebrate."
The babysitter walked out of the job after learning that the child she was looking after had diabetes.
After agreeing to watch the woman's child, she was informed to arrive at the house a bit early so the mother could walk her through some things.
Nothing about the exchange beforehand struck her as abnormal, at least until she arrived at the house for the job.
"I show up and she starts going over the usual stuff, and then she starts talking about insulin and blood sugars."
That's when she learned that the mother's 5-year-old son has Type 1 diabetes.
She told the mother that she has no experience caring for a diabetic child, and was uncomfortable with being left to watch her son because of it.
"She just said 'oh don’t worry it’s easy' and then tried to show me how to give an insulin injection," she continued, adding that she told the mother she gets "squeamish" around needles.
Despite her clear reluctance, the mother simply waved her off with a laugh and continued showing her how to use all of her son's necessary tools for his diabetes.
"I finally had to cut her off and basically told her that unfortunately, I wasn’t comfortable caring for her diabetic child on such short notice, especially since she will be hours away."
Upon hearing her resignation, the mother immediately started begging her not to leave because she didn't want to "miss her trip."
She eventually left, though noted that she "felt bad" because the boy's mother had looked somber as she was leaving.
When the teenager got home, she sent the mother a message: "in the future, I would be willing to try, but I’d like to have some kind of 'trial run' and we could build up to overnight once I actually knew what I was doing."
After sending the message though, the babysitter wrote that the boy's mother had simply read it but didn't respond.
Most people who commented under the babysitter's Reddit post agreed that she was NTA (Not The A--hole).
"Since you are neither qualified nor comfortable with performing such a task, you made the right choice," one user pointed out.
Another user added, "She blindsided you and was hoping for the best. Even if the kid just needed to take a pill at bedtime, that sort of thing should have been disclosed when you took the gig."
"How in the world did the mother think it was a good idea to get a babysitter with no diabetic experience? Sure, it’s easy for her because she knows how to do it, but you can't say the same about others," a third user chimed in.
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.