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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Cleaner ate our snacks

247 replies

FrazzledRockRed · 08/08/2018 06:26

I’ve always said to our cleaner ‘help yourself to tea and biscuits’. I’m not the teabag and biscuit counting type so I don’t know if she did. She comes with her young dc Hmm.

Yesterday we came home to a brand new pack of 4 breakfast bars down to only one. It could only be the cleaner and dc.

There’s a difference between opening something with a countable number and having a biccie or 2.

Aibu to think this is taking the piss?

OP posts:
Somersetlady · 08/08/2018 06:55

The biscuits really wouldn’t bother me.

Paying someone to mind their own kids whilst doing a “shit job” of the cleaning would bother me a lot!

Original poster
FrazzledRockRed · 08/08/2018 06:56

If the children were starving they could have had bread or even pasta. Much more filling.

OP posts:
HelpmeobiMN · 08/08/2018 06:58

I don't think she's taking the piss, you just have different understandings of what was meant by 'help yourself'. That said if she's bringing her kid without your permission and doing a terrible job, you should look for someone new.

Mummyoflittledragon · 08/08/2018 07:00

Shoxfordian
That’s what I thought. I was recommended the most expensive cleaning company in my neighbourhood. They charged £75 for 2 women. Stayed here approx 1.5 hours. Several surfaces weren’t cleaned, lots of cobwebs (they came fortnightly). They were worse at cleaning than my unreliable cleaner. It’s a big 4 bed 3 bath. But the deal is one bath 3 beds done as we don’t use the En-Suite and occasionally more when guests come but to do less downstairs in its place. They only lasted 3 cleans. Had I wanted them to stay 2 hours, it would have cost £90. I did do bits in between - sinks / loos / vacuum.

9amTrain · 08/08/2018 07:01

Bread and pasta are even more far away from biscuits than breakfast bars are so surely that would be taking the piss even more? 😂

notnowman · 08/08/2018 07:03

Bread and pasta 😂

speakout · 08/08/2018 07:05

Sack her.

It was either her or the builder..

You said help yourself but three breakfast bars is really taking the biscuit.

neveradullmoment99 · 08/08/2018 07:05

YABU!
You said 'Help yourself'
She most likely took the breakfast bars for her children. Is it really that big a deal? Especially as you said she could. You are being unreasonable.

abundantlyclear · 08/08/2018 07:07

Can I ask what breakfast bars they were op?
Breakfast bars should not have been eaten in place of biscuits. What if the Op actually needed them for breakfast?

neveradullmoment99 · 08/08/2018 07:07

I agree that the issue here isn't really about the breakfast bars but bringing her children along. Maybe just a gentle word to say that it has to be agreed when her children have to come. I appreciate that its not easy to get childcare, especially when kids are at school.

PanGalaticGargleBlaster · 08/08/2018 07:07

Unless you are a complete moron the phrase ‘help yourself’ does not literally mean take as much as you want, it’s just a polite figure of speech.

neveradullmoment99 · 08/08/2018 07:08

..and you are on a low wage.

neveradullmoment99 · 08/08/2018 07:09

She has clearly taken the biscuits for her dc. I don't see this as a huge issue.

GinDaddy · 08/08/2018 07:09

@9amtrain

Indeed the OP said “help yourself to tea and biscuits”

The problem is the ambiguity around the word “biscuit” - you’re asking the recipient to make a judgement call on this. Yep, any reasonable person might say “a couple out of a packet rather than wrapped bars” but that’s asking people to make judgements, without guidance.

At a (very big) stretch someone could consider the wrapped bars as a biscuit - I think when it’s left ambiguous like this, it leaves everything open to interpretation

As a result that’s why I think it’s easier to visually demarcate rather than vague terms

ShatnersBassoon · 08/08/2018 07:13

The crap cleaning would be far more of a gripe than a biscuits/bars semantics quandary. I don't suppose you'd be too bothered if an excellent cleaner had had a Tracker or three.

twattymctwatterson · 08/08/2018 07:14

You said help yourself. She did. She isn't a mind reader.

FinallyHere · 08/08/2018 07:15

She does a shit job but I’ve got other stresses so can’t be bothered to tackle that.

Seriously, do yourself a favour, stop stressing about a few biscuits and sort out the bad service.

Eveforever · 08/08/2018 07:17

I'm thinking that if she did a better job cleaning you probably wouldn't care, or at least not as much. You may not want to tackle the issue of the shit cleaning, but I'd say that's more of your problem really.

EssentialHummus · 08/08/2018 07:23

If you’re not happy with her bringing her kids, tell her. If you’re only happy with her eating biscuits from x shelf, tell her. You may need a new cleaner if either of these is a dealbreaker or affects how happy she is to work with you, and that’s the risk you run.

user1457017537 · 08/08/2018 07:27

You can afford a cleaner but are moaning about the fact she and her child ate 3 biscuit type breakfast bars costing approx £2.

seven201 · 08/08/2018 07:28

I think one of her kids took them. Maybe the cleaner said "go get yourself one biscuit from the cupboard" and the dc took what they wanted and the cleaner just didn't know they'd done that.

chicola · 08/08/2018 07:32

If they are Belvita then they are biscuits.

FurryDice · 08/08/2018 07:33

At a (very big) stretch someone could consider the wrapped bars as a biscuit -

Really? What about those biscuits that come wrapped in a packet of 3

FurryDice · 08/08/2018 07:34

Is it a stretch? Breakfast bars seem very biscuity to me. Again, it’s not fucking caviar

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 08/08/2018 07:34

Well, what's eaten's eaten.

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