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Sorry, You Have a Diabetic Kid: Babysitter Walks Out on a Mom Who Failed to be Honest with Her
Doris de Luna
Some young people may view babysitting merely as a means of earning some cash, but there are those who take the responsibility with a degree of seriousness that must be given it. Such is the story of this Original Poster with the username u/One-Neighborhood-553, who chose to be honest with herself even though the mom who hired her had not been totally honest with her.
Photo: Pexels/Victoria Akvarel
Published on Reddit's r/AmItheA--hole forum, this is OP's story. She has a sense of guilt haunting her after walking out on a mom who needed her to watch over her kids due to a scheduled trip. She wrote, "I (18F) babysit for several families in my neighborhood. One of the families that I babysit for recommended me to this woman who is new to the neighborhood. She contacted me on Wednesday asking if I could babysit her two kids on Friday evening through Saturday afternoon. Apparently, it was her friend's birthday, and they were spending a night in the mountains to celebrate. She asked me to show up a little bit early so that she could go over things with me. Nothing abnormal, especially since I’ve never met them before."
OP showed up at the hour that was agreed upon, and the mother went over the usual things that must be done. However, she then started to discuss insulin and blood sugars. She had not informed her earlier that one of her kids, a five-year-old, has type one diabetes. From this mom's perspective, it was not important to tell her about it prior to her babysitting.
Photo: Polina Zimmerman
OP felt nervous, and she continued to relate in her post, "I have ZERO experience caring for diabetic children. I told her that I wasn’t comfortable, and she just said 'oh, don’t worry, it’s easy' and then tried to show me how to give an insulin injection. I also told her that I am squeamish around needles, and she kind of laughed it off and continued trying to teach me. 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 (and probably drunk, let's be honest)."
That was when the mother began to freak out and appealed to her to stay and babysit her kids. She didn't want to miss her friend's birthday celebration, and it seemed she was about to cry when OP stood up to leave. Still, despite feeling awful for suddenly backing out, OP returned home.
Photo: Pexels/Nataliya Vaitkevich
OP ended her post with, "I texted her when I got home and basically said that 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. She read my text but didn’t respond."
Should OP really feel bad about what happened?
Redditors didn't think so. They actually praised her for having the courage and moral conviction to do the right thing.
Signal-Woodpecker691 commented, "NTA. As a teacher, my wife has 2 kids in her class with diabetes, and she and other staff had to have special training, not just for administering insulin but also to understand blood sugar levels, the effect of foods, etc. This is not the kind of stuff you learn in a 5-minute chat before someone walks out the door and entrusts their kid to you."
HazardousLemonade likewise wrote, "Both my parents had to work with my endo nurse to learn how to give injections, and they still don't like doing it. I would never ask someone I barely know to understand the care that a Type One needs. Even nurses at some schools I've gone to had to get retrained when I started there because I was their first Type One in years and was using equipment that they had never used. Even when I was diagnosed, I was in the hospital for "Type One Training" for three days to learn what I needed to do to not die. Asking someone to learn all that in five minutes seems impossible to me."
Meanwhile, Workacct1999 also had this to say, "Exactly. Being in charge of a diabetic child is a great responsibility, and making a mistake could be fatal. The mother from this post is insane to think that a 5-minute chat would be sufficient."
