A new mom left her TikTok followers with a lot to mull over after catching the babysitter sleeping and wondering if she’s overreacting for worrying about this.
It’s not exactly difficult to start an argument on the internet, but we can often find that one of the easiest ways to do it is to share your parenting style with the world.
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Because not only are the mommy shamers out in full force to criticize you no matter what you’re doing, but there are some topics in parenting circles that always seem to open a can of worms in even the politest of company.
But while most parents have already had their opinions on spanking or raising children with vegan diets tested at some point in the past, some scenarios can awaken debates that many of us hadn’t even considered.
And that might be why people were so conflicted when a new mom shared her concerns about her babysitter and why further debates started once she revealed some more details.
In a TikTok video released on June 12, a first-time mom named Danielle Mitchell asked her viewers if she was overreacting.
As she explained, this was in reference to a date night she and her husband had the previous Friday in which they hired a babysitter (other than their parents) for the first time.
Before they left for a night out that would span about three hours, this sitter made a good first impression by holding the baby for about 15 minutes to help him get to sleep.
She also said that she’d be listening to a book while the child was sleeping.
But by 9 pm, Mitchell checked the house’s video cameras and saw her lying on the couch.
Since the family dog was still outside by that hour, Mitchell had texted the sitter to let the animal in, thinking she was just listening to her book. But since she didn’t move, the couple soon concluded that she was asleep.
As she put it, “Internally, I’m kind of starting to freak out. Like, she’s watching our son but she’s asleep.”
And while she considered that the baby was also asleep at the time, she worried that the sitter wouldn’t hear him if he woke up and started crying.
This led them to come home early and Mitchell noted that it took the sitter a moment to wake up, which seemed to further concern her.
And while she thought that this situation wouldn’t be so bad if the sitter had the baby monitor turned on at high volume, she discovered that it wasn’t on at all.
That aside, this incident led Mitchell to wonder if it’s normal for a babysitter to be asleep while watching kids.
In her words, “It wasn’t like we were back at 2am. We were back by 9:30.”
But while this short video would inspire some healthy debate for a couple of reasons, there was one thing everyone could agree on.
Because while some chalked up Mitchell’s apprehension to the jitters of a first-time parent and others said that they never fell asleep when it wasn’t an overnight job, all believed that the sitter should have left the monitor on.
Others felt that as long as the child was sleeping, it was fine for the babysitter to do the same and reminded Mitchell that a lot of people will simply take a moment to wake up no matter where they are.
But while that matter was being discussed, a second debate was apparently triggered by Mitchell’s mention of the cameras in her home.
As we can in this image taken from Mitchell’s follow-up video , some commenters wondered whether the babysitter knew she was being recorded and raised ethical concerns if the answer was “no.”
In response, Mitchell argued that the camera were too large and obvious to go unseen.
Nonetheless, some felt that she should have explicitly told the babysitter about them. Meanwhile, others found that argument a little ridiculous and felt that in this day and age, it’s hardly unusual for homes to have cameras active at all times.
Well, at least we can all agree that the baby monitor should have been on. But I suppose the question of whether to talk to the babysitter about that or just not hire them again is another matter for discussion.
h/t: TikTok | @danimariemit
