and that, ladies and gents, was that

I quit work a week early; today was my last day. I wasn't going to run away - after all, difficult children and parents are absolutely a part of babysitting (although I'd never before experienced it) and money is money, but there was an Incident on Monday night that made me realize I had to get out.

That's right, an Incident. With a capital "I".

Blanche, 8 years old, and I have to read in English for 20 minutes every day. Naturally, she hates it, and, naturally, she's a start procrastinator. On Monday evening, when I told her that we needed to start reading, she replied, "I don't have to listen to you. You won't be here for very much longer." Bizarre thing to say, yes, and rude, too, but she was right (at that point my last day was July 5), so I ignored it. We finally sat down and opened the book, but after 15 minutes had only read a paragraph and a half. I was frustrated by her stalling tactics, and tore the book out of her hands. I swear to God, I did not touch the child. But she looked at me, completely deadfaced, and said, "You hit me," I was like, "Excuse me?" She said, "I'm telling my mom that you hit me, and you'll be gone, just like Loretta, you'll be gone." (I later learned that Loretta was a nanny who had been fired because she didn't interact with the children enough.) I was totally shocked - and furious. I went to tell Madame Mère that her daughter had just threatened to have me fired with an abuse allegation, but Blanche ran past me. "Elle m'a tappée, elle m'a tappée!" she cried, in tears. The mother sent Blanche to her room and told me to finish reading with her. About 10 minutes later Mme Mère came into Blanche's bedroom, made the girl apologize to me and give me a hug and a kiss, and left - all without hearing what had happened. I followed her out and told her the story. Her response was, "Well, that's just how Blanche is. She's done that before. You just need to show her who's boss, be firm with her." I was kind of shocked at how nonplussed Mme Mère was, so I repeated the main bits of what had happened, just in case she hadn't fully understood me. She replied, "Don't take this so seriously." I wanted to be like, "Lady, I just spent 11.5 hours with your children. Do you really want me to not take my job seriously?"

The combination of Blanche's attitude and that of her mother incited me to give notice the next day.