Cleaner ate our snacks

[FrazzledRockRed]

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 .

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?

I feel a bit sorry for the cleaner. Can't be rolling in it and has to bring her dc to her work? They were probably bored and hungry, so she gave them a cereal bar.

Honestly OP have a heart eh.

I give my gardeners biscuits with their coffee and sometimes when I don't happen to have any I offer them cereal bars instead. So it is understandable your cleaner might have assumed it was OK to have them as they are a biscuit-type item ie something suitable for a snack. The fact she had her children with her explains why all but one were taken

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

Come on it’s not hard to find a decent cleaner. Bringing her kids and doing a shit job are far more important than biscuits.

I wouldn't be having her back for anymore cleaning. Like everyone else with a job that is hers. Opening items and bringing your child to work (without asking you if it's ok) is not on. Get rid.

I bet if she'd had all four and thrown the packaging away you'd never have even noticed. All this drama over some fucking breakfast bars, it wasn't an uncut birthday cake.

If they are belvita breakfast biscuits then they are biscuits - even belvita call them biscuits, they just specify which meal they are for.
I really don’t understand why anyone tells a cleaner to help themselves to tea and biscuits though. Does a cleaner who comes in for maybe 90 minutes really need a tea break?
I do think you are blowing things out of proportion though. It’s a few biscuits / cereal bars and I doubt you and your family are going t9 be starving now the cleaner has eaten them.

Have a word with her about the cleaning standards as that is the issue that needs addressing. Give her a chance to improve her cleaning before taking any action.
If you are not happy with her bringing her children to work then you need to tell her but I’m guessing she isn’t bringing them because she thinks it will be fun for them. If you don’t want her children there then that is understandable but you might need to employ another cleaner if childcare costs mean she has no choice.

I think maybe the problem here is that she's doing a shit job of cleaning and bringing her child. I was a cleaner and I would never have opened a pack of anything. Right enough I don't remember anyone offering.

I agree having - but they are £2.50(ish) for 5 unless on special, and individually wrapped (big fan of them, to the detriment of my thighs), so to me feel like a different product than rich tea basics at 50p a pack. This is something that may matter to the OP but not cleaner or her kids.

But they are actually biscuits hummus and the OP didn’t tell her cleaner not to eat the expensive biscuits, she simply told her to help herself. If OP only wanted her cleaner to eat the cheap biscuits then she should have been more specific about which ones she could eat and pointed out which tin was acceptable to eat from.
Even if OP is annoyed surely she should just treat it as a misunderstanding and next time not leave out the expensive biscuits.
She can afford a cleaner so I hardly think the family’s yearly special treat biscuits have been consumed.

They are a different product to Rich Tea, but they are still biscuits. If someone offered me a biscuit I wouldn’t think the offer excluded the individually wrapped ones. In fact I usually only offer tradesmen the individually wrapped ones! (prefer them to have their own individual biscuit rather than fishing around in my opened packet and putting finger germs on them)

Who eats 3 breakfast bars in one go? My guess is she ate one and gave or kept the other 2 for her kids

“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!”

Yes this.

“ that I doubt they would normally never get the chance of?”

Don’t be so bloody patronising!

I think the pp who said the cleaner's dc helped themselves is right.

I really can't imagine getting my arse in my hands over three breakfast bars. I guess we are all different.

If you feel this strongly define what she's permitted to have exactly.

I'm with you OP.

If I, as an example, had said "help yourself to tea and biscuits" I would mean tea and biscuits in the tin. I wouldn't expect a newly bought and potentially expensive pack of Nature Valley peanut cereal bars in a box to be opened and 3 out of 4 eaten in a single sitting.

I wouldn't however say anything, as I would accept this was my fault for not being clear enough.

The Nature Valley cereal bars would be hidden at the back of cupboard moving forwards to avoid misunderstanding and to hide them from the rest of the family too

I just don't get it - you're pissed off she ate the biscuits, you're a bit miffed she brings her kids and she doesn't clean very well, but you've got other stresses so can't deal with it. You made time to post for opinions on here, so here's mine - either deal with it, or accept that you're paying for a crap, biscuit eating cleaner and her kids to come to your house once a week.

Crumbs If you can afford a cleaner, you can afford 3 s

I think people are obsessing over the cost of the biscuits. It's the inconvenience of replacing them that is probably irritating, not being out of pocket. Yes its a first world problem, but the phrase 'help yourself' does not mean scoff the lot. When I have had gasman around inspecting the boiler and I have had to dash out I say help yourself to tea and coffee, the near universal understanding of that expression is that you are welcome to make yourself some refreshment drinks, not that you can stuff the box of tea bags and jar of coffee in your tool bag before you head home. Its not the cost, it is the CF attitude and the ballache of having to trudge down to the shops to replace the items when all you want to do is chill with a cup of tea on the sofa.

You should be clear and show her the cupboard of biscuits: 'Anything in here, help yourself to.'

I would say it is a nightmare trying to clean and keeping an eye on her DC. It sounds like she has no choice to bring them or she can't get to work in the summer term time. If it was not regular I would let it go. Leave the bloody hob nobs on the counter, or get another cleaner.

You made them available and you said “help yourself”.
You didn’t say what she could/ couldn’t take and she’s not a mind reader.
Why are you stressing over a 4 pack of biscuits?

For context here - we have a cleaner, I struggle to keep on top of what needs to be done with illnesses and DH works full time. We can't really afford it but we scrimp and scrape so we can just about get by with it.

Don't assume everyone who has a cleaner can afford extras.

But OP I agree you should sort out the service before worrying about the biscuits.

I think I would put cereal bar in pretty much the same category as biscuit.

Christ, are half of you Vulcan's or something?

"Spock, you ate the whole packet!"

"Captain, you did say 'help yourself' to your space jammy dodgers, and as per your invitation, I did as such"

"But Spock, I have nothing to dunk in my tea"

"Captain, perhaps if you had been more specific in your offer and placed a suitable upper limit on the number of space jammy dodgers i could consume, your profound disappointment could have been avoided at this juncture"