Babysitter accidentally takes her neighbour's child on holiday for a week

A babysitter has shared an astonishing story about how she managed to take her neighbour's child on holiday with her for an entire week.

In a video that has been viewed more than 1.5 million times on TikTok, user @seenasyouasked recounted a story from 1991 about the "biggest mistake" that she's ever made.

She explained: "I was 20 and newly married. I lived next door to a family with a toddler. He was two. I used to look after him and sometimes babysit for a couple of hours to help his mum out."

After looking after the boy a few times she said the woman asked her one day if she would mind looking after him overnight. She replied: "Yeah, no problem, we know each other really well, that would be great. The problem is I'm actually going on holiday on Tuesday for a week."

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The mother had no problem with this but the appeared to have been some sort of communication breakdown but more on that later.

She continues by detailing her holiday to London: "Monday comes along and she drops off this sweet little boy - he's really lovely, he stayed overnight.

"Early Tuesday morning, we all packed up the car, I popped him in his car seat, we drove off to London - we lived in Birmingham - stayed in a hotel, I got the hotel to give us a little cot.

"He was so lovely, I got him food and bought some extra nappies as she hadn't sent enough nappies for the week and I just went through the week with this little lad.

"During the day, I took him to the zoo and walked around Hyde Park - we had a blast! He loved it, he slept really well, didn't cry at night, and everything was great."

As this was the early 90s there were no mobile phones and as the woman was her neighbour she didn't happen to have her phone number so she decided to send her a postcard instead.

Eventually, it was time for them to go home and when she returned the boy to his mother she found out that she had made a terrible mistake. The mother said: "So lovely of you - really wonderful. I do have to say something though... When I said 'that's fine', I meant I'll come back Tuesday morning and go get him. I didn't actually mean for you to take him on holiday the whole week."

While she was undoubtedly shocked and very apologetic about what had happened the mother was actually quite thankful telling her: "No, I had a great time, I had a lovely break for the week!"

Needless to say people have been fascinated by the story. One comment on TikTok read: "I immediately thought why are you taking him?!? lol brilliant."

Another said: "this would not have gone down the same way today."

A third added: "Thanks god she was so chilled."

A fourth wrote: "I would have reacted the same as mum. "Huh, kid's gone for the week with someone happy to take him? That's a win!"

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