Cleaner cancelled last minute due to childcare

[UmmUmar]

I've found a fantastic cleaner, single mum by the sounds of it, brings her daughter with her (I don't mind), you can tell she is struggling financially and with her little one.

Today she cancelled on me 10 mins before the appt because of childcare. I understand that with a kid, things get a bit difficult with work but a heads up would have been nice!

Since my house has been a tip I've got to do it all by myself (pregnant + toddler, and dh works long hours)

AIBU to be upset?

I still pay my cleaner if she (rarely) cancels and if we’re on holiday. If you can see she’s struggling I’d offer to have her little girl whilst she cleans or pay her anyway and reschedule.

Give her a chance.
If it happens again have a re-think.

Oh please!! I cleaned my house all by myself when I was pregnant and had a toddler and I worked too, and my husband worked long hours too....I understand it must be annoying, but it's just a one off and these things happen.

You're one of those that actually cleans before the cleaner visits aren't you? The one that bemoans the "mess" which is probably a magazine on the coffee table! Maybe her child threw up in the car on the way to yours and she has no one to watch them? In real life, working people sometimes need to miss a days work due to children being unwell. I'm guessing you're lucky enough to be a sahm or you'd know this. Leave the mess until your cleaner comes next time or do like the majority of others do and clean up yourself 👍

Do you really need a forum of people to tell you how to feel about this?! Geez. You’re annoyed because she cancelled last min and it’s inconvenient. It’s not unreasonable to be annoyed but also not a massive deal that she’s done that as other things in her life are probably more important than a now-and-then cleaning job.

Either communicate your annoyance to her or move on.

It’s MN. People get annoyed at a lot less than this. Weird the hard time the OP has had here for just having a bit of a vent.

Sorry but I ran a house a huge one at that with 3 kids and pregnant with twins not once did I pass the book to anyone else in fact spent the last few hours before induction ironing all the kids laundry so I was ahead of the game can’t understand why you are so bothered by this it really isn’t a big deal cleaning up your own mess. Oh yeah and my hubby works incredibly long hours like 3 months at a time for the merchant navy. Have a bit of understanding she had a crisis like us mums have sometimes give her a break.

YABU and precious. Clean it yourself instead of going on mumsnet to complain, no?

Life happens. Maybe her child is sick and Cabot attend school? Maybe something has come up?

You’re pregnant with a toddler, do you work? Can’t you clean yourself?

I mean, I keep a pretty clean house. I have two DC both with additional needs It really isn’t that hard to keep a house clean if you keep on top of it (apart from the zillions of toys everywhere). Are you rich? Most of us cannot afford a cleaner? 🤣

Skittlenommer, I’m 99% sure you’re a troll, but if you’re not, you sound like a complete tit.

I really don't get the martydom being displayed by some of you. It's really not a badge of honour to manage your own cleaning when you are dealing with circumstances that are pretty full-on.

You did your own cleaning. So what? It doesn't make you better than someone else who chooses to pay someone to do it instead (disclaimer - I know not everyone has that choice).

YABU I'm 37 weeks pregnant with a 14 month old and cleaning is harder yes but it's hardly a reason that you can't. Have some compassion for the woman.

Tbh i think not cleaning your own home is a massive priveledge that few enjoy

I cleaned my house all by myself when I was pregnant and had a toddler and I worked too, and my husband worked long hours too...

Sorry but I ran a house a huge one at that with 3 kids and pregnant with twins not once did I pass the book to anyone else in fact spent the last few hours before induction ironing all the kids laundry so I was ahead of the game

YABU and precious.

It really isn’t that hard to keep a house clean

WHY is there such hatred, hostility and one-upmanship towards people who have a cleaner? I am genuinely fascinated by this.

My mum was a single parent, trying to work full time, had 4 kids under the age of 6, two with special needs, one of whom is very, very low functioning and had no family help at all. She managed to clean her own house.

I know it's not a race to the bottom and all relative etc but fuck me, I've got some friends that are really struggling right now and whiny threads like this do get to me sometimes.

It's not one up man ship. Op is whining about how hard it is for her and not considering it probably harder for her cleaner hence cancelling.

I doubt she cleans for enjoyment so I assume she'll be missing the money she didn't earn and not cancelled for no reason.

For me I think op got a hard time because she's expecting empathy and sympathy yet not prepared to extend that time her employee.

My god. Is this a joke? This is beyond first world problems. This is on a different planet problems. Boo boo. You’re going to have to clean your own mess, how will one cope??!!

Totally unreasonable, how about you climb down from your princess castle and clean your own house just like the rest of us had to whilst pregnant and having toddlers around.

The amount of people on Mumsnet who hold so much disdain for children is quite remarkable. And as for those single mum trying to make a living for them and their child? Well ...

OP you are lucky you have a cleaner - I have one too (sadly not when mine were tiny) and consider myself very fortunate. She's lovely, does a good job and if she has to cancel, for whatever reason, I know she won't do it without good reason. Even at short notice. A little bit of kindness and understanding wouldn't go amiss, even if you were ever so slightly inconvenienced for a few hours.

For me I think op got a hard time because she's expecting empathy and sympathy yet not prepared to extend that time her employee.

Absolutely.

Totally unreasonable, how about you climb down from your princess castle and clean your own house just like the rest of us had to whilst pregnant and having toddlers around

She doesn’t need to. She has a cleaner.

Really not sure if this is a wind up!?

I don't mind if people wish to pay for a cleaner or not - for what it's worth we could afford to but don't because it's really not that hard for us to keep on top it despite a toddler, step kid and two full time jobs - but each to their own.

However - people have to sometimes be off work for childcare reasons. I myself have had to stay home from my job this week to care for DS who was sick. This is essentially the same thing as a cleaner being off for childcare issues. It happens and actually I really believe that as a society we need to be more sympathetic to how difficult the work/parent juggle can be (particularly for a single parent).

You said she's struggling financially too. I would bet anything that cancelling your cleaning slot would be a hard decision for her to make as she will be relying on money from this job (as well as reputation for repeat business).

I run a cleaning business , I’m not going to comment on this particular issue of cancellations .. there’s been plenty of those already . I would however like to point out that your breaking the law allowing her to bring her child with her in the first place ! You need to be very careful about anyone offering a service in your home where insurance is concerned , has she got public liability ? If not it’ll be you in the wrong should she injure herself whilst in your employment if her child came to harm it would be the same , to many people take risks with uninsured cleaners if they damage anything in your home your highly unlikely to be reimburse .

@Skittlenommer I’m sure other people must have told you this but you cannot discriminate against people because that have children. That is against the law.

The attitudes in this thread are indeed getting stranger and stranger.

On upmanship and racing to the bottom indeed.

You do realize some Cleaner’s cost 8 pounds an hour so 16 pounds a week while someone is struggling is hardly wealth.

Green eyes monsters the lot of you. By the sound of OPs username, she doesn’t have red wine every night with DH and so she can manage to spare 16 pounds while budgeting on other money..

She didn’t expect sympathy at the expense of the cleaner.. she just expected a heads up ahead of time and not 10 mins before... hardly high expectations here..

Wow.. this thread has made a great venting place for some mums who desperately want some acknowledgement for some surfaces they clean. Suck it up buttercups.