Kids can be trouble, but sometimes their parents or living situation are even worse. These babysitters share the most messed up things they saw and experienced while trying to babysit these little "angels."
This Kid’s Diet Was More Than Just A Little Concerning
“The parents were bodybuilders and had one daughter. I don’t know what her name was because I heard them call her so many different things. Emma, Emmie, Emory, Every, Avery, and one time Emerson. It was bizarre.
Anyway, this kid would lose her mind unless I played Bubble Guppies on TV and consistently feed her cheese. I would usually try and distract her with any other snack but she would only eat cheese. The parents encouraged me to give her all the cheese she wanted.
I was concerned about this kid’s health. For two years, I only saw her eat cheese. She was constipated almost every time I babysat.
One time, I ended up feeding her an entire block of cheese for two hours, and refused to babysit for them after that.”
Turns Out He Wanted More Than Just A “Babysitter” For His Niece
“This didn’t happen to me, but to a girl I work with. She needed some extra cash and started posting online to find babysitting jobs. She winds up getting some steady work from this attractive single guy who has adopted his special needs niece and needs some help watching her because his job required a lot of travel. She works for him for awhile and she winds up dating him within weeks and he starts making the little girl call my coworker ‘mama.’ Meanwhile, she is still babysitting for him frequently when he’s away for work.
Shortly after they start dating, a woman contacts my coworker claiming to be the guy’s girlfriend and saying she was pregnant. He winds up playing the other woman off as a crazy ex and they continue dating. So, every day for about a month, she comes in gushing about how this guy is too good to be true. They don’t spend a ton of time together because of his job, but when they did he was buying her lavish gifts or taking her on last-minute ‘family’ vacations to Disneyland. She knew they were moving fast, but she kept justifying it and saying ‘Sometimes people just click!’
This goes on for about a month until they start fighting about the fact that they are never alone without the little girl, to which he replies ‘You’re my babysitter. What am I supposed to do?’ Then it gets crazier. One day she notices his phone go off and sees a partial text from another woman on the notification screen saying ‘I can’t stop thinking about last night.’ She goes through his phone. Turns out, he had five ‘babysitters’ that he ‘just clicked with’ and his overnight business trips were overnight stays with other women that he would pull the same scam on. He was having his niece call all of these women ‘mama’ so she wouldn’t slip up and call one of them by the wrong name. The whole thing was so messed up in so many ways.”
She Was Literally Held Hostage By This Weird Kids
“My sister was the babysitter in this story. There were two little girls that lived down the street from us who we played with all the time. Their mom asked my sister to babysit over the summer since she just turned 13. Each time my sister went over there, she would keep them occupied by playing with their dolls and putting Disney movies on. Then one day my sister finds the sequel to ‘Ariel The Little Mermaid’ in their stash of movies. She’s never seen it, she wants to watch it, the kids didn’t. So my sister says ‘Ok well you guys can play with your dolls (upstairs) while I’m watching the movie (in the finished basement) and let me know when you’re hungry for lunch.’ They became suspicious because after all (and I quote) ‘What teenager still watches Disney movies?’ They decided that she must be a witch, locked her in the basement, and frantically called their mom at work.
9-year-old: ‘[Sis] is a witch! You have to come home! We have her trapped in the basement! She’s going to hurt us! She’s a witch!’
Mom: ‘WHAT?! Unlock the basement!’
9-year-old [crying now]: ‘No she’s a witch! You have to come home!’
Mom: ‘Ok I’m coming home, but you have to let her out of the basement before I get there.’
My sister in the meantime is FUMING that they’re not hearing her screams from the basement. When they finally unlock the door, they’re both armed with some household things and start beating her with them until she pushes on some pressure points and drags them kicking and screaming to their rooms. When the mom arrives to find my sister a distressed mess she pays her extra and apologetically says ‘You don’t have to come back after today.'”
They Knew It Was Time To Call CPS On These Parents
“I babysat for a family in high school. They typically brought their two little kids over on their way to work on the weekends. I noticed a couple things the first time I watched them. First, they had serious speech impediments. They were five and seven years old, I think, and they were essentially unintelligible for most words. I could typically understand what they wanted by having them point it out, and we worked on speech and pronunciation a lot. Second, they reeked like they had spent most of their lives living in a litter box. They just carried this deep-rooted musky scent of cat urine and feces with them. We also worked on hygiene and bathing. This went on for a few months until one night their parents asked my brother and me to watch the kids at their place. Sure, we’ll do it; the kids are fun and it’s easy money.
When we get to their place, I see that it’s a double-wide trailer, and the door is open. We start to roll up and a stink hits me. I’ve heard people describe particularly putrid smells as a wall of scent and that is what I experienced. It was like somebody had taken a jar of cat pee, let it ferment all summer in Texas and then surprised me by opening it in my face. It was pervasive, and no place in their trailer didn’t make me retch.
The parents go off to work and leave us to watch the kids. I’m extremely skeptical about sitting down on their furniture because there’s cat poop everywhere. There were three litter boxes practically overflowing with it, there was cat poop in the (unused) shower, there was cat poop behind the couch, and the cushions had obviously seen some action too. When I go to cook dinner for the kids the shelves are practically empty, and there are no pots, so I end up microwaving some hotdogs for them, which was apparently a common meal.
The room that the kids stayed in was inundated with cat excrement and toys. One of the kids couldn’t even sleep in his bed there was just so much stuff, so he slept on the couch.
When we got home after that ordeal, we had a talk with our mom about calling child services and ultimately decided to do it. I later learned that they removed the older child from their custody due to anger problems that resulted in him beating his little brother. It makes me tear up just thinking about those kids. The older one must be about 18 now and the younger one is probably 16 or so. I’m not sure I have the heart to look them up.”
Their Best Friend’s Scheme Caused This Babysitting Job To Turn Into An Interrogation
“I was 17 years old and babysitting my best friend’s little sister. It was summer, and I didn’t have a job, so I got drafted for $25 a day, which was almost minimum wage at the time without income tax to worry about. The little girl, Laura, was a precocious little devil. She had a schedule she made up as to what happened and when it happened. I was about three weeks into doing this when the mom and dad wanted to have a talk with me.
They had my parents there and everything was tense. I was questioned as to what I did all day with Laura, so I ran down the schedule and showed them where she tacked it on a corkboard in her room. They kept throwing more questions at me that kept getting more and more personal, like whether or not I touched myself. My dad held up a hand and said they better get to the problem or we were all leaving. They said that while they were at a party with friends the night before, Laura blurted out that she wanted to see me touch myself. I was flabbergasted, my mom nearly vapor locked, and my dad stared at the wall counting to 1,000. I had no idea what she was talking about and never said those words in her presence, let alone performed the deed.
They weren’t interested in hearing anything but a full confession, so my parents and I left. I was certain the cops were going to come knocking. Tensions around my house were high, to say the least, then the phone call came. My best friend had lost his job and was trying to keep it a secret from his parents so he taught his little sister to say she wanted to see me touch myself so I would get booted and he could graciously offer to quit and make the easy money babysitting. It all came out when they told him I wasn’t allowed at the house anymore and they were hiring some girl to babysit. My ‘best friend’ went on a rant about what morons they were and how he set the whole thing up, and they had to go mess it up by being idiots.
Anyway, the upshot was I was no longer under any suspicion, but I couldn’t babysit anymore because they hired the girl to do it. I never saw or talked to that friend again. It wasn’t that I avoided it, I actually went looking for him to beat the heck out of him; he just disappeared from town. Years later, I ran into Laura all grown up, I asked her about her brother after she realized she remembered me. She said he had been shipped off to his grandma’s house in Boulder City and he never did actually amount to much. She said her mom and dad still talked about how badly they treated me and she was sorry for her part in it.”
Silly Tiny Timmy Was Back With His Shenanigans Again
“I had a kid (we’ll call him Timmy) who had some behavioral issues, and he liked to hide. One time he climbed all the way into a trash can, with garbage in it, for no reason. I tried to work with him on his behavior issues.
One day, we took a field trip. Partway through, took the kids over for a bathroom break. After they were done, I counted and realized I was one short.
Me: ‘Hmm, I wonder who it is? Oh no, it’s Timmy! Kids, has anyone seen Timmy?’
Other kid: (nonchalantly) ‘Oh, he’s over there, in a locker.’
Me: ‘What do you mean he’s in a locker?’
Museums sometimes have these small lockers you can rent for like 50 cents. They’re big enough for maybe a jacket or two, so you can leave your coat, or a lunch in there.
Timmy had gone full-on contortionist and managed to squeeze himself, butt-first, into this locker. Took me a second to realize where his head was even at. I had to pull him out because he got stuck.
That was the day I went from ‘trying to help Timmy manage his problems’ to ‘keep Timmy alive for the summer.'”
The Night Of Every Babysitter’s Living Nightmare Was This Sitter’s Absolute Last
“I only babysat once in my life. Never again.
I was 25 or so and working for a research group at a university. The secretary was a nice lady and had a family emergency 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 even though they were 10 and 14. 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. Big mistake.
She was a single mom with two kids who she admitted were ‘troubled.’ I had no idea how much until I tried to take care of them.
The older kid had a ‘date’ at the movie theatre with some friends. His mother said this was okay, so I dropped him off. I spent the next couple of hours watching ‘Super Troopers’ with the younger kid who told me it was his favorite movie. So though the movie seemed questionable, I liked it a lot. Things are off to a solid start; easy street.
The movie theatre calls and tells me I have to come pick him up or they are going to call the cops. I hear him screaming something I can’t make out on the other side of the phone. I should have let him go to jail.
I call the mom, but I don’t get an answer. I don’t get an answer for the rest of the evening.
Turns out the kid got into a fight with his friend during the movie and peed on him.
The manager at the movies is upset because they have to clean up the pee. He wants the damage paid for. I explain to the guy I’m just helping out, give him the home phone number, and he sides with me since the kid calms down.
I drive the kid back. Don’t know what to say to him. The ride is mostly quiet until I get close to the house and smell smoke. The 10-year-old had a freaking lighter and tried to light the back of one of the seats on fire.
I should have called the cops at this point, but it’s one of those deeper and deeper things where you figure it’ll just be over soon. It never ended.
They wanted to watch ‘Super Troopers’ again and order pizza. I told them it was late already. 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. Woke up and one of the kids was trying to rob me (pulled 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 because my cell was in plain sight on the table in front of us.
When the pizza arrived, I had no idea who was knocking on the door, given the kid failed to get money from me, he ran to the door and grabbed the pizza, pushed the pizza guy and then slammed and locked the door and told me we had ‘free pizza, we must have won a contest or something. How did they even know we wanted pizza?’
When the movie ended they said they were going to bed/agreed to it. Great.
I slept on the couch downstairs. Actually didn’t hear them until around 2 a.m. when I heard a scream like someone got shot and then what sounded almost like shots from upstairs.
Ran up the stairs, find the 10-year-old crying and smashing a hammer into the door of the bathroom. Look at the other doors and find one of them is off its hinges and there is something sticky on the ground and it looks like it’s in the kid’s hair/face.
Turns out the 14-year-old waited for his brother to sleep, then poured a cup he collects his pee in on the kid’s head, then ran. The 10-year-old somehow ran right through the door trying to get him and the 14-year-old and locked himself in the bathroom.
I had to wrestle the hammer out of the younger kid’s hand. And 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.
We cleaned the 10-year-old’s face/hair off in the sink in the kitchen because the other kid wouldn’t come out. When we were 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 what looked like weapons in the mom’s car. And I told the 14-year-old to stay in the bathroom or he might die. Then I watched ‘Super Troopers’ on an endless loop while the other kid passed out. I was too nervous to sleep.
When the mom came home the next morning, I just gave her the keys to the car and told her to ask her kids what happened because I couldn’t relive it.”
They Would Never Babysit Again After This Messy Situation
“When I was in high school, I was against babysitting while my sister loved it. She would babysit for a family we were somewhat close to who had two young boys who had just gotten a new Dalmatian puppy. One Saturday, when my sister had agreed to babysit, she realized she would be late and asked me to stand in for a few hours before she could get there. I agreed and got to the house.
Once the parents left, the two young boys started full-out fighting, punching each other in the face and going full force attacking each other until the younger one was screaming in pain. While trying to get the older brother off the younger brother, their new puppy was sprinting around the downstairs and vomiting everywhere. The entire kitchen floor was getting covered in his throw up as he smeared it around with his paws. I managed to pry apart the boys and had to spend the next hour or so picking up puppy puke. I left as soon as my sister got there, and have never babysat since.”
Their Mom Said, “I Know They’re Terrible. What Did They Do?”
“One time, I babysat two little spoiled rich white girls. Told me I’m too short for my age, I’m bad at playing barbies, said my hair was ugly, and screamed and cried bloody murder when I told them it was time for bed after I had let them stay up an hour late. They hid the TV remote from me and called me a bully and locked themselves in one of the rooms saying they were going to 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, and she responded with ‘I know they’re terrible. What did they do?'”
They Couldn’t Believe These Angels Had Such Mean Parents
“I once babysat for a very religious family. Their kids were great: smart, responsible, and fun to be around. The eldest was eight years old and helped me clean dishes. We watched ‘Home Alone.’ It was a great time.
At 8:30 p.m., I get them settled down for bed. They ask 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 p.m. Their two kids, who at this point have only been in their beds for 15 minutes, come running down the stairs. They’re excited to see their parents. Instead of greeting their kids, they scolded them.
‘Your bedtime was 8:30 p.m. I thought you were in bed. Were you lying to her? Were you deceiving her??’
If I recall correctly, they didn’t even pay me that much.”
After Years Of Babysitting, It’s Amazing They Only Had TWO Horrifying Incidents
“I babysat almost every single Friday and Saturday night through high school but here are my top two worst experiences:
The Spankening. One of my earliest babysitting experiences in middle school. This family lived down the street from me, and they were 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 a dog who had to sleep on this daybed in their playroom. I lay down and the kids jump on me. While I’m attempting to wrangle them off of me, their friend handcuffs me to the bed. They then proceeded to pull down my pants and begin spanking me over and over again. I’m screaming, it’s painful and they won’t stop. This is when the dad comes downstairs. Thinking my salvation is here, the dad walks in, laughs at me, then turns around and walks back upstairs. I finally got them to uncuff me by kicking the kids as hard as possible. Also, the family calculated the exact cost per minute so I would get checks for like $22.47 and poo like that. I never went back after the spanking.
The Marriage Meltdown. This happened a year after I graduated college and was done as a favor for one of my mom’s coworkers as I was in the awkward stage between undergrad and grad school and had time off. The wife had a baby about three years ago and was looking to go back to work. She needed someone to watch the baby while she went to a coffee shop to work on resumes and applications. They had just bought a house and were in the process of moving in. I was asked to get there at 8 a.m. and was always prompt. Every morning, the dad would be just getting out of the shower and would chat with me with just a towel around his waist. That is how I met him for the first time. Finally, over an hour later, the dad would go to work and the mom would leave to go to the coffee shop. This went on for a few days and I soon discovered that the son was mentally handicapped. No biggie, cute kid. I also find out from my mom’s coworker that her sister was suffering from postpartum.
The situation hit the fan when the mom left early one morning and I was supposed to meet the dad at the house. I get there at the normal time; no one is there. Dad was supposed to drop the older kid off at daycare then meet me at the house. Don’t have the parents’ numbers but I email the mom after 9 a.m. rolls around and no one shows up. Finally, I am about to leave and I get a call from the dad, he says he’s about to pull up. He arrives and ends up complaining to me about his wife for over THREE HOURS! I learned all about that she sucks, they haven’t fooled around in ages, and her postpartum isn’t real. He then proceeds to pick up his son and tell him ‘It’s ok that mommy doesn’t love you. I love you enough.’ He kept saying that over and over. He then proceeded to get mad at me for contacting his wife that he was late because she freaks out about everything and will now blame him for not being on time. Finally, he left for work (after taking another awkward shower), and I watched ‘Project Runway’ on my phone while the kid slept.
I have no clue why I stayed that long, but I felt like this guy was going to begin crying if I said I needed to leave. I also stuck around for an hour before he showed up because I thought the mom had snapped and killed her family since all their cars were out front. I later found out that the dad had borrowed his brother-in-law’s car and the mom had walked to a coffee shop.”
No Amount Of Money In The World Could Keep Them In This Situation
“I took a job tutoring, but the mother of the family thought that meant I would also babysit her younger son as well.
I took a job to teach a kid German. I kind of stumbled into the position, but he was attending a small private high school and was required to take two years of a foreign language to graduate. His mom mentioned that he had ADHD and it would be hard for him to retake another year. She arranged with the school board that if he could take the national exam and pass, it would count as his second year.
He was 16 years old and his family lived in a gorgeous, $2 million house in the most affluent neighborhood in our area. His dad owned some sort of African safari business, so they had all sorts of awesome stuff lying around. Ceremonial masks, spears, drums, animals, etc.
I tutored him twice a week for several weeks. Mom thought that I could be there for less than 2 hours a week and get her kid through high school German. I tried assigning homework, but he refused to do it. I spent almost three weeks working on one thing that he should’ve learned in twenty minutes. That ended when I asked him to turn to page xx in his textbook, and he responded by ripping the page out and eating it.
Later that week, his mom reprimanded me for it, because I should’ve set out a snack for him and his 12-year-old brother since they were hungry.
I gave it another couple of weeks, but the final straw came when he got worked up and started jumping around. He ran in and out of the kitchen and grabbed a traditional African spear and threw it at me. I moved slightly, avoiding the spear, but it landed on their nice leather couch. It was a real spear that went straight through the couch. I grabbed my bag and my laptop and walked out.
The mother didn’t understand why I left.”
They Couldn’t Believe People Lived In This Disgusting House
“The house smelled like a hamster cage. They had a longhaired cat that was covered in hard chunks of matted fur the size of a human hand. The kids refused to eat the chicken nuggets and one of the boys cried at the sight of them. They beat each other almost unconscious with a pair of rollerskates, and I finally got them to sleep. When they were in bed, I searched all over for the light switch that had controls for the living room/kitchen. I couldn’t find it anywhere, so I sat in the dark for hours until the parents came home. Turns out the light switches were on the patio.”
