Childcare agreements depend on trust, respect, and sticking to the plan.

So when a mom arrived home well past the agreed time and dismissed her babysitter’s request for extra pay, tensions flared.

Keep reading for the full scoop.

AITA for not paying the babysitter what she demanded?

I (31F) have one son, 3M. He’s very sweet, calm, low-maintenance, and a great kid. I lucked out with him.

Because he was so easy, this mom was able to get a lower rate on childcare.

We asked one of his daycare providers, B, to watch him for five hours, from 1–6, since I had to work. B knows he’s an easy kid and she knows him well, so she went with a lower charge, and we agreed on $50 for the whole time.

It wasn’t discussed in terms of hours; rather, we agreed that $50 for the time she was there was sufficient.

Then one day, this decided upon rate was put to the test.

Well, there ended up being a situation at work that prevented me from getting home at 6, so I wasn’t able to relieve her until around 6:45.

My husband works from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., so him relieving her was out of the question.

To this mom, she thought her sitter would just be understanding.

When I got there, she seemed to be in a hurry to get out of the house. I understand that I was late, but as a person who works with kids and their parents, she is well aware that things come up.

It soon became clear this sitter needed extra compensation for the extra time.

I handed her a $50 bill and she thanked me, but asked for $7 more. I told her that she got the $50 she agreed on, but she said that since I was 45 minutes late and I was paying her $10 an hour, she had earned $7 more for the extra 45 minutes.

This mother bristled at the suggestion and refused.

I told her that’s not what we agreed on. We agreed on $50, and it shouldn’t matter that I was late because we didn’t discuss it in terms of hours.

She argued that I agreed I would be home at six and didn’t adhere to that either, but it’s an entirely different story.

The whole interaction really rubbed her the wrong way.

I ended up only giving her $50 and showing her out of the house. I’ll admit that she did a great job with my son.

But in my opinion, she had no right to ask for more. My husband and mother both think that I was being an AH.

I don’t agree. AITA?

 

What did Reddit have to say?

It’s just not right to stiff the daycare provider like this.

Adequate childcare should be something worth paying extra for.

The sitter wasn’t even asking for that much more money.

This entitled mother really has it all wrong.

When it comes to hiring childcare, when you’re running late, you have to pay for it.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.