Babysitter admits she took child on holiday for a week without telling parents

A babysitter has admitted to bringing every parents' nightmare to life as she recalled taking the child on holiday for an entire week without informing their family.

I don't have a kid, but I imagine there's a fine line between dream and nightmare when it comes to getting a bit of alone time from your children. A few minutes of silence? Peaceful. An hour of silence? Very suspicious.

Extend that silence to an entire unexpected week, and it must be ridiculously unnerving. Unfortunately, that's what some parents had to deal with after leaving TikToker @seenasyouasked in charge of their two-year-old son.

In a post shared on the platform last week, the user spoke about the 1991 instance in which a mum asked if she could watch her child overnight, to which the babysitter agreed - but warned she was going on holiday the next day.

"Yeah, yeah that's fine," the mum apparently replied.

Now, this is where the wires got crossed.

@seenasyouasked/TikTok

The TikToker recalled that the babysitting night went well initially. The two-year-old stayed the night, and the next morning she popped him in his car seat, packed up the car and set off on holiday, as she'd told the mum she'd planned to do.

In the video, she explains: "We drove... all the way to London, stayed in a hotel, I got the hotel to give us a little cot, he was so happy, got him food and bought some extra nappies [as] she hadn't sent enough nappies for the week, and just kind of went through the week with this little lad."

The former babysitter adds that the little boy didn't really seem to miss his mum that much as he knew his minder pretty well, and the pair enjoyed fun days out to the zoo and Hyde Park.

After returning from the holiday, she states how the mum came over to collect her son and explained that there had been a slight miscommunication when she'd said 'that's fine'.

Rather than 'that's fine, take him with you', the mum actually meant, 'that's fine, I'll be back before you go away'.

@seenasyouasked/TikTok

There were no mobile phones at the time, so the pair hadn't been able to communicate during the week, though the babysitter at least bought postcards to help keep the mum up to date with their adventures and let her know that everything was fine.

Thankfully the mum took the incident well, and was actually grateful for the break. It's lucky, because it could easily have gone the other way, with a manhunt out for the baby and the unsuspecting babysitter.

There's a lesson to take from this: when it comes to babysitting, make sure you're both in agreement about when the arrangement will come to an end. It's just better for everyone.