There is nothing more terrifying than something happening to our kids. It’s a nightmare for many parents who wake up from a deep sleep having that fear realized in just a dream. Unfortunately, there are parents who face this in real life and it’s scary for anyone charged with caring for a young kid.
Which is what happened to one babysitter who was watching two children. She turned her head for a moment and before she knew it, a child she was watching went missing. Now, the mom is upset – but it’s not because her kid went missing, but it’s now the babysitter handled it that has mom all upset.
Posting to Reddit’s AITA community, the original poster gave a quick rundown on what happened. “I nanny a 10 year old and an 8 year old,” she wrote. “I'll refer to them as 8 and 10. 8 seemingly vanished into thin air.”
Cue terror, right? The young boy went missing inside the house, and the babysitter didn’t know what to do.
“He was in the bathroom, I was talking to 10 and then we couldn't find him,” she explained.
OP couldn’t find him anywhere, despite looking around.
“10 and I looked all over inside the house,” she admitted. Adding they also checked, “the backyard, yelled for him in the front yard.”
She then “sent 10 around the block on his bike (they are allowed to go around the block but 8 isn't supposed to go alone). 10 even knocked on their friend's door. No 8.”
Thankfully, they eventually did find the 8-year-old.
“By this time about 20 minutes have passed since I last saw 8,” OP recalled. “I'm flipping out. 8 knows the rules, didn't bring his phone with him, and has never taken off before. So I told 10 to call their mom while I called 911.”
Three minutes later, “8 comes strolling up the block.” He was totally fine and had gone a few blocks away, “doing whatever 8 year olds do. He knows that he's not supposed to be over there, he knows he's supposed to take his phone with him, and he knows he's not supposed to be outside by himself, and that if he wants to go outside he has to tell me,” OP explained. “For some reason he ignored all of that.”
By this point, the mom is home and she “completely flipped out.”
“Screaming at me IN FRONT OF THE KIDS,” she told Reddit. “She got down right mean and said some pretty cruel things to me. So I don't work for her anymore! I don't need a job that bad.”
The mom wasn’t necessarily upset that her son went missing — she was upset that OP called 911. “I think she was worried about CPS,” OP wrote. “I know she's on their radar.”
The mom’s reaction confused OP, who thought she had done the right thing. “She never said anything about calling her first in any sort of emergency, so she basically kind of chewed me out for calling 911.”
With this, OP turned it over to Reddit wanting to know if she was wrong for calling emergency services.
“I’m a 911 dispatcher, and you handled the situation appropriately,” one person replied. “You took a reasonable amount of time to search the area for possible locations and then you called for help. Informing mom is important, yes, but finding the kid is first priority and 911 has better resources to help immediately than mom does.”
“[Not the a–hole],” another agreed. “You did the right thing.”
“You reacted quickly which could have save the kid if he had been kidnapped,” shared another person. “You are a pro and the mother never talk to you about that. She is clearly in the wrong here. I praise you for your quick reaction and quick thinking in such an emergency.”
“It may have been a bit of an overreaction, but as a fellow nanny, when you can’t find a kid your heart just drops, so I fully understand where your thought process was,” wrote someone else. “In situations like that, it’s always better to overreact and feel silly than to possibly underreact and carry the guilt with you for the rest of your life. Your boss is being unreasonable.”
Thankfully this ended OK and the little boy was safe. That would have been terrifying for the babysitter and it’s a good think she acted quickly — even though it turned out he was OK.
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