The most terrifying babysitting experience of my life happened when I was about 17 years old. I was looking after a six-year-old boy and his three year-old sister, and after putting them to bed, I had settled in to perform the classic teen babysitting ritual of raiding their pantry for fun-sized snacks and watching Foxtel.
About an hour later, I went to check on the kids and make sure they hadn’t kicked their blankets off, when I discovered the six year old’s bed was empty. I checked in his cupboard, under his bed and behind his door and when it became clear he wasn’t there, or in the bathroom, I tore through the house calling for him in an urgent whisper I hoped wouldn’t wake up his sister. He was nowhere to be found.
The back door was unlocked and ajar, and I was filled with the most awful feeling of dread. I’d lost someone’s child. All of the horrible possible scenarios started flashing before my eyes and it was all I could do not to throw up. I’d never been in a situation remotely as terrifying as this, and after doing another few panicked laps of the backyard and house, screaming his name now, I picked up the phone to call the police. I was about to dial 000 when I heard a giggle coming from underneath the couch – the little rat had been hiding there since a few minutes after I put him to bed. I, of course, burst into tears and was a complete wreck until his parents came home. While I went on to babysit and nanny for many more families, I could never again bring myself to look after those kids again.
Babysitting can be a weird job sometimes
I’m not the only one who’s had a babysitting experience that rattled them. A recent Reddit thread asked ‘what’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you while looking after someone’s kid?‘ and the answers made for some pretty compelling reading …
The just plain crazy parents
“When I was 10 to probably 13 or 14 I babysat for a weird family in my town. They had three daughters who were super awesome and we always had a blast. When I started, the youngest was two weeks old. It turned into me babysitting for them more than their parents were home or I was at my own home. Anyways 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 of 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. Well 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 ok and I always knew they were crazy anyway. 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 f***s sake and he was an ugly 37 year old. - Chrississippi69
When mum’s keeping a secret or two
“When I was 13 I got a job babysitting for my neighbours. They had two little girls that were just the easiest kids to look after. The mum and dad were super nice people. Dad was a nurse that worked mainly nights and mom worked from home and would ask me over Friday nights so 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 mum informed me she would be home no later than midnight. Well, 4am rolled around and I’m woken up by noise out on the porch and see her hastily kissing another man and shooing him off. She apologises for being late, pays me (was $5 short) and I go home to my mum who’s p***ed that she kept me so late. The same thing happened two more times. She’d promise to be home at midnight and come home at three or four in the morning. Every time with a different guy. And every time she would stiff me a little of what I earned. My mum put a stop to it and called her out on cheating on her husband. They ended up getting divorced not long after that. - DomashnaRakija
Weird toilet behaviour
“I babysat regularly as a teen. One night it was business as usual. I had just laid the kids down for bed until I hear crying in the bathroom. Go in and the little one had a poop string hanging out of his bottom. I didn’t want to pull it in case it was wrapped around something so I’m trying to keep this kid calm and call his parents. They don’t answer. I call over and over with this kid freaking out. I call my mom who calmed me down, took their number, and then chain called them until she got a hold of them. They “rushed” home and took him to the ER. Definitely my weirdest night. The string came out fine, btw. Apparently the kid liked yarn … a lot.” - fantasyfreakazoid
Drug dealer daddy
“I babysat for a very prominent family in my town- wife was a CEO, husband a lawyer. It was the best job ever! Two easy-going 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 BS 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 cocaine to dealers out of his house in the country and his “grounds keeper” was a wanted sex offender.” - Alliebeth
Kids with knives
“There were three of them … I don’t remember their names now, but they were aged 12, nine, and six. ‘Nine’ was on some sort of medication, for an anger problem. ‘Six’ looked up to Nine and copied him, and 12, the sister, was more mild mannered but tolerable alone.
It started off normal, Six and Nine are riding their bikes around the neighbourhood 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. Nine lost his game to 12, so he throws the entire game set at her, and she continues to tease him which makes Nine angrier. Nine continues to throw things around and I ask him to stop, that’s not nice. He yells “SHUT UP” and tries to attack his sister. So 12 runs away screaming with Nine following behind, Six decides to try and get involved but somehow, Six trips and connects with Nine’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 Nine and 12 while I deal with the bloody nose. I’m holding a crying, screaming Six over the sink with hot water running and just letting him bleed there while I’m trying to stay calm and have Nine and 12 calm their sh*t. I did end up screaming “STOP!” to the kids, and they stopped.
Back to Six, who’s still crying over a bloody nose. I realise, holy sh*t, this sink isn’t draining. Nine 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 Nine decides to lose his sh*t and grabs a pocket knife from his mother’s end table and tries to stab 12 with it. 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 mum like four times, but she isn’t answering her phone. So I end up calling my stepmum, who’s retired military, because someone’s going to die and I’m starting to lose my shit, being 17 at the time. So, to recap, there is blood everywhere, holes in all the furniture, psycho Nine year old with knives (I put up all the kitchen knives but he had some hidden in his room). So my stepmum runs over to see exactly that. I explain to her the situation, and she ends up restraining Nine while I clean up this mess.
Finally, their mum 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 we wants”. OK, maybe that isn’t the exact words, but that’s basically what she told me to do. F*ck that. I got out of there, got paid $80, and that was my very last time babysitting.” - stonedkangaroo
Have you ever had a crazy babysitting experience?
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More related reading:
- Babysitters of Reddit speak out via Reddit
- The 15 most chilling things kids have said to their babysitters from Viral Nova
- Babysitting horror stories from Cafe Mom
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