A busy mom has been praised after exacting sweet revenge on a family member who charged her $200 to look after her kid for the day.
The woman, who asked to be identified as Sarah from Tennessee, earned widespread plaudits after sharing her story to Reddit under the handle u/NefariousAloe.
“I knew I was in the right, but it did feel good to be validated,” she told Newsweek. “The situation is amusing more than anything. It’s better to be amused than mad about it anyway.”
The Reddit post detailed how, a few years back, she found herself in a bind after her child’s daycare contacted her at the last minute to explain there had been “a death in the family” and the facility would be closed as a result.
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“I couldn’t miss work, as I had a very important day, so I scrambled to find a sitter,” she wrote. “My step brother’s girlfriend was basically the only person I know that doesn’t work so I called her. She says ‘Sure, but I can only watch him for 6 hours, and I’ll give you my family rate so it will only be $200.'”
There can be no denying the fact that childcare costs in the United States are increasingly untenable for the average family.
Research compiled by The Department of Labor found that childcare costs for a single child in 2022, ranged from $5,357 for school-age home-based care in small counties to $17,171 for infant center-based care in very large counties. Those price ranges equate to between 8 percent and 19.3 percent of median family income.
Sarah was nevertheless stunned at the response of her stepbrother’s partner. “I asked if she was serious,” she wrote. “She assured me she was, and that this was her livelihood and she takes it VERY seriously…that she was already offering me a FAMILY discount.”
She noted in her Reddit post that babysitting wasn’t actually the woman’s livelihood; her partner apparently paid for everything because she refused to get a job.
Sarah grudgingly paid the $200 for what amounted to “a little over 4 hours” of childcare. Fast-forward a couple of years though and, as luck would have it, she was presented with the perfect opportunity to return the favor.
“She has a day when her childcare falls through and sends out the same request I did: ‘Can anyone watch my kid? I HAVE to go to work or I’ll get fired,'” Sarah wrote on Reddit. “I told her I could absolutely do it! Then charged her the same bogus price she charged me.”
Sarah couldn’t resist rubbing salt in the wound by explaining she was charging the “family rate.”
Posted as part of the Petty Revenge subreddit, the story was lapped up by fellow Redditors. One responded: “I would have doubled it.” While another joked: “She’s lucky you didn’t take inflation into account.”
Sarah told Newsweek her stepbrother’s now ex-partner ultimately declined her offer, but she has no qualms about her response.
“It doesn’t exactly make me feel good to be petty, but it made me feel good to offer her the same generosity she offered to me,” she said. “I’m a huge supporter of treating people the way you want to be treated and helping people when you can.”
She said what made the initial $200 charge all the more disappointing was that she had regularly gone out of her way to help her stepbrother’s ex.
“I’m a single mom but I paid for her dress, hair, makeup, etc. for her prom. I’ve covered her vet bills for her dog. I’ve given her gas money so many times, given her furniture and clothes. We all helped her get her first car, and covered her on multiple vacations,” she told Newsweek.
While the two are no longer on speaking terms, Sarah hopes that her story, on some level, helps others see the importance of helping others with no reward.
“Helping people in general isn’t normalized enough,” she said. “You see people that help the homeless etc on social media but they film it and turn it into a spectacle. It removes the grace from the equation.”
“I have a neighbor who is also a single dad and we’ve built this custom of having each other’s backs,” Sarah said. “If he has to work late, I’ll pick up his kids and vice versa. It’s only beneficial to build and cultivate relationships like this and build that sense of community. Just be good to people.”
