When I babysat as a young girl, my mom always taught me to ensure the house was picked up before the parents got home. So, after the kids went to bed, I would go around the house and pick up toys, wash the dishes, and tidy up. It didn’t really matter if the mess was made before or after I arrived to watch the kids, but looking back, maybe it should have.
In a now-viral TikTok, one babysitter noted that parents shouldn’t expect their nannies and babysitters to clean up their houses, especially if the messes were there before they arrived. In the video, Maiya pans a messy living room with text overlay that says, “What their house looked like when I got there to babysit.”
In the next clip, she pans the same room. There are still toys all over the ground as well as additional mess, in text overlay, she wrote, “What it looked like when they came home.”
She expanded on her point in the caption, writing, “Psa to parents who hire babysitters, you do not need to have your house spotless when you have a sitter coming over. But you also shouldn’t expect your sitter to clean up large messes that happen before they’re there.”
“Also, reminder that the internet isn’t real. This video was a psa because no you shouldn’t expect your babysitter to clean your messes from the day, but yes life happens. This family never said they expected me to clean it all, and the only reason I didn’t was because when they got home we hadn’t even finished getting ready for bed for all the kids🙂”
The reception in Maiya’s comment section were mixed.
One user wrote, “I’m babysitting not the cleaner.”
Another wrote, “Why are people assuming cleaning is a part of babysitting? Cleaning up after kids yes but not cleaning the house? Pay more if you want that??? Is everyone okay?!”
“Have the kids clean up their own mess!” one user suggested.
The OP replied, “Absolutely! We always play a game to see who can pick up the most toys or who can find the most green blue etc toys lol”
Another babysitter warned, “Just a reminder!!!! Once you do something people expect you to ALWAYS do it and get mad when you don’t!! (If you always make it spotless for them they will expect it even when you don’t have the time)!”
As a parent, I would not expect a babysitter to clean up any mess that was made before they arrived. A babysitter is not a housekeeper!
