Let’s be real, babysitting isn’t exactly one of the most glamorous jobs out there. Generally speaking, the pay isn’t great, the hours can be long, and you’re stuck with the very real responsibility of keeping a kid, or kids, from hurting themselves, or each other.
One babysitter turned to an online community to vent about how one of her wealthy clients bombarded her with mixed (and increasingly angry) messages until she finally quit. Now that the dust has settled, though, she’s wondering if that was a jerk move.
More info: Reddit
Babysitting can come with its perks, but dealing with entitled clients isn’t one of them
Image credits: senivpetro / Freepik (not the actual photo)
One babysitter, who was employed by a wealthy family, worked 20 hours a week, but the exact times weren’t set in the summer
Image credits: drobotdean / Freepik (not the actual photo)
One Friday, the dad she worked for said they’d probably need her to come in on the following Monday, but that he’d check with his wife and text her confirmation
Image credits: kues1 / Freepik (not the actual photo)
When she didn’t get a text, she thought she’d show up at 5 like she usually does, but then she got a series of confusing and increasingly angry messages from the dad
Image credits: collegekit13
After trying to reason with him politely, she eventually decided to quit on the spot, but now she’s asked an online community if doing so was a jerk move
Working for rich families can sound glamorous… until it’s not. The original poster (OP) recently shared her experience with a demanding employer who paid well but expected mind-reading. She was hired to care for two kids, earning $25 an hour plus perks, with a flexible 20-hour weekly schedule. All in all, it seemed like a dream job.
The trouble started when the dad vaguely told her she “might” be needed at 1PM on Monday, but never confirmed. Assuming it was her usual 5 PM start, she didn’t rush over until he called angrily, asking why she wasn’t there. When she apologized and offered to come, he hung up, only to later accuse her of being unreliable.
He berated her for “bad service,” told her she’d “be lucky to graduate college,” and even called her a name that’s not fit to print. That was her breaking point. She quit on the spot, refusing to tolerate verbal slander for any amount of money.
The next day, she received a letter firing her for “child endangerment” and slashing her final pay to just $5. The fallout didn’t stop there, either. The kids were devastated, and one even got seriously injured in a panic after learning she wouldn’t be coming back. While OP still feels guilty, her readers rushed to reassure her that standing up to toxic, entitled employers isn’t wrong, it’s basic self-respect.
Image credits: myoceanstudio / Freepik (not the actual photo)
To be honest, we’re hardly surprised OP put her foot down after the barrage of bullying behavior. Who can blame her when the dad was such an arrogant jerk? But just what is it that makes wealthy people think they can get away with treating “the help” like trash? We went looking for answers.
According to Ian Taylor from the BBC’s Science Focus, psychology papers are littered with cases of people behaving badly (or even illegally) when they feel powerful or consider themselves to be high-status.
Taylor writes that one celebrated paper published by the University of California, Berkeley, reported the results of seven experiments that observed the behavior of people with higher or lower power and social status. Spoiler alert: powerful people are the worst and, because they see themselves as superior, they treat people they perceive as ‘lower class’ (like nannies) as subordinates, rather than equals.
The good news for OP is that, according to therapists, a lot of wealthy people are, in fact, pretty miserable. Lee Ying Shan of CNBC writes that, more often than not, the super-rich struggle with feelings of isolation, depression, purposelessness, and paranoia, amongst others. Proof, once again, that even the experts agree money can’t buy you happiness.
It’s a pity for the kids, but we’d say OP made the right call. With a boss as entitled as hers was, who knows what he’d have asked of her next, or how he’d have asked it? He already expected her to be a mind-reader, after all.
What do you think? Was the OP within her rights to walk away, or should she have put up with more bad behavior? Share your thoughts in the comments!
In the comments, readers seemed to agree that the original poster was not the jerk in the messy situation, but that her client most definitely was
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