Dad Refuses To Pay For Babysitter's Broken Glasses Due To 'Misunderstanding'

May 18, 2022 by apost team

Being a parent is incredibly hard, especially when you’re raising younger children. Since they aren’t old enough to be left alone yet, parents need to find someone trustworthy to watch their kids whenever they aren’t able to be home. However, finding the right babysitter is sometimes easier said than done.

For one father, he was fortunate enough to find a babysitter, thanks to one of his co-workers. He is a widower with two children, ages 9 and 11, and recently started going back to work. He works the night shift, so while his sister watches his kids during the day when they aren’t at school, the father found himself in need of a babysitter for the evenings. One of his co-workers has a family member who just so happens to be a college student in need of some extra cash, so she was more than happy to start working as the family’s babysitter.

Everything was going extremely well until February 2022. There was a night when the babysitter was watching the two kids when an unfortunate incident happened. The 9-year-old girl ended up breaking the babysitter’s glasses. After hearing both sides of the story, the dad believed that it had been done by accident and that his daughter didn’t intentionally break the babysitter’s glasses.

Regardless, the babysitter was adamant that he would be paying for a new pair of glasses. However, since the dad thought it was an accident, he didn’t see why he needed to and figured the babysitter was just trying to weasel more money out of him. He went to Reddit the same month the incident took place to ask users for their advice on what he should do moving forward.

Starting off his Reddit post, the original poster (OP) asked, "AITA for refusing to pay the babysitter for new glasses after my daughter broke her old ones?" He talked about how he had started going back to work, meaning that his 9-year-old and 11-year-old kids were in need of a babysitter. Thankfully, he was able to find one thanks to one of his co-workers, and everything was going pretty well until recently.

"The babysitter called me while I was at work to tell me that my 9-year-old daughter broke her glasses," OP said. "I got home, heard both sides of the story and came to a conclusion that it was in fact an accident, but the babysitter said my daughter broke them intentionally after she refused to let her outside late in the evening."

When OP asked his 11-year-old daughter for the truth, she sided with the babysitter. However, he figured that she was just mad at her younger sister and was trying to get her in trouble, so he believed his 9-year-old daughter instead.

"I apologized to the babysitter for the misunderstanding but she insisted there was no misunderstanding and then asked me to pay her for a pair of new glasses," OP said. "I was taken aback by her request and told her I thought we talked this out and rolled it out as an accident but she insisted it wasn't an accident."

OP continued, "I apologized but refused and said it was unfair to expect me to pay, especially since she didn't pay attention to keep her glasses safe regardless of whether it was an accident or not."

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The babysitter grew more emotional but stayed adamant that the 9-year-old girl broke her glasses on purpose, and OP's older daughter continued to side with her. However, he still believed that his younger daughter broke the glasses by mistake. His kids then started fighting with each other, and OP asked the babysitter to leave.

Since OP's co-worker is related to the babysitter, she became involved and shamed OP for condoning his 9-year-old's behavior and for refusing to buy the babysitter a new pair of glasses. "It's been days and the babysitter is still wanting me to pay for new glasses but I feel like she's trying to use the fact that I'm in dire need of help and is hoping to get extra money out of my pocket," OP said.

Many Reddit users filled the comment section telling OP just how wrong he was for not helping the babysitter out. One user commented, "It doesn't actually matter if it was an accident or not, your child broke her glasses so you need to pay to replace them." Another user added, "You are legally responsible for accidents as well as deliberate breakages that happen on your property to people you have employed."

A third user pointed out that OP seemed to be favoring one child over the other. The user said:

"We get it. You have a favorite child who can do no wrong, and you literally let her get away with destroying accessibility aids which are necessary for, you know, SEEING. Even if it was an 'accident,' she's (your child, and therefore you) still responsible for it. The babysitter isn't trying to squeeze money out of you, your child broke her glasses."

Who do you believe was to blame for the babysitter's glasses breaking? Do you think this man should have offered to help her purchase a new pair? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your family and friends.