Babysitting meal mishap - WWYD?

[isitoverno]

I babysat my friend’s little boy yesterday. He had chosen a ready meal for dinner and when it came time to cook it, I followed the instructions on the back of the packet.

It burnt and the container melted. I ended up having to order a new meal on deliveroo because he was inconsolable about not having this meal.

When I told my friend she said “oh yeah, there’s a problem with the oven, I should’ve mentioned that!” - It’s stuck to grilling everything.

The meal ended up costing £10 with fees etc! I don’t have a car seat for him so it was the only option. AIBU to think that she should’ve at least offered to refund me?

YABU - you burnt it, you replace it.

YANBU - there’s an issue with their oven. Not your fault.

Absolutely she should have paid to cover the cost of his replacement meal. She didn't warn you about the broken oven. That's her fault. She might have preferred you prepare something else for him to eat that would have cost less, but she should still cover the cost this time and just ask that you not order food for him again, assuming you babysit for her another time.

Sorry to clarify - it was a replacement of the ready meal from the supermarket. He wouldn’t eat anything else, it was that meal or nothing.

Yes, I understand. And I do think she should pay you back. But what would she have done if she had accidentally ruined his meal herself somehow, by dropping it, for instance? Would she have had to go out and buy another ready meal? Unless he can literally only eat that one type of meal, there must be other things in the house for him to eat. She probably should have covered that information as well.

Is that meal literally the only thing he can eat (as in severe AFRID) or did he just want it and would have kicked of a little, but ultimately eaten a sandwich or whatever else you could make from food in the house?

If ordering that meal really was the only possible way to feed the child, then they should pay. If you choose to order the meal to avoid a tantrum, then thats on you.

I don’t know if it’s the only thing he will ever eat, but I highly suspect he’s autistic. It had been built up all day “you’re having a special meal with aunty!”, and when I showed him it had burnt he was literally inconsolable. Screaming, crying, screaming so hard he was gagging, I offered him to pick anything else out of the freezer and he refused. Maybe if I’d left it long enough he’d have got hungry and eaten something else, but I didn’t want to risk him going to bed hungry.

I think if this really isn't an exaggeration of his reaction, she must know he is hard to care for and she should have been extremely grateful you were even prepared to babysit, not to mention apologetic for the stress of the evening.

Of course she should have refunded you.

Can you grill a ready meal? Surely it would just melt too and not cook in the middle?!

If you choose to order the meal to avoid a tantrum, then thats on you.

I'm not so sure I agree with that. If I had children who would kick off like that about a meal mishap, I wouldn't expect other people (except obviously nursery or other trained childcare employees) to have to deal with them.

No one wants to field a tantrum like that from someone else's children. Actually i wouldn't field it from my own, but accept the OP has said she suspects he may be ND, which does change things for his mum. But that's not on the op. The tantrum was well beyond what anyone expects to deal with when babysitting.

The OP's job was to get him safely through the evening, not discipline him for life.

It was definitely a predictable response from him

Well obviously you can't, given what OP has already described...

OP, she should have told you, and should reimburse you for your costs. You sound lovely to have gone to the trouble of replacing the meal for the little boy. Kids can get very hyper-focussed on looking forward to a particular 'treat'.

Wow

I think you sound lovely too OP, and fwiw I think you did exactly the right thing: you had the child in your care and did what you could to help him through the evening as smoothly as possible, which I think is what a good short-term babysitter should do.

I am really surprised the mum didn't reimburse you - especially as she knew about the grill issue.

I would have reimbursed you.

But if I was you I would have got over that quickly unless she has a habit of taking liberties.

What?

Are we reading the same OP ?

They should reimburse you. You were clearly not prepared for either the meal being ruined or the kid having an epic meltdown. They should have told you about the oven and given you very detailed instructions about how to cook the meal given the oven situation. Granted it probably took them by surprise because they would know how to cook that meal in their oven, and how to calm their kid without giving him what he wants all the time, but it's entirely their fault you didn't know those two things.

How did you cook the replacement meal ?

Great question.

Huh?

Surely most ready meals should just be microwaved?

Not if the microwave is stuck on Grill and the owner/mother doesn't tell the babysitter.

She probably expected you to microwave it. I’d leave it and not ask for the money tbh. As I’m sure if I didn’t want to spend the money I could’ve given him something else and withstood the tantrum.

The OVEN is stuck on grill. Not the microwave

So how was she planning on cooking the replacement which was exactly the same?