They Hid Their Baby From You?
“These people had some sort of mental defect. At one point, the mom attempted to hide her second pregnancy so she could compete in a bikini contest. She denied it when I congratulated her even though she obviously about 4 months pregnant and even had ultrasound pictures on the fridge.
Then to keep up with this strange delusion, they hid the second baby from me when I’d come over to babysit. They’d actually call me to babysit the first child, then hide the newborn in the car and lug her along with them. I once got there a bit early and caught the dad shoving the new baby’s stuff in the closet so I wouldn’t see it.”
“I Heard A Scream Like Someone Got Shot”
“I only babysat once in my life, and never again.
I was 25 or so, working for a research group at a university. The secretary was a nice lady, and had a horrible family emergency so she had to leave town for a night. She was scrambling to try to find someone to cover her at home, because her kids couldn’t be left alone since they were 10 and 14. Anyways, I felt bad for her, I lived just down the street. I didn’t have plans, so I figured, I’ll be a standup guy. It was a big mistake.
She was a single mom, with two kids who she admitted were ‘troubled,’ I had no idea how much till I tried to take care of them.
I can’t put together a good narrative on this, so I’ll just give you all of what I remember:
The older of the kids, a 14-year-old had a ‘date’ at the movie theatre with some friends. His mother said this was okay, so I drove him, dropped him off. Spent the next couple of hours watching Super Troopers with the 10-year-old kid who told me it was his favorite movie which was okayed by the mom. So though the movie seemed questionable, I actually liked it a lot. Things are off to a solid start, easy street.
The movie theatre (not the kid at it) called and told me I had to come pick him up or they were going to call the cops. I heard him screaming something I couldn’t make out on the other side of the phone. I probably should have let him go to jail.
I phoned the mom, no answer, no answer the rest of the evening.
I got to the movie theatre. Turns out the kid got into a fight with his friend during the movie and peed on him (this theme will return later).
The manager at the movies was mad because they had to clean up the pee, wanted the damage paid for, etc. I explained to the guy I was just helping out, so I gave him their home phone number. He started to side with me since the kid calmed down.
I drove the kid back, not knowing what to say to him. The ride was mostly quiet until I got close to the house and smelled smoke. The 10-year-old had a lighter and tried to light the back of one of the seats on fire (thankfully not my car, the mom’s but still).
I should have called the cops myself by this point, but it’s one of those things where you figure it’ll just be over soon. However, it never ended.
They wanted to watch Super Troopers again and order pizza. I told them it was late already (it was 10 by now) and no. They told me their mom never says no and they were watching the movie. I wasn’t sure exactly how to enforce anything on these kids so I said fine but no pizza. One of them went upstairs and ordered a pizza when he said he was going up to use the washroom.
I fell asleep. When I woke up, one of the kids was trying to rob me (pull the wallet out of my pants). I caught him and he claimed he heard my cell phone ringing and was trying to answer it for me, which was a stupid (these kids weren’t just bad, they were stupid) because my cell was on the table right in front of us.
When the pizza arrived, I had no idea who was knocking on the door. Since the kid failed to get money from me, he ran to the door and grabbed the pizza, then pushed the pizza guy and slammed and locked the door. He told me, ‘We have free pizza, we must have won a contest or something! How did they even know we wanted pizza?’ I opened the door and paid the guy, I wasn’t sure what else to do in that situation.
When the movie ended the said they were going to bed which was great.
I slept on the couch downstairs. I actually didn’t hear them till about 2 am when I heard a scream like someone got shot and then what sounded like bangs from upstairs.
I ran up the stairs and found the 10-year-old crying and smashing a hammer into the door of the bathroom. I looked at the other doors and found one of them off its hinges and there was something sticky on the ground and in the kid’s hair/face.
Turns out the 14-year-old waited for his brother to sleep, then poured a cup he’d collected his pee in on the kids head, then ran. The 10-year-old somehow ran right through the door trying to get him and the 14-year-old locked himself in the bathroom.
I had to wrestle the hammer out of the younger kid’s hand. He was livid; he was going to kill his brother when he got out of the bathroom.
The 14-year-old slept in the locked bathroom.
I cleaned the 10-year-old’s face/hair off in the sink in the kitchen because the other kid wouldn’t come out. While I was cleaning him, we heard the door opening, and the 10-year-old tried to grab a knife from the kitchen and go up there to presumably make good on this threat. I managed to stop him.
I locked all the knives and other things I found that looked like weapons in the mom’s car. And I told the 14-year-old to actually stay in the bathroom or he might die. Then I watched Super Troopers on an endless loop until the other kid passed out finally. I was too nervous to sleep.
When the mom came home the next morning, I just gave her the keys to the car, told her to ask her kids what happened cause I couldn’t relive it. And good luck.”
“Were You DECEIVING Her?”
“I once babysat for a very religious family. Their kids were great: smart, responsible, fun to be around. The eldest was eight and helped me clean dishes. We watched Home Alone. It was a great time.
Now, at 8:30 I settled them down for bed. They asked me to sing them a song, but only want me to sing them church songs. I’m Jewish, so I couldn’t do much for them there, so I sang ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.’ They asked me if they could stay up and read for a bit, and I told them they could for a half an hour, and then go to bed.
Their parents told me they were going to be home around midnight. They came home at 8:45. Their two kids, who at this point had only been in their beds for 15 minutes, came running down the stairs. They’re excited to see their parents.
Instead of greeting their kids, they scolded them.
‘Your bedtime was 8:30. Your babysitter thought you were in bed. Were you lying to her? Were you DECEIVING her?’
To make it even worse, they didn’t even pay me that much.”
Even The Mom Thought They Were Terrible
“I was babysitting these two, spoiled white girls who told me I’m too short for my age, I’m bad at playing barbies, said my hair was ugly, and screamed and cried like crazy when I told them it was time for bed after I had let them stay up an hour later. They hid the TV remote from me and called me a bully and locked themselves in one of the rooms, saying they were gonna tell their mom I was mean and screamed at them for no reason at all. When the mom came home and asked how they were, of course, I said they were fine. she responded with, ‘I know they’re terrible. What did they do?'”
You Want Me To Babysit Your Wife?
“Technically I didn’t babysit, but I did put an advertisement on the internet advertising myself as a babysitter – I was in desperate need of a job. I paid £5 to have the listing stay at the top of the search results and the only answer I got was a man calling from nearby asking if I could babysit his two children on a regular basis. He said I would have to look after the children but also look after his wife. I didn’t understand what he meant so I asked if she was mentally unwell. He said, ‘No, it’s just that she gets down sometimes and could use another female to talk to. I work for a big company and sometimes she has to deal with a lot of my clients and she could use advice.’ I didn’t get it so I asked him to explain. ‘It’s just little things. We have a lot of younger men from overseas come over and she’ll take them out to dinner or for drinks. She sometimes gets upset about it though.’ I caught on that he wanted me to look after his lady of the evening wife. I pretty much said thanks but no thanks and hung up. He called me three times again that night and I started to get worried. Took the ad down and slept with a knife beside my bed. Never again.”
Curiosity Wasn’t What Killed The Cat
“I babysat a 5-year-old once in a while for a family friend. I had been watching him since he was 2. He was always alright, until one day he went to use the bathroom. I thought he had been in there a bit too long so I knocked on the door, there was no answer. I thought maybe he was being shy so I waited a bit longer. After 10 minutes total of him being in there, I opened the unlocked door to a wet ball of black fur and mixed smells bolting out and running through the house.
The kid was in there with a bottle of shampoo upside down in his hands. He had broken into the child lock on the sink cabinet and trapped the cat in the bathtub. This all seemed kind of mean, but innocent enough until I noticed the drano, nail polish remover, hydrogen peroxide, pretty much everything was open in the cabinet.
He was systematically going through everything in the cabinet and dumping it on the cat. I asked why and he said stone-faced, ‘I’m trying to kill it. I hate that cat.’ I still can’t believe the cat didn’t make more noise or that it didn’t die. I put the kid in his room until I could catch and clean the cat. The mom came home and she said it wasn’t the first time, but she apologized and paid me extra.”
This Toy Definitely Isn’t For Kids
“I was babysitting this little girl who had issues sleeping when her parents weren’t in the house. Her parents told me she could sleep in their room to comfort her. The child discovered a GIANT adult toy and gave it to the basset hound, thinking it’s a chew toy. I had to chase down basset hound to retrieve this vibrating adult toy. I didn’t know what to do with the toy, so I placed it on the parent’s dresser. I told the child to never speak of this night again.
I was babysitting my cousin.”
These Little Kids Have Some Big Questions
“I went over when I was 15 to meet the whole family before I started, and right when I walked into the room the oldest boy (8 years old) looked directly into my eyes and said, ‘Have you had the baby talk yet?’ His mum was profusely apologetic and explained that he’d just been told about it in school, and he continued to ask personal questions about my love life for the entire half hour or so that I was there. Another time I had to reassure his little sister (3 years old) that mummy was coming home soon, and she nodded sagely and said ‘Mummy has gone for a drink. [Pause.] She’s very thirsty.'”
Now That’s A Terrible Trio
“I had a family I agreed to babysit for. They had three kids and I agreed to do it for $5 an hour. She said she ‘couldn’t justify’ paying me minimum wage, because that was what she made, so I had to work for half of that. I was broke and a student at the time, so I agreed.
Let’s call these kids by the names that I called them: they were, ‘Loser,’ ‘Disgusting,’ and ‘Annoying.’
‘Loser’ was 8 or so. She told me on multiple occasions that she was the boss, that she would tell her mother that I hit her if I didn’t do whatever she said, and undermined absolutely anything that I did.
‘Disgusting’ was probably around 6. She peed the bed, so much so that the family had all three kids in one room with plastic covered mattresses that literally smelled like a ferret cage. She would pick her nose, dig into her butt, and spit on the floor, then proceed to try to hug me.
‘Annoying’ was 3, and still wore a diaper. He cried if he didn’t get his way, ran away constantly, and basically threw a fit every time he didn’t get what he wanted. This was the worst family I ever worked for.”
Momma Had A Wild Night
“I babysat for a woman who had three kids. I took one look at the baby and said, ‘I’m not changing diapers.’
She said, ‘I should be back by 7 or 7:30 but if not, the 4-year-old can change her.’
The kids insisted on playing in the pool outside until 6. When they came in finally, I went to make them food and all of the cupboards were empty. This woman owned zero food, zero plates, zero anything. I found a single butter knife in the sink, but no silverware.
By 7:30 she hadn’t come home and the number she gave me was disconnected.
I let the kids watch TV until they fell asleep. Every ten minutes, one would wake up screaming so loud I thought the neighbors would come over to check on us – with various nightmares like ‘Mom’s not coming home,’ ‘Mom came home hammered,’ and ‘Mom turned into a witch monster and ate us.’
At 4 the next morning, there was a knock at the door and two men were there carrying unconscious vomit soaked mom.
They told me they were driving home from a night shift and saw her puking on herself on the street. No sign of her car. They couldn’t get her phone to work and so they were hoping the address in her license was right.
She had no shirt. They didn’t know where her shirt was. She hadn’t been wearing it. They brought her in, paid me in the change from their cupholder, and called the police and CPS.”
They Just Had One Too Many
“I was 12 and the family down the street asked me to babysit for their 5-year-old, 3-year-old, and infant. Kids are OK enough. They’re a little bossy and bratty, but we watch The Sound of Music, they make me dance with them, the baby sleeps through the night, they go to bed and I only have to go upstairs a few times because I heard them talking.
However, the parents were supposed to be home at 10, and it’s going on 11:30. My mom calls the house and I say they’re not home yet. I have school in the morning. She says give them another half hour then call me back. They don’t show, don’t call, and it’s midnight and I’m 12. I call my mom back. She has to come over to sit with the kids so I can go home and go to bed. Apparently, the parents rolled in completely inebriated around 3 am. I never babysat for them again.”
And The Dad Let Them Get Away With It?
“One of my earliest babysitting experiences was in middle school. This family lived down the street from me and they were just weird. The dad would work from home and stay upstairs while the kids and I were downstairs. One day, we were playing ‘house’ and I was dog who had to sleep on this daybed in their playroom. I laid down and the kids jumped on me (3 kids aged 5-13). While I was attempting to wrangle them off me, their friend handcuffs me to the bed. They then proceeded to pull down my pants and began spanking me over and over again. I screamed, it’s very painful and they wouldn’t stop. This was when the dad came downstairs. I was thinking my salvation was here, but then the dad walked in, laughed at me, then turned around and walked back upstairs. I finally got them to uncuff me by kicking the kids as hard as possible. Then the family calculated the exact cost per minute so my check was for $22.47. I never went back.”
Who Was Crazier: The Kids Or The Mom?
“Being the youngest of all my cousins (and by youngest I mean they all had 1-3 children and I was only 15), I was the designated babysitter for all of them. During high school, I babysat at least three times a week. Great money, but these kids were nuts. Some nights went super smoothly and I was paid pretty well most of the time so I didn’t complain too much. My worst nights by far would always be with the same set of children. Two boys and a girl, all about two years apart. My cousin (their mom) had recently gotten a divorce and was definitely making up for some lost years in the partying department. All these kids did the whole time I babysat them was scream and fight and trying to discipline them was impossible.
One time, shortly after Halloween, I got out to their house to what can only be described as a war zone. The kids’ uncle had been watching them for a couple hours before I got there and basically let them do whatever they wanted. There were candy wrappers everywhere and they were sprinting up and down the hallway. He couldn’t have gotten out of there fast enough when he saw me pull up. So now I was left with a group of wild, hyper children. So I tried my best to get them to settle down and watch a movie. I bust out some popcorn and everything seemed to be going well. I even got them to bed with little issue. Now my cousins were usually home by a little after midnight and that was never an issue with me. I would usually just hang out on the couch and watch some TV until they got home. Well this particular time, 1 o’clock passed, 2 o’clock passed, 3 o’clock passed and I was getting pretty confused. During this time, I’d been intermittently falling asleep and waking up just to be more confused by the fact that their mom wasn’t home yet. Next thing I knew, I was being woken up by the three kids standing beside the couch asking me to make them breakfast. It was now 8 am and I’d heard nothing from their mom. So I made them breakfast and then found out that their mom had been passed out on the other couch in the backroom this whole time, hungover and useless.”
Time Out Was Taken Too Far
“I once babysat for a family with two young daughters. When they put the girls to bed at night, they would apparently always refuse to stay in their rooms. So the parents switched the locks around on their doors so they’d lock from the outside. Bedtime rolled around and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t lock those kids in their bedrooms! It was too messed up!
The whole thing was honestly pretty traumatizing for little 13-year-old me. Had I been older and more informed, I probably would have wanted to call CPS. That seriously cannot be a normal/healthy parenting decision.”
The House Was A Living Nightmare
“I babysat for my mom’s friend when I was in middle school. She had four kids, ages 5-13.
First of all, they had birds. A lot of them, in ornate cages all around the house. Second, one of her kids had the same name as me, so the birds would sometimes mimic the dad’s voice calling that kid’s name when I walked around. It was very creepy.
This woman also had a large antique doll collection that she kept in a glass case in the living room. I had to pass through there to go upstairs which was so scary.
The last time I babysat them, I got there and the mom told me they’d be getting home from school about 30 minutes later. 30 minutes went by… An hour… Two hours… No kids. The mom got home and me being a dumb adolescent, I nonchalantly told her the kids didn’t come home. She freaked and we went on an hour drive around town trying to find them, calling everyone. When we circled back to her house, we went inside and heard something upstairs.
The kids were upstairs. The whole time. Trying to play a prank on me or something, I don’t know. It was awful.”
These Two Schedules Were Too Much
“I was 14-15 and babysitting a family that had two well behaved boys but the parents were on opposite shifts. One day, the mother was supposed to arrive home at 8:30 from work, but she never did. I called the father. No answer. Mother, no answer. Eventually, it was going on midnight and I called my dad and he came over and I went home. The mother got home around 1 am but that wasn’t even the bizarre part. Two days later, on a Saturday morning, I was babysitting for them again. I was there at 7 am prompt. She walked out the front door to her car in the driveway and left. A little after 8 am, the father walked in from the garage’s door into the kitchen. Now, I was in the kitchen the whole time and the actual mechanical garage door never opened. They didn’t have a side garage door. Which means the father was in the garage the entire time (the entire night) and was a completely inebriated mess. He offered to take me to Burger King (no thanks) and me, being so young and dumbfounded, l just let him take the boys into his care. That was my last time babysitting, they ended up moving rather quickly and getting divorced.”
Topsy-Turvey And Way Too Dirty
“When I was in the military, I had a pretty sweet shift and was off by 3 pm. I started a babysitting business since I like kids but can’t have them and I also wanted some extra money. The first house I babysat for was on base housing for a man and his wife. I showed up and there were ferret cages, bird cages and others I can’t remember because it’d been a few years. They were all dirty. There were dishes covering the counter. The floor was covered with pet stains and messes caused by the kids. They had only lived in this house for six months and it was TRASHED.
The bathrooms were the filthiest I have ever seen and their rooms were covered in toys and clothes. I couldn’t even see the floor. Once the little girl said, ‘Look I cleaned my room.’ …Yeah, ok. At one point during the night, the little 3-year-old had to pee so he went across the hall to the bathroom and I watch him hold onto the toilet rim (covered in urine) while he tried to do his business. I almost lost my mind. I immediately scrubbed his hands afterward and it was just no big deal for him to have urine all over his hands.
They had said they would be home by 10 after leaving at 6 pm. Cool, $40. I got a text at 10:15 asking if I could stay til midnight. I hesitantly agreed. Another $20 bucks, the kids were asleep by now and I’d just pass the time watching tv. They showed up at 12:15, wasted, and with some friends. The woman said, ‘Oh, I only have $40, can I just owe you?’ I just stared blankly at her and the friend could tell I was uncomfortable. He gave me the $20 difference and I never went back. Absolutely horrible.”