A mom of three recently turned to the internet for help in evaluating a situation she got into because of her oldest daughter’s behavior.
This mom explained that her babysitter quit, and she blamed her 6-year-old daughter for it. Her husband doesn’t agree and thinks she was far too harsh with what she did.
She started out by explaining that her 6-year-old “began to develop a huge attitude” towards her babysitter, which she thinks she picked up after spending time with a friend of hers who bossed her nanny around with basically zero consequences.
Although she tried to nip her daughter’s behavior in the bud and stated she told her daughter to listen to the babysitter and respect her, things started to spiral out of control.
“A few months ago, the sitter asked my daughter to grab the baby’s diaper bag and my daughter sassed back saying “You can’t tell me what to do, I’m the boss of you!” Sitter told me that night and I immediately addressed it, in front of the sitter,” this mom went on to say.
“I told my daughter that was not acceptable, she’s not the boss of anyone and I took away her TV privilege for a week. It happened again just a month later and I had a much sterner talk with her, took away more privileges.”
“Both times I made her verbally apologize and write a note of apology to her sitter. The sitter accepted it but I could tell she was losing patience.”
This mom didn’t blame her nanny at all and then decided to give her a raise because she felt so guilty. On top of that, she cut her daughter off from spending time with her friend who was nasty to her nanny, hoping that would curb things.
She also tried talking to her daughter, who admitted she thought she was the babysitter’s boss since her family pays her. This mom tried to help her daughter realize that the babysitter was paid and hired to “take care of her” so she should be respectful.
Understandably, this mom finished that conversation thinking her daughter got the picture, but that wasn’t quite the case. Recently, her daughter started acting out towards the babysitter, who attempted to patiently deal with her before sending her to have some time alone in her room. This little girl didn’t go quietly though.
“My daughter screamed in her face “I’m the boss of you! I’ll get you fired!” The sitter calmly picked up the phone and called me (we have cameras in our house-which she knew about) and told me to come home, immediately,” this mom went on to say.
“Upon arrival, she quit. Nothing I said or did could make her stay, and I understood. I was furious with my daughter and let her have it.”
“She had several things taken away from her and she didn’t do anything remotely fun until recently.”
After their babysitter quit, this mom has struggled to find different options for her children while she attempts to replace her sitter.
“Because there’s no more sitter, there’s no one to take her to her swim class,” this mom said. “She’s been complaining that she can’t do it anymore and I told her that it’s her own fault.”
“She is why her sitter quit and until I can find someone new, she won’t get to do the fun activities that her sitter took her to.”
“My husband agrees that there’s nothing we can do, but thinks I was far too harsh with our daughter, saying she’s only 6.”
You can read her original post on Reddit here.
