Babysitter Nightmare With happy Ending
AdventureDad | October 5
A few days ago I wrote a post about how tough it is for a parent to let go of a child. You know the feeling. Leaving your child with the new babysitter for the first time or enrolling a child in day care. New people, new surroundings, who can you trust with the life of your child? I was reminded this morning of how wrong things can go when I read about the babysitter who picked up the wrong 5-year-old child at school. The parents arrived home to find their babysitter taking care of a complete stranger in their house while proclaiming “This is your son…”. The parents realized what was going on when thew saw a picture of the child on television. In the meantime, their poor son was waiting patiently at school for hours until school staff made arrangements. The story had a happy ending but I was wondering if it’s appropriate to send a babysitter who has never seen your son to pick him up? I’m probably overly careful but that’s not acceptable to me.
I hope that the parents in question had no alternative to sending a stranger, although I can’t imagine where I would even consider such a thing as an option. It also seems a little bizare that the school officials weren’t more aware of which child was leaving with whom.
Doesn’t sending a stranger negate the constant (hopefully) reminders never to go with a stranger, regardless of what they say?
It wasn’t just a random, lets send sue because our sitter cancelled. This was the 1st day of someone they hired to take care of their child. Would you hire a sitter or a nanny to take care of your kids without even seeing how they interact together? They’d never met, it’s amazing to me. Then the fact that the school let either kid go home with someone they’d never seen before. Then why wouldn’t the uncle who picked up the boy from school when he was left contact the parents to find out what was going on since his nephew had gotten left at school. Alot of adults putting these poor kids at risk.
I have several problems with this scenario as it played out. At least a couple were already covered but I will happily reinterate it.
1. How do you leave a person in charge of your child without the child ever having met that person to see how interaction goes?
2. How in the hell did the daycare allow a stranger to walk off with a child?
3. Since this woman had never been there before did the daycare not even question who she was there to pick up?
4. Do they not have some sort of Sign In/Sign Out proceedure for kids?
5. Shouldn’t the parents have notified the daycare that somebody out of the ordinary was to pick up their child?
6. Why were the parents not called in this whole thing? The first person called was the uncle? Did he not call anybody?
While you are right, this fortunately worked out to be OK because of an “honest mistake” the mistakes and bunglings that went on here are unexcusable and damn near criminal. And it could have been much much worse. If I had a child in that daycare center… even one that was in no way involved, I don’t think my child would be returning there. And while no “damage” may have been done, if I were the parents of the boy that was “mistakenly” taken, I would be seeking an attorney to sue for criminal neglect. Not so much for compensation purposes (other than attorney fees), but to ensure this couldn’t happen to another child, because next time might not be so innocent.
The school totally blew this one. That child NEVER gets out the door without someone from the school speaking to someone they can verify as the legal guardian. 2 forms of ID, bonafide contact, child must KNOW the individual- these are the basics of school security.
Someone will be getting their unmentionables in a ringer at THAT school, I can tell you that!
damn - when I saw “babysitter” and “happy ending” - my thoughts became dirty….silly fetish I guess…
And where were the parents of the child that was sent home with the sitter?
Oh John- I hadn’t considered that….
… Sorry. I needed a moment. Thanks for the diversion.
Unfortunatly there is no required exams to pass when adults decide to have kids. This is just plain crazy.
Hell no.
One time, when my daughter was like 6, we left her at the ballfield. We were with another couple, two cars full of kids, and we thought she was in the other car. Got home, saw she was missing, hightailed it back and got her. She was sitting in the bleachers, hadn’t even missed us.
Or, so I thought. She is 25 now and just told us it was her MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT. Who knew.
Someone already said it, but it bears repeating.
I simply can’t imagine how the babysitter was allowed to leave with the child. As a public school administrator (elementary) and a parent whose child attends daycare, I know we check ID everytime a parent checks their child out of our school EVEN IF IT IS OUR NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR, and the ID must match the list of names parents have given as permissible to pick up their child/ren. My daycare does the same. Sometimes they apologize for having to ask for my ID, and I always assure them I wouldn’t want them not to ask.
Hey AdventureDad, I know just what you’re saying about not feeling like your kids would be cared for as well as you could, being with anyone else. BUT, put things in perspective and you’ll realize they will survive an evening with someone else. First, the wrong kid picked up at daycare was one in a million or more. We don’t read about all the successes that happen every day, but they do. Also, think of all of the different ways kids are raised in the world, you would search far and wide to find a household with routines and values exactly like yours. Yet, all of those kids actually grow up ok, most of them happy. With all of our shortcomings as new parents, learning as we go with no training manual, our kids survive despite us. If your kids were to become immersed in someone else’s household for an evening, they would see differences but likely would live to tell the tale. Kids endure babysitting every day, and because those millions of occurrences DON’T make the news, you can be pretty sure they will be ok despite the experience. For a nervous parents’ sitter, look to moms or dads that are neighborhood friends, that you chat with, have over for dinner, and know their values aren’t terribly different from your own. Offer to swap sitting for an evening out. They will be blessed by having your kids to play with for a short time, and you will by having theirs in return. Best of luck - from another nervous dad.