Two neighbours. four very young children. One brilliant babysitting plan? Not quite.
A Reddit user has sent the Internet into a whirlwind after sharing his wife’s “brilliant” babysitting plan that she and their neighbours came up with. As the Reddit user explains, he and his wife have two children under five. Their neighbours, who live next door to them, also have two kids under five.
The way our street is set up, our ‘front’ doors face each other (they’re on the sides of our houses), and are only separated by about 15-20 feet. You can easily see inside one house from the other if the doors are open,” the husband explains on an AITA thread on Reddit.
One day the husband’s wife and the neighbours had a conversation about babysitting and came up with a plan that they could perhaps babysit each other’s kids for them. Except, rather than actual babysitting, the neighbours thought they could just watch each other’s children through a baby monitor.
The perfect babysitting plan?
As the husband explains,
The couple next door and my wife had a discussion when I wasn’t around, and all agreed that if one of the couples decided to go out, we could just give the baby monitor to the other couple to “watch” the kids.
In fairness to them, they only said they’d do this while the kids were asleep (so they’re not leaving kids unsupervised and awake), and the signal for the baby monitor DOES reach from one house to the next.”
The plan is simple – if one couple wants to go out after the kids are asleep, then they would drop their baby monitor to the neighbour’s house and the neighbour would watch the kids through the monitor. And vice versa.
When I heard the idea, I immediately said no. What if there’s a fire or some other emergency? What if the monitor’s signal gets disconnected and we don’t realize it? What if the kids wake up to find an empty house?”
Another big what if? What if the couple watching the kids fall asleep before the parents get home?
Not happy that her brilliant plan wasn’t accepted by her husband, the wife begrudgingly told the neighbours that the deal was off and has been cold to her husband ever since. This is why the husband headed to Reddit to see what others think – he is the asshole for calling the babysitting deal off?
How did Reddit react?
The Reddit community were pretty horrified with the whole thing with the majority of commenters agreeing that the husband was NOT the asshole and that their ‘brilliant’ plan was super unsafe and stupid.
We’d love to know what you think of this. I’ve heard of several parents who have popped over to their neighbour’s house for a cuppa while their children are napping (with baby monitor on them), relying on the baby monitor to be their eyes and ears. But never at night. It’s a no for us – sorry, but too dangerous, but what do you think?
More AITA debates
- Wife Kidnaps Baby to Teach her Lazy Husband a Lesson
- Mum Invites All but One Child in Class to Birthday Party. Is She Justified?
- Husband Bans Wife from FaceTiming Kids after She Moves to Another City Without Them
- Grandma Refuses to Babysit Grandson Unless She’s Paid
- Mum Catches MIL Breastfeeding Her Baby on Baby Cam. Inappropriate?
- Mum’s Fury after MIL Gets Tattoo of Newborn Without Asking Her
