Mother Outraged After Babysitter Says She Won't Pretend To Be Moana Any Longer

Jan 12, 2022 by apost team

Many people idolize superheroes or Disney characters when they are younger, and they may even hope to one day meet their hero in person. It’s great for kids to have someone to look up to, but it’s also important to one day let them know that their favorite characters are not real.

In a since-deleted Reddit post from December 2020, a 22-year-old nanny shared an unusual babysitting situation where she was forced to pretend to be a Disney character for quite a long time. She works for a wealthy couple and looks after their two kids, a 3-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy. The daughter is completely obsessed with Moana, an animated character who is known for her love of the sea. The plot for the movie “Moana” is based on Polynesian myths.

When the nanny was first introduced to the little girl, she was encouraged to tell the 3-year-old that she was Moana. This bit quickly escalated, and every time the nanny would have to babysit, she would have to come up with stories surrounding the character. It all got to be too much one day when the child’s mother asked the nanny to dress in a Moana costume, with the proviso that she would get paid extra for doing so. 

This was a step too far for the babysitter, and she refused to keep up the charade any longer. Since then, she has wondered if she was wrong for crushing a little girl’s dream and asked Redditors if they thought she was wrong for how she went about the situation.

In her since-deleted Reddit post, the original poster (OP) talked about her babysitting experience regarding a family and their two kids. “The 3-year-old is absolutely obsessed with Moana,” she said. The mother even encouraged OP to say she was Moana after the 3-year-old asked. “The little girl got so excited and at that point I had no idea what I was in for,” she said.

From that point on, OP had to pretend to be Moana and even got paid extra for doing so. “I only responded to the name ‘Moana’ and told the girl all about my sea adventures,” she explained. However, constantly being in character and making up stories can be exhausting. OP asked the mother if they could start phasing this act out in the near future, to which the woman agreed. Shortly after, though, the mother seemed to go back on her word. 

“A few days ago the mother texted me a picture of a Moana costume and told me I would wear it for the family’s upcoming ‘Moana Day’ (seriously, when is it not at that house?),” OP said. “I’d have to bring the cake out and afterwards there would be some pool activities with the kids.”  This was OP’s breaking point, and she refused to keep up the charade, even if it meant losing her job. 

“I told the lady that it’s actually racially insensitive to shoehorn me into this role as I’m not even Polynesian,” OP explained. “I told her that not all people with tan skin and wavy, black hair are from the same place. Her only response was that she’s not racist and that she just wants the best for her children."

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Still, OP knew it was time to stop pretending to be Moana. She continued, “Yesterday I was with the kids and I gently told the little girl that I am not Moana, never was. She immediately started crying.” The mother was extremely angry, but the father admitted that they were asking for a “little too much.”

OP said, “Miraculously they have not fired me yet. I guess it’s because their daughter calmed down, though it’s still a very sensitive subject.” She asked Redditors if they thought she was wrong for “crushing this little girl’s dreams” and wondered if there was a better way she could have broken the news to the 3-year-old.

Reddit users were torn between who was right and who was wrong in this situation. Some sided with OP, while others didn’t think the parents did anything wrong. Some users were split right down the middle.

One Redditor commented, “It was incredibly stupid on the mother’s part to allow her daughter to believe that in the first place. There’s no way you could have kept that up forever.” Another user said, “This is just bizarre and I have no idea how you could have handled it in a way that didn’t provoke that reaction or force you to continue the act.”

A third user commented, “They wanted their daughter to be happy, which, although they want too far, is understandable. You didn’t want to keep role playing as Moana every day, only responding to Moana, swimming, wearing costumes and more. Which is definitely understandable.”

Who do you think was right in this predicament? Let us know, and feel free to pass this along to your family members and friends, too.