Sort of job interview-were they justified in doing this?

[Thebeckhamsareeverywhere]

A few weeks ago I saw a post for a great looking part time job, I contacted them and after a fair bit of back and forth (on their part, quite disorganised, but I didn’t really mind) we came to a day and time that suited us both. I rearranged my other part time job to go to the meet up, on the same day, they contacted me and apologised as they had other work on but could they change the date to another day. I agreed and was very easygoing about it.
Lots of illnesses going around my Dc’s class, she’s been ill on and off since December and has an auto immune condition. I myself ended up getting ill and was in bed for a few days, so I apologised and asked to reschedule. The date we rescheduled for was just under a week later as I wanted to be sure I was completely well. During this time my Dc now picked up what I had and on the morning of the meet up was really not well. We have no family nearby to help us out and Dh couldn’t come back home from work, he did however request for time off if I was able to reschedule and Dc was still ill.
I felt terrible and so unprofessional that it was last minute and messaged apologising profusely and talked about plans Dh had put in place with work if we were able to reschedule.
There was no reply to the text at all and hasn’t been since, well over a week ago.

I realise it probably didn’t come across well, aibu to hope other mums (the meet up was with a group of mums) would be more understanding or do I just have to accept that with a child with health issues, i’m always going to struggle in my career 😔

But they don’t know that do they? Most people do the absolute best they can to attend an interview and pull out all the stops to ensure they get the job.
What would you do if you got the job and your kids were ill? Because the employer will now already be envisaging this as a potential issue.
Remember, they don’t know you yet, but you’ve given a dreadful first impression.

It’s obviously not a good look, if you can’t make it to the interview it looks like you wouldn’t be able to get to work. And interviews should be easier to attend because most people do have a friend or a grandparent that they can call in for emergency babysitting for a couple of hours, even they don’t have regular childcare from those sorts of people.

As well as that, if I’m understanding the timeline in your post correctly, it must be at least two weeks since the first interview was scheduled. If they have other candidates, that’s too long to keep them hanging around - they will be wanting to move forward with someone that they liked, not take a chance and wait for you to see if you might or might not be any good.

How would they know that though? All they know is that you've tried rescheduling twice.

Most people would go out of their way to attend an interview. I agree with others- 1 reschedule I could understand, 2 and I also would be thinking you weren't serious about the job, had no other childcare options in place and you could be unreliable if you got the job.

A group of mums who owns a business? Was some kind of nanny share or something?

Either they are an employer or they're not. I don't understand this 'group meet up with a group of mums'. Well it's off now anyway. But was it a really definitely a job?

It would have been better to ring and talk to them surely?

I wouldn’t have bothered replying to a text asking to reschedule a second time tbh. When interviewing I have to arrange the other members of the panel, and people to meet and greet, and then I don’t want to keep the other candidates waiting for ages after interviews to let them know the outcome

This. And I say that as someone who recruits.

I can quite understand why they didn’t respond after you had rescheduled for the second time but I also thank you probably dodged a bullet here. What kind of part-time job was being organised by a group of mums – is it some kind of network marketing opportunity by chance?

Employers are wary of employees who are constantly taking time off for sick kids or family members. They know that this causes resentment with other staff who are picking up the slack. As someone who is childfree I always had boundaries about being lumbered with a colleague's work when she looked after her sick child. I prioritised my own work and slipped the extra jobs back into her in tray when I could.

That would have terminated any opportunities going your way from me also I'm afraid. People generally pull out all of the stops to gain a position. You didn't, reading it feels chaotic.