When being welcomed into someone’s home, it is always wise to err on the side of caution.
True, most of the time, a host will tell you to “help yourself to anything.”
But when they say “anything,” they don’t always literally mean “anything.”
As a result, it is always a good idea to ask before indulging.
Redditor Own-Plant473 hired a cleaner to clean her house.
When the cleaner arrived, the original poster (OP) was a bit surprised to see she brought her eight-year-old younger sister along with her.
While the OP grudgingly accepted this, she lost all her patience after the cleaner’s little sister made herself rather too at home.
After being told she overreacted, the OP took to the subReddit “Am I The A**hole” (AITA), where she asked fellow Redditors:
“AITA for sending away the girl who came to clean my house because she ate my cake?”
The OP explained why she felt she had no choice but to send her cleaner home early:
“I 24 F[emale] am married to my husband 28 M[ale] and we have 1 daughter together 4 F (Alaia).”
“We both work a lot and I also work from home often.”
“I needed cleaning, so last week I called an agency, and they sent a girl over to clean the house, and we agreed on 40 USD an hour.”
“Let’s call her Eva.”
“So Eva, who is around 19/20 years, arrives at my house with her little sister 8F.”
“I asked her why her little sister was here and she said she had no one else to leave her with.”
“I wasn’t very pleased but assumed she didn’t have a choice and didn’t say anything.”
“I showed Eva the playroom of my daughter and said it was to be cleaned as well, and her sister started staring around the room, touching all the toys.”
“I again didn’t say anything.”
“Eva started working, and I went to my room to get ready to pick up a cake for Alaia and to pick up Alaia from school.”
“I heard a noise in Alaia’s playroom, so I rushed over and saw Eva’s sister playing in the room, and she broke a glass bowl that I had custom-made for Alaia when she was born.”
“At this point, I was annoyed, but again, I held myself and told Eva to clean it and keep an eye on her sister.”
“I went out picked up Alaia’s favorite cake with strawberries.”
“It was a cake that had strawberries on only one side on the top, and on that same side, there were more decorations, etc.”
“I put it in the fridge and left again to pick up Alaia.”
“When we walked in the kitchen I saw Eva’s sister eating a big piece of the cake and exactly the part with the strawberries and more decorations.”
“I have never had an issue like this before. In fact, the cleaning ladies never open my fridge or anything cause they have no business there.”
“I asked Eva what she thought she was doing and she told me ‘My sister was sad and really wanted cake so I figured she could have a piece’.”
“Alaia started crying because she had been looking forward to her cake with strawberries, and now the piece with strawberries was gone.”
“I told Eva that it is not her place to figure out whether her sister could eat something from my fridge without asking me.”
“She could have waited for me to get back because I told her I would be back.”
“I told her that even if she did do this, she should not have taken the whole decorated piece because she could’ve also figured that this cake was meant for my daughter.”
“Eva said that ‘You are getting mad for no reason. Just take the money from my pay’.”
“I told her she could pack her stuff and leave with her sister, and she didn’t have to finish the house cleaning.”
“She had been at the house for only 2 hours, but I paid her 120USD and told her to get out.”
“So I told a friend, and she told me that I overreacted over a piece of cake, and I should have understood the little girl.”
“I again said that it is not just cake, but it is rude to open my fridge and take out a cake that is not unboxed yet and eat it.”
“Eva was supposed to be there for 3 hrs, and I sent her away after 2 but paid her 3hrs.”
“I am wondering now AITA?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in on where they believed the OP fell in this particular situation, by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
The Reddit community unanimously agreed that the OP was not the a**Hole for sending Eva home.
Everyone agreed that not only was it extremely unprofessional for Eva to allow her sister to eat the cake, which had not been opened yet, but it was even more unprofessional to bring her sister to work in the first place. At At the very least, Eva should have brought things to keep her sister entertained rather than allow her to roam freely through the house, with many even saying the OP was extremely generous to pay Evan for the full-time.
“45 dollars an hour?”
“Wow, I’m coming to clean your house.”
“But NTA of course.”
“The only time you open a fridge is if you need to clean it OR when the house owner says you can get a drink from the fridge.”
“Also, you only take a child with you when you ask beforehand or decline a job if you can’t leave the child .”- bookreader-123
“So NTA.”
“Call the Agency and tell them, this so obviously screams of ‘scam’ because it’s hard to believe a professional house cleaner can possibly be so wrong at every step.”
“Check your jewelry box.”- CrankyWife
“NTA.”
“Your friend is an a**hole then.”
“Is she jealous that you can hire people to clean your house or something like that?”
“No reasonable person would think like her.”- pukui7
“NTA.”
“When you booked your cleaning service, you did NOT agree to having a child running around the home.”
“Honestly, Eva is lucky you paid her at all, in my opinion.”
“While I think it’s a stretch to assume the cake was for your daughter unless explicitly stated, the food should not have been removed and eaten.”
“I’ve cleaned houses before, and I’ve always either brought my own food or eaten before/after, and the times I did have to bring my child, I gave advanced notice and brought entertainment for him and made it very clear he was to sit quietly and not wander.”
“Eva did none of these things for her younger sister.”- KitsiCode
“NTA.”
“That was really unprofessional and you would have been totally justified to report her to the cleaning agency.”
“Just because you let someone into your home to do a job doesn’t mean they have any right to your things.”
“I can sympathize with her not having a sitter and still needing to work, but at the very least, she should have ensured the child brought a book or something to entertain herself.”- Vivacious-Hiccup
“NTA!”
“My mother (bless her) did this with me when I was younger.”
“Both my parents were immigrants, and sanitation was the best job she could get.”
“However, she made sure I stuck by her and didn’t touch or did ANYTHING without her approval.”
“Thankfully, the owners of the places that she cleaned were understanding, and sometimes they were even nice enough to offer me a treat here and there.”
“The problem wasn’t that her sister ate the cake; it’s the fact that she thought it was ok to go into YOUR fridge and take out the food that YOU paid for to appease her sister.”
“Like, where was the common sense?”
“Eva was getting paid to clean!”
“Within two hours, her sister broke something and went through your fridge, and not ONCE did they ask for permission.”
“Apart from being super unprofessional, what if her sister had a food allergy?”
“She’s being really ignorant and you definitely need to call the agency.”
“I feel bad for the kid, they’re not the AH, but Eva definitely is, and her attitude is nasty.”-SebbyMorningstar
“NTA.”
“In fact, you were inappropriate in how NICE you were about it.”
“You rewarded the person who was terrible at her job, destroyed your property twice, then wasn’t even sorry about it with money for work she hadn’t even done.”
“At the very least, leave her a bad review or word of mouth to ensure she never disrupts another family’s life again.”- Sebscreen
Generally speaking, it’s the polite thing to allow anyone working in your house to help themselves with food and drink.
That being said, no one would argue that a cake in an unopened box is clearly a special treat for a special occasion.
At the very least, one would have thought Eva would have waited for the OP to get home to ask her.
One can only hope she’s learned her lesson before her next job…