Babysitters Share Their Most WTF Experiences On The Job

Babysitters share the craziest things that have happened after being left to look after someone else's children.

“I Found Them In The Bathroom Doing…”

“When I was a teenager I watched two kids up the street. The mother was single and had another single friend with two kids so I usually watched them all. I knew they went out to party, which was fine because they’d come home intoxicated and pay me more than I expected. What I didn’t know is how much they partied. One evening I went upstairs to get money for pizza. I found both moms in the bathroom snorting coke. The worst thing was that when I found them doing it, they offered me some despite the fact that I was about to spend the night watching their young children and I was only 14 or 15 at the time.”

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“I See Her On The Porch With…”

“When I was 13 I got a job babysitting for my neighbors. They had two little girls that were just the easiest kids to look after. The mom and dad were super nice people. The dad was a nurse who mainly worked nights and the mom worked from home and would ask me over on Friday nights so that she could go out and have some down time. I quickly found out, though, that she was seeing other men. The first night I went over there the mom informed me she would be home no later than midnight. Well, 4 am rolled around and I’m woken up by noise out on the porch and see her hastily kissing another man before shooing him off. She apologizes for being late, pays me (was $5 short) and I go home to my mom whose pissed that she kept me so late. The same thing happened two more times. She’d promise to be home at midnight and would come home at 3 or 4 in the morning. Every time with a different guy. And every time would stiff me a little of what I earned. My mom put a stop to it and called her out on cheating on her husband. They ended up getting divorced not long after that.”

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“My Mom Calls And Says, ‘Lock All The Doors…'”

“This is pretty creepy. I babysit for a rather wealthy family in my area, they live near a park in a giant home with a front that’s mostly glass. One day, I decided to meet my parents for a coffee before babysitting (it was about to be a long night of studying until the parents got home around 2 am). There was an especially creepy guy sitting in front of the coffee shop (I should mention this coffee shop is across town and down the hill from my babysitting job), who wore sunglasses (though it was cloudy) and had almost Joker-like scars on his face. Obviously, we walked past and ignored him. Flash forward to babysitting. I was sitting downstairs studying, all the lights were on even though it was dark outside because it was impossible to turn them off, and the wall next to me is all glass. My mom calls and says she’s going on a run and will be passing me. I just kept reading. Later she calls me and in an almost panicked voice says, ‘Lock all the doors right now and go study upstairs.’ ‘Why mom? There’s food down here.’ ‘The scary man from earlier is sitting on the bench across the street from the house.’ I didn’t know he was there because it was so dark outside and bright in the room, so I high tailed it up to the playroom where I snuggled with stuffed animals until the parents came home; I’m still a little scared.”

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Criminal Activity

“I babysat for a very prominent family in my town – wife was a CEO, husband a lawyer. It was the best job ever! Two easygoing kids, $15 an hour (this was 15 years ago, so that was a TON of money), access to their pool, and an open invitation for my friends to come swim while I was ‘working.’ In between my first and second summer working for them, the parents divorced and the dad bought a giant house out in the country where I’d watch the kids sometimes. He made it very clear that his office and all the outbuildings were strictly off-limits. Okay, whatever, no problem. He had a ‘grounds keeper’ who was always prowling around, hitting on me, and acting like a total creeper. If the kids or I came within 20 feet of the (supposedly empty) stables, he’d shoo us away saying he’d spotted a dangerous snake, just sprayed for bugs or some other weak reason to keep us away. Came home from school a few months after my summer gig was over and saw the dad’s mugshot on TV. He’d been busted as some kind of small-time drug lord, selling to dealers out of his house in the country and his ‘grounds keeper’ was a wanted sex offender. It was a huge embarrassing ordeal for his ex-wife and their kids and they eventually moved away. My parents freaked that I was working so close to criminal activity and wouldn’t let me babysit anymore after that. It was a bummer all around.”

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“I Can Break In”

“When I was a teenager, I was babysitting for a family whose dog had just been hit by a car and had a broken leg. There was one kid, a 2-year-old little girl. I had been asked to take the dog out to pee a few times that night because he had to be walked on a leash. So while the little girl was happily watching TV on her parents’ bed, I took the dog out to the front yard. The people neglected to tell me that their front door locked on its own when it closed. I’ve never, ever seen a door on a house do that. So when I turn to go back in, I’m locked out with a 2-year-old alone in the house. I go across the street to the neighbour’s house because I thought they had mentioned that neighbour had a spare key if I ever needed one. No answer, so I go over to the window where I can see the kid and try to instruct her to open the door. She goes to the front door and from the window, alongside the door, I’m pointing and saying, ‘Open the door! Go on, open the door!’ and she’s not getting it. She breaks down crying hysterically because she doesn’t know why I’m not coming back in, and then runs back to her parents bed to continue sobbing. I felt horrible. The next door neighbour notices what’s going on and asks what’s up. He was kind of a shady guy. He was the last guy in the neighbourhood to not sell his property for ‘flipping.’ It was a well-off neighbourhood and he had the last tiny brick bungalow among giant re-builds. He had a lovely unmowed lawn growing around an old rusty car up on blocks. Nice guy though. He said, ‘Oh I can break in for you, let me get my tools.’ So he proceeds to go up on the roof and completely remove their skylight (one of those plexiglass bubble-type ones) and drop himself down into the house. Luckily the little girl had fallen asleep on her parents’ bed by that point. When the parents came home they felt awful for not telling me about the door, and I had to tell them they should get their skylight checked for leaks. The neighbour across the street later told me she does have their spare key and was home that night and heard me ringing her doorbell, but she had just had a bath and was in her bathrobe and didn’t feel like answering. She felt pretty bad about that.”

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They Wanted Me To Sleep In Their Bed

“I was 12 and babysitting 2 kids across the street for the night. My parents were home and even brought dinner by so I felt pretty safe. The mother of the 2 children goes to leave and says she’ll be home really late, so feel free to sleep in her bed. I ask about her husband, she said he’d be home soon before her but go ahead and sleep in their bed. I got that weird gut feeling something was off and after putting kids to bed I curled up on the couch and tried to sleep. The parents came home sometime between 3-4 and I could hear them in the kitchen commenting on how I was on the couch and not asleep in their bed as they had hoped, should they wake me? Carry me upstairs? No, just leave her. I never said anything to my parents and avoided watching their kids for the next few years. The second and last time I babysat for them was 3 years later, which ended in me calling the parents home and leaving the house as their 7-year-old son had a fishing knife and a whip (gifts from grandpa) he was threatening me with.”

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He Had Them Hidden In His Room

“I used to babysit my neighbors’ kids. Actually, I babysat them for one night. That was all. There were 3 of them, and the mother never really learned how to discipline either, as all 3 were literally the red-headed demon children you always hear about. I don’t remember their names now, but they were ages 12, 9, and 6. 9 was on some sort of medication, for an anger problem. 6 looked up to 9 and copied him, and 12, the sister, was more mild mannered and tolerable when she was alone.

It started off normal, 6 and 9 are riding their bikes around the neighborhood and 12 and I are doing a puzzle. Eventually, the kids get bored, so we broke out their game of Connect Four. That went well for all of maybe five minutes. 9 lost his game to 12, so he throws the entire game set at her, and she continues to tease him which makes 9 angrier. 9 continues to throw things around and I ask him to stop, that’s not nice. He yells ‘SHUT UP’ and tried to attack his sister. So 12 runs away screaming with 9 following behind, 6 decides to try and get involved but somehow, 6 trips and connects with 9’s foot as he’s running, so now I’ve got 2 kids beating each other up and one with a bloody nose. I decide to leave 9 and 12 while I deal with bloody nose here. I’m holding a crying, screaming 6 over a sink with hot water running and just let him bleed there while I’m trying to stay calm and have 9 and 12 calm down. I did end up screaming STOP to the kids, and they stopped. Back to 6, who’s still crying over a bloody nose. I realize, oh my god, this sink isn’t draining. 9 goes, ‘Oh yeah that sink doesn’t work.’

Okay, awesome, now I’ve got blood to clean off the carpet, tile, and now a sink full of bloody water. Of course, this is when 9 decides to lose his mind and grabs a pocket knife from his mother’s end table and tries to stab 12 with it. What is going on?! I take that knife from him, so of course, he comes back from the kitchen with another knife. Yay. Well, at least he stopped trying to stab his sister for the time being, so he resorts to stabbing all of his mother’s furniture instead. By now I’ve called the mom 4 times, but she isn’t answering her phone. So I end up calling my stepmom, who’s retired military, because someone’s going to die and I’m starting to lose my cool, being 17 at the time.

So, to recap, there is blood everywhere, holes in all the furniture, psycho 9-year-old with knives (I put up all the kitchen knives but he had some hidden in his room). So my stepmom runs over to see exactly that. I explain to her the situation, and she ends up restraining 9 while I clean up this mess. Finally, the mom calls back and I explain the situation to her as well, and she says calmly, ‘Yeah his medication must have worn off. Just tell him he’s done nothing wrong and to give him what he wants.’ Are you kidding me? I got out of there, got paid $80, and that was my very last time babysitting.”

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“I Had To Call The Police”

“When I was 16, I babysat 2 little boys every day from 6 am to 6 pm for the summer. They had a single mom who was super cool and let me take the boys to the beach, pool, boardwalk, whatever. One day when I got to work, she informed me that her new boyfriend (who I had never met or heard her talk about) was going to stay home all day because he was sick. Not sure why I had to be there too, but I wanted the pay and figured maybe he was too sick to watch the boys. At about lunchtime I fed the boys and we walked to the community pool. We were there for a while and came back to the boyfriend watching TV in the living room. This being the first time meeting the boyfriend, I introduced myself and sent the boys upstairs to change and shower. As soon as the boys left the room, the boyfriend asked me to take my cover up and bathing suit off. Being young and naive, I laughed and said something stupid like, ‘Haha what?’ He became more persistent at that point. I grabbed my stuff and told him I was leaving, calling the police and the boys’ mother. Looking back, I probably should’ve taken the boys, but I was freaked out and not thinking. I left and never looked back. The police came and talked to me but when they got to the house the mom was there and he had left. The mom never believed me, and didn’t pay me for the week. She accused me several times of making it up to get out of work. Why she would believe that dirt ball she just met over her babysitter of several months is beyond me.”

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“I Was Scared For My Own Safety”

“I once showed up for a part time nannying gig for 3 kids, in a big beautiful house in the suburbs, parents had fancy jobs and fancy cars. I walked into their house, and their dog was waddling around with a giant, oozing tumor on its back. When I asked the parents about it, they said they kept meaning to bring it the vet but didn’t have a moment yet. The 3-year-old would still cuddle the dog, patting it and putting her face against it. I love dogs – but this was disgusting. The dog died a few weeks later – never made it to the vet, I guess. The craziest thing was that not one member of the family seemed to care that their dog had died. No one even mentioned anything until I noticed the dog was missing, and I asked about it. A different time with this same family I had to lock the 8-year-old in his room because I was legitimately afraid for my own safety or being seriously injured by his temper tantrum. He was throwing lego sculptures and monster trucks at me, at his walls and door. He had been hitting me and kicking me. I’ve been babysitting for over 10 years, and this is the only time I’ve ever had to consider my own safety before the child’s. And the reason why? I wouldn’t let him have dessert until he had taken ONE bite of his vegetables! That was the day I quit.”

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Her Virgin Eyes Weren’t Prepared For That

“When I was a young teenager, maybe 14-15, I agreed to babysit a family every Friday night. I loved those kids, and I made pretty good money doing it. It started off great, but as time went on it continued to get worse and worse. The parents were drunks, and they often forgot to pay me or would give me checks that were completely illegible, not signed, or even low payments. Once I got paid $3.54 for 11 hours of work. My dad would drag me back there Saturday mornings each time it happened and stand behind me while I asked for my payment. Another time the husband had driven me home drunk, and was pulled over and given a DUI less than a block away from dropping me off, so instead of allowing them to drive me home, my parents told me to either call them to come get me or to take my bike and ride it home at the end of the night. The last straw for my parents was one Friday night when this couple came home completely blasted and had brought a few friends home. The women came into the house and ran upstairs making tons of noise. I wasn’t sure if they knew I was even there. They came running back down the stairs like a couple of children racing to the bottom of the staircase wearing only bikini bottoms. I stood there in the living room while they rifled through the fridge and cupboards grabbing anything they could eat then running outside to meet the men who were standing on the patio getting the hot-tub running and warmed up. Then they stripped. And in front of my virgin, never seeing any kind of sexual interaction, 14-year-old eyes, I watched as many things I’d never seen before played out. Not knowing what to do, I called my house and my dad came to pick me up. As his vehicle’s lights lit up the driveway the couples stopped having their foursome and the mother of the children I was babysitting put a towel around herself and came running into the house apologizing and telling me she had forgotten I was there. My dad stood behind me while he demanded my payment. When I got the check he told them to never call me again. Got paid $185 though, so that was pretty sweet.”

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They’ve Been Through A Lot

“I babysat for a family with five children for quite some time. The youngest two were five-year-old twins, one of which had a recurring form of Hodgkins Lymphoma. Their mother and I switched off about once a week so she could see the other children and I was to stay with the one who was quarantined to her grandmother’s house (they kept this house completely immaculate so she wasn’t exposed to anything dangerous). Both houses were in a small town and everyone knew the family’s situation. One day, at the neighborhood pool, I received a call that the youngest had been transferred to the hospital and we needed to leave immediately to visit her. I quickly told all of the kids why we needed to pack up and go but her twin wasn’t having it. These kids had been through a lot and her twin never knew how to handle the situation. He often lashed out for lack of understanding. He refused to leave the pool and began to scream. After all the other kids pleaded for him to let us go, he got out of the pool and pushed me, yelling ‘WHY CAN’T SHE JUST DIE ALREADY? I JUST WANT TO SWIM!’ Everyone turned to witness the scene as the other local parents tried their best to help the situation. Everyone knew we just had to let the situation ride but he continued ‘WE ALWAYS DO WHAT SHE WANTS. I JUST WANT HER TO DIE SO I CAN PLAY.’ The other three kids are now crying. A friend’s parent had to have her husband carry the kid, kicking and screaming, to our car and place the seatbelt on him so we could visit his sister in case it was the end. The poor husband had scratches all over his face but was so kind and understanding. She’s currently in remission. He’s going to some therapy.”

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“We Knew That Already”

“I had a horrible heart-stopping moment when babysitting my neighbour’s children. I must’ve been about 16, and the kids were 7, 5, and 3. We were playing the ‘hide the button’ game, and the youngest had gone into the open plan dining room, slightly out of my eyesight, and clambered on top of the fireguard. The fire was not on as it was summer time, but as she grabbed the marble of the fireplace, the whole fireplace came out of the wall and crashed heavily to the floor. It was obviously not secured properly and was extremely dangerous. Now, the 3-year-old kid was crying her eyes out, and to this day I have no idea how she came through with only a scraped knee. That thing should have killed her it was so heavy. I could not lift it back up myself, so I enlisted the help of my brother who was around the corner. Cue shaky phone call to the parents ‘Erm, your fireplace came off the wall and nearly crushed Holly, she’s okay but your fireplace isn’t.’ Their response? ‘Oh, we knew it wasn’t fixed on properly, it hasn’t been for 10 years, it’s on our to do list.’ Stupid parents.”

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April Fools

“I have terrible anxiety, which is really relevant to this story. I used to babysit a seven-year-old and his four-year-old brother. I love the kids to bits, and their mom is a great friend of my family. One night she asked me to babysit on the night before April Fools. All was well until about three in the morning. The mom got home and asked if I could keep babysitting until noon. My sleep schedule was messed up anyway so I said why not, as she said she’d buy me the books I’ve been wanting for months. This whole time I’ve been outside the house. Once she drives away I return to the house. Once I open the door, I notice red liquid everywhere, handprints, and I hear the four-year-old wailing. I begin to feel my heart beat in every limb and it became very difficult to breathe. I scream the oldest’s name as I try to walk up the hardwood stairs (covered in the red slime that’s everywhere) and slip. I’m now at the bottom of the stairs and my head is cut, and I’m covered in the red slime. The whole time the four-year-old is screaming, and the seven-year-old is nowhere to be found. I finally make it to the top, wheezing and fighting for air when I notice the knife on the floor. At this point, I’m just so terrified. Once I reach the kids’ room (they share a gigantic master bedroom), the little one stops screaming and the oldest opens the door, smiling.

In about half a second, the smile fades and he notices how shaken up I am. He starts crying saying he’s sorry, and he just wanted to see what would happen. I’m screaming at him to move and I keep asking what he’s done, all the while crying and hyperventilating. He moves and I see the littlest one’s mop of hair peeking from his covers, and there’s what I believe is blood everywhere. I’m bawling my eyes out and inching my way towards the bed. Then, with an ear splitting scream, he Superman launches from the bed and is giggling like a madman. This makes me pee myself, so now I’m laying on the floor, having a giant panic attack, pissing myself and very much confused. I guess seeing your babysitter piss herself is hilarious, since the seven-year-old stops crying, laughs, and yells ‘APRIL FOOLS!’ I’m trying to process this and next thing I know, I’m laying on the floor in the hallway. I am covered in red slime, a blanket (covering my exposed bottom) and the little one is sleeping next to me.

I hear the dryer ding and open it to find my clothes and the sheets to the bed. I guess he heard it too, because the seven-year-old comes out, wearing yellow gloves and holding a toothbrush and bucket of soapy water. He then explains that after peeing everywhere, I passed out. He felt bad and, I quote, ‘I didn’t want you to sleep there, so I put a blanket on you and yanked the jeans by your ankles till they came off. I promise I didn’t look.’ After removing my soiled jeans, he dragged me into the hallway and started cleaning the room. I ended up getting dressed and helped him clean the whole house before noon. Later that day, his mom called me and asked why her tubs of fake blood were gone (she had to dress people up for a photography session, and needed them). We all had a good laugh once I explained it, and I made sure they weren’t grounded. I told him, however, if he ever tried that nonsense again, it’d be his blood on the walls.”

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Superstitious

“When I was 10 to probably 13 or 14 I babysat for a weird family in my town. They had 3 daughters who were super awesome and we always had a blast. When I started the youngest was 2 weeks old. It turned into me babysitting form them more than their parents were home or I was at my own home. Anyway, the parents are into weird stuff. One of the things they liked to do was for any major decisions they needed to make, they would get out a sinker attached to a string and ask it questions. If it swung a certain way it meant yes, and if it went the other way it meant no. Well anyway, I’ve been watching these girls for a couple years and one night the mother asks where the father and I go when he takes me home. I tell her that he takes me home right away. She says that it takes him 2 or 3 hours before he gets back. Obviously, I’m stunned at what she’s insinuating, but they pay a good amount and I always knew they were crazy. About a week after this, she tells me that I can no longer watch the kids because her sinker told her that the husband and I were having an affair. We weren’t. I was 12 for god’s sake and he was an ugly 37-year-old.”

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Home Daycare

“I did a great deal of babysitting when I was young. The worst was when I was hired by a home daycare to be ‘additional’ help for the summer. I should have run the first day. I arrived at 6 am and the woman is rolling out of bed. She hands me a key so I don’t have to wake her every time I come. Huh? There are seven kids in the living room ranging from 6 months to 6 years. I change the babies and prepare breakfast for the rest. Lady still sleeping. Another 6 kids get dropped off. I now have 13 kids with 5 under 18 months. I am trying to entertain them when the lady comes out and tells me to keep it down. She finally emerges around noon and heads to the bathroom. I prepare and serve lunch and put the kids down for z nap. She comes out looking like she was heading to the club. She notices the kids are sleeping and says she is going to run out for just a few minutes. As I am only 15 I am a little leery but being naive I say okay. She is gone until 4 pm and arrives just before the first parent arrives. She apologizes saying she hadn’t been feeling well. Okay. Parents pick up their spawn. The next day the exact same thing happens. But instead, after her nap, she tells me to drive the kids to the pool since 3 of the babies are not here. That’s still 10 kids with 2 babies. Also, I don’t have a car or a license. She tries to assure me it’s fine. I refuse and she throws a fit because how is she supposed to have her friends over with all these kids. I stayed almost the entire summer. Yeah, I am an idiot. The final straw was when I showed up on the Friday of Labor Day weekend and it was only her kids. She closed but decided to use me as her personal babysitter. As I am taking care of her 8 and 9-year-olds they start telling me about how she pays their other babysitter twice what she pays me during the week. When she returned I confronted her and she responded that she pays me less because she has to be here all day with me during the week. I demanded my pay and never went back.”

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“She’s Just So Spirited”

“There were these two girls that I babysat for a few months trying to make ends meet. The older one, as far as I could tell, was super nice but could never really stand up for herself. The younger sister, about seven, was evil. The final straw for me was over a remote control. I went to the bathroom and as soon as I sat down I heard a sickening fleshy THUMP followed by gasping. I ran into the room and the older sister was on the floor with silent tears streaming down her face and the young one laughing at her. The little one looked at me and said, ‘Look what I did! I kicked sister! I’m in charge of TV now!’ And giggled, waving the remote control around. I sent her to her room and helped the older sister up. She asked me to not get her sister in trouble because it happened all the time and she got attacked more if she got in trouble. When I confronted the mom about it, she said, ‘Oh that’s just how she is. She’s so spirited haha just ignore it.'”

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