Babysitters can be lifesavers for parents. Often cheaper than daycares and much more convenient, these hard-working individuals are often coined for being able to look after other children as if they were their own. However, it’s no secret that some lousy parents take advantage of babysitters. Here, former babysitters reveal the certain families they outright refuse to sit for again.
All stories have been edited for clarity.
Tricked Beyond Reasoning
“I was asked to babysit for a friend’s relative. It was my friend who told me I would be looking after a seven-year-old and a five-year-old. The children were described as ‘calm’ and ‘easy.’
I said, ‘Sure, no problem.’
Those were my famous last words.
The day I was scheduled to watch the children, the mom just hauled ass out the door, yelling at me over her shoulder that she would be back in five hours.
Remember how I mentioned I was told there were two children?
I was horrified to see there were five times as many children.
Yes, you read that right. That woman took off and never said a word about there being more children than what was mentioned initially. The mother left me to look after ten freaking children! There were several sets of twins and all of them were under the age of seven. Another three or four sets of twins appeared to be ten or eleven months apart and then there were small babies as well.
Honestly, I can’t remember anything but the rage and anger I felt.
So there I was, stuck with ten random children. I tried calling the mother, but she kept sending me to voicemail. I was so angry, I was ready to call children’s services. The children were all around, screaming for whatever reason.
So I said screw it. I’m in it to win it.
I went to make them something to eat. I changed the diapered ones, pottied the older ones and then let them go play in the backyard for a while. I was still seething with anger over the blatant deception as I cleaned up the kitchen.
Oh, but it gets ‘better.’
Five hours later their mother was nowhere to be seen.
‘Okay, a few minutes late. No big deal,’ I thought to myself.
You know that isn’t the case or I wouldn’t be telling my story.
I tended to the children. The children were toileted, changed, and fed before they had their baths and were off to bed.
By the time I finished, it was coming up nine in the evening. Their mother was still not back.
I was beyond furious at this point. I repeatedly called the mother only to have my calls go unanswered. Pissed, I called my friend and told her to call her relative and tell her to call me or come home because I did not take kindly to being deceived.
Their mother never came back that night.
So the next day, I was at it again. I called everyone in the family, including my friend. Not a single person answered.
I could not take anymore and called the police. I explained the situation and was relieved when they said they would send someone.
However, words mean nothing if actions aren’t backing them up. The cops never showed up. I spent the next day looking after ten young children and could get anyone to relieve me. I was so angry, I couldn’t see straight.
The children were a handful and more. I remember screaming at them to sit down somewhere and the neighbor heard and came over. I explained the situation to the neighbor.
What the neighbor said next shocked me.
‘Oh, she does this all the time,’ said the neighbor. ‘She lies about how many kids she has because no one would ever agree to look after that many children.’
The neighbor glanced at me.
‘You know, she might not come back for a few days,’ the neighbor said bleakly. ‘She does this so much, no one will watch her children anymore.’
I was speechless.
I ended up stuck with these children for nearly five days. I called the police and Children’s Services and made it clear that either they send someone to deal with the situation or I was leaving and the children were on their own.
I didn’t really mean it. I was just angry that no one was helping me. I was sick and tired of being there with the kids.
So ten minutes past forever, a cop finally showed up. There was a lady with them and they came in to talk to me. In the meantime, I was still tending to children.
It wasn’t until the children were being loaded into a van that their mother finally decided to make an appearance. She saw the cop cruiser and the van and literally freaked out, screaming at them to stop.
They ignored her and kept loading the children into the van.
I stormed over to the mother.
‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ I shouted at her. ‘I’ve been stuck here with your children for damn near five days when you said you would be back in five hours! You can bet your ass you will be paying me every single dime I’m entitled to for sticking me with ten freaking kids for this long. You didn’t say one word about the other children and you ignored my calls for nearly five days and just disappeared!’
‘I’m not paying you anything!’ The mother screamed back at me. ‘You called the cops to take my children!’
‘No, I called because you abandoned them!’ I shouted back.
Just then a black car pulled into the driveway where we were arguing.
A man quickly exited the vehicle. I soon learned he was the husband. He came over to ask what was going so I told him.
The look on his face said it all.
He forcibly grabbed his wife by the arm and dragged her into the house. You could have heard him down the street even if you were deaf in both ears.
The husband then came back out and approached me.
‘Shannon, I want to apologize for the situation. I was out of town for work and didn’t know about this,’ he said. He then handed me a nice wad of cash, and thanked me for staying with his children.
As I went to my car, I turned back and yelled at the mother peaking out the door, ‘Don’t ever call me to watch your children again cause it ain’t happening!’
I got in my car and left.
Because of that selfish lady, I nearly lost my job. Luckily I was able to get the responding officer to explain the situation. My parents had my children and were okay when I explained what happened.
Out of all this, it still gets worse.
My so-called friend took her relative’s side and ended our friendship. They tried to press charges against me for child endangerment and spread nasty rumors about me.
Joke was on them in the end. I cut ties with my former friend, her relative ended up getting a divorce and her husband took the children.
My friend and her relative hey blamed me for everything.
I don’t know what happened to them after that. I cut all of them out of my life.”
Hit The Deck!
“One night while I was babysitting, I was reading after the baby went to sleep when I first heard a strange noise. I stood up to go see what the dog had gotten into when I heard the crunch of breaking glass. The back of this house was all windows. I could hear soft popping noises, then I saw holes appearing in the windows. I went to the doorway between the den and the dining room and was relieved the windows were intact, but only for a minute.
I heard more popping noises as bullet holes started appearing in the dining room windows. That’s when it occurred to me that the shots were being aimed at me. I was standing by the light switches and I slapped them off as I fell to the ground on my hands and knees. I crawled into the kitchen, cutting all lights off as I grabbed the cordless phone and the list of emergency numbers.
The gunshots had moved into the kitchen, so I crawled to the side of a butcher block island with the phone. I finally got through to the parents. I said, ‘Someone is shooting at me from the back of the house. I’m taking Mikey to my house, you can pick him up whenever you want.’
I didn’t wait for a response and hung up the phone.
Quickly, I got the baby from his crib and wrapped him in a quilt, then held him in front of me with his head below the level of my shoulders. I place the still-sleeping baby into the back seat of my car, tossed the quilt over him, and took off. When I carried him into my house, his parents had called already. They called the police, then went to check on their house and saw that several windows in 3 different rooms either had bullet holes or had shattered completely
The police went around the neighborhood and found a group of teenagers with CO2 pellet guns. They are basically high powered BB guns, but they were shooting pellets that were much larger than BB’s. They claimed to have not seen anyone, they were just randomly shooting.
I called BS then and I call it now. My guess is they were definitely shooting at me, they just were not sure they had enough power to break the windows or hit me.
Aside from scaring the hell out of me they had done four thousand dollars worth of damage to the huge plate glass windows and the sliding glass door. The police let them go with a warning as long as they, being their parents, replaced the glass.
It was the scariest and one of the last times I babysat.”
What’s Done In The Dark
“When I was sixteen, I used to babysit for the family that lived across the street from my parents. They had a son who was thirteen, six-year-old twin boys, and a two-year-old little girl at the time.
One evening when their parents came home their mom stepped out of the room to grab money to pay me. While she was gone, the dad asked me if I could watch the kids that Friday evening. He said his wife would be out of town and he had a meeting. It seemed a little odd for him to have a business meeting on a Friday night, but I was sixteen and babysitting was my only source of income, so I said yes.
So, Friday night rolled around and I was watching the kids like normal. Their older brother came and went with his family friends like he usually did. He was technically old enough to babysit, but not for that many kids. Not to mentioned the fact that he was very irresponsible, so they always had me do it instead.
Eventually the time their dad said he would be home came around with no sight of him. After another hour, he called me to say he was running late and would be along shortly. In the background of his call I could hear music, glasses clinking, and numerous voices, most notably a woman’s.
By then, I was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable. After another forty-five minutes to an hour the oldest son called his mom and brought his phone downstairs to me to talk to her. The mother was livid because apparently she had not been told he asked me to babysit and her son had informed her that her husband was now two hours late to return home.
The mother told me where to find some cash and said I could take it and go home. I felt really uncomfortable leaving the kids but after another hour of making sure the younger ones were all in bed and assuring the oldest son would be there with them, I finally left and went home across the street. I think it was another forty-five minutes later that I heard the dad’s motorcycle finally coming down the street.
It was another few months before their mom ever asked me to babysit again, and when she did she told me all about how he was cheating on her that night I was babysitting. It was very awkward and she made me feel a little at fault for agreeing to watch the kids. He moved out and they divorced shortly after.
I never babysat for them again.”
A Visit From Uncle
“I was a sheltered person and wasn’t aware of people who try to get insurance money for a set up.
After babysitting training, I was contacted by the Red Cross to babysit a five-year-old child about six blocks from my house. When I got there, the mother told me she wanted her child to have exercise, and suggested I take the child to the park.
I asked for a key to her apartment, saying I would return it at the end of my shift. The mother sputtered and balked asking, ‘Why would you need a key?’
I was confused. So I said, ‘You are leaving. I am here. Give me your key and when you return I will give you back the key.’
The mother hemmed and hawed before saying the child’s uncle would come over and pay me later. I suggested I put the key in the mailbox, and then once we got back from the park, she would know where it was. The mother again got pissy and said, ‘I have to go. I don’t have time for this.’
Her actions didn’t make sense to me.
Her child, however, was delightful. We had lunch and then went to the park. We were there for a few hours. We spent the rest of our time in the apartment kitchen and living room. I remember I used the bathroom a couple of times. As it got closer to the time I was supposed to leave, I asked the child about her uncle. The little girl made a nonchalant face and said, ‘I have a new uncle every week.’
I thought she must have been confused because an uncle is your parent’s sibling.
Later on, it turned out I was confused.
This ‘uncle’ was of no family relation. The man that came barely acknowledged the child when he showed up, paid me, and immediately started drinking a beer while watching TV, as I said goodbye.
Later that night the police came to my house.
Apparently the mother’s jewelry box was missing. She said I took it because I was there all day. I told the police I hadn’t seen a jewelry box in the bathroom. I thought about it, and shared that the woman refused to give me a key to the apartment, yet demanded that I go to the park, leaving the door unlocked. I knew the apartment had been unlocked for at least three hours.
The police officer said the jewelry box was in the bedroom. I proudly said they could check the apartment for my fingerprints because I never went in the bedrooms.
I started to put two and two together. I then told the police they should ask the child about her ‘uncles’.
I called Red Cross to unformed them I had been accused of theft. I was surprised when the person who took the call said they were aware of the situation. I said, ‘I don’t want to be considered for babysitting people I don’t know anymore.’
That was enough excitement for me!”
Oh, Would You Look At The Time…
“I had my first babysitting job when I was twelve. Even though it was just a few doors down in my small neighborhood, we did not know the family personally. They lived in a house that had been converted to apartments that had a lot of turnover.
I got to their place early evening. Both parents were going out to a bar. They had one sweet little girl that I would be watching. After the parents left, we played for a while before I got her ready for bed. Her parents were supposed to be back around midnight.
I read and watched TV while I waited. There was a party going on in the back apartment, so I was a little nervous.
Then to make things worse, midnight came and went.
At four in the morning, I called my mom and told her I was scared being by myself with the parents being gone so late, plus the party was still going on.
My mother didn’t hesitate. When she got there, she told me to lie on the couch and rest.
The parents finally showed up at about six-thirty in the morning. They were quite surprised to find my mother, calmly reading a book, waiting for them.
Both parents made several excuses saying they each thought the other had gone home etc. but Mom stopped them. She calmly but firmly told them their actions were not acceptable. My mother then informed them they were going to pay me double for the hours after midnight, and I would not be allowed to babysit for them again.”
Makes Me Sick
“This happened about a year ago. I was regularly babysitting for a family with three, very sweet children. They had a six-year-old girl, a three-year-old boy, and a baby.
I was not paid much. I made about ten euros per night. This was, however, the same amount that my friends made per hour from babysitting. Sometimes, I’d be there from 4 in the afternoon to midnight. However, I liked to babysit their children and did not complain.
One night, I was asked to babysit. I asked the parents if it would be all right if I brought my boyfriend with me. The mother told me that his coming with me was fine. However, my boyfriend was not allowed to come upstairs and had to stay in the living room. I agreed and the parents left.
The night was going all right. The kids were asleep, and I was watching a movie with my boyfriend. Suddenly, the six-year-old girl came into the living room telling me her little brother was not feeling well.
I went upstairs to check on him. Once I made it to his room, the boy could not explain what was wrong with him. I asked him if his belly hurt, if he had a headache, or anything immediate. The boy answered every question with a, ‘Yes.’
I felt like he was messing around and did not want to sleep. Patiently, I asked him if he would like to try to go to sleep again, and of course he said ‘yes’. I got the boy settled into bed and went downstairs again.
After a while, I heard him crying. I went back up again and tried to figure out what was wrong with him. I called both of his parents multiple times, and neither of them answered. The little boy was crying harder. Both his sister and the baby woke up because of how loud he was whining. I lifted him from his bed, debating if I should take him to a doctor.
Then, he threw up… a lot.
So, I had a sick boy, a hysterical sister, a crying baby, and a messy floor to take care of. I asked my boyfriend for help. While he was taking care of the kids, I was cleaning the floor. I called the parents several more times, but neither of them was picking up. I was so frustrated because what if something was wrong with their child and I needed to take him to the hospital? Fortunately, the boy was fine after throwing up. He sat with us in the living room until his parents came home… at one in the morning.
I was very mad at the parents and asked them why they did not answer their phones. They laughed it off by saying ‘their batteries died.’ I was extremely pissed because it had been an exhausting night and they were just laughing about it. What made me even more pissed is that they paid me only €10 for all the trouble I went through.
The mother of the children was a friend of my mom. I later heard that she’d told my mom she was disgusted that my boyfriend came upstairs to help out. The mother even said her daughter had been very upset and scared. I found this hard to believe, as she was constantly talking to him and ‘helping’ him out with her brother. I was so done with the mother at this point that when she texted me if I could babysit again, I told her no and that she’d better start looking for a new babysitter.”
A Night To Remember
“When I was in junior high, I lived in a very small rural town, and the parents I was to babysit for were going to the annual community street dance. When I got to their farmhouse, I immediately noticed the house was unfinished. There were no curtains anywhere, and there was construction debris such as nails, tools, wood scraps, and other hazardous objects splayed all over the property.
Only the kitchen and childrens’ bedrooms were finished. The mother told me her eight month old was sick and had diarrhea, and had never been left with anyone before. The mother then went on to explain there were reports of rabies in the area, and advised me not to let their dogs inside, and to avoid going outside if I could help it.
I was already too upset to ask if the dogs were vaccinated, but I wouldn’t have been surprised ifthey weren’t. Since the street dance had a reputation of drunkenness, vandalism, and the occasional assault, both the shotgun and rifle were loaded and leaning against the doorframe. The four-year-old knew how to reload them if I needed to shoot anyone. The parents promised to be home no later than ten o’clock that night.
All I could think about was getting home as soon as possible. It was the mid 80s, so ubiquitous cell phones were a long way off. There was no way to contact the parents once they left.
The sick baby cried – no, screamed – non-stop all night. In fact, the only time I put him down was to change his diapers, and that happened nine times that night. He never settled down.
The four year old boy was honestly a treasure. He was bored and wanted to play, but he did help feed and change his baby brother. He said he understood why I couldn’t play. However, he was four, and needed attention, too. We watched through the dining room window as his favorite dog fought with several raccoons, both of us crying. I had to ask him repeatedly not to run barefoot through construction areas, and leave the tools alone. We didn’t need the shotgun after all, but he amused himself by playing with the extra shells.
The parents finally returned at two-thirty in the morning without an apology. The father ended up driving me home. He was scary drunk and the country roads were awfully dark.
I never babysat again.”
Spoiled and Rotten
“When I was about sixteen, I decided to throw up some flyers around town. I spread the word about my availability because I was trying to save up for a car. In the flyers, I expressed I would do almost any odd job which included cleaning, grounds work, and babysitting.
One afternoon, a man called and asked if I was the one who had put up the flyers in town. He went on to explain he had just gotten a divorce and his wife had split town, leaving him with his young daughter. She was school-aged but he needed someone for the rest of the summer.
I delightfully agreed.
The man said he didn’t have much money but offered me a hundred dollars a week to watch her Monday through Thursday 7 am to 3 pm. His offer wasn’t great, but I was not a certified babysitter either and it was better than nothing.
What the father didn’t mention to me was that his daughter was demon-spawned.
My guess? After his wife left, the father didn’t know what to do and spoiled her rotten. I’m sure he did it out of guilt as well to keep her mind off her mom since she was only five years old.
At first everything went well. We spent our days outside playing or doing one of the many activities I bought for us to do. Then a switch flipped. The little girl got way too used to me.
The girl started demanding things like snacks I didn’t have in the house or to go places that weren’t really in the budget. I was only making a hundred bucks and I didn’t plan on spending half of that on a trip to the movies with her!
Still, I tried to offer other fun things like scavenger hunts outside, or cool science experiments and crafts.
None of it worked. If the girl didn’t get what she wanted, she would make it very clear that all hell was going to be paid.
The girl would spit on my floors, tear the cushions off the couch, pull the movies and books from the shelves and one day she even cut her hair and told me she was going to ‘tell daddy I did it to her.’
Still … she was an adorable girl who had been dealt a rather crummy hand. I knew it wasn’t all her fault she behaved so poorly.
I tried to talk to her father about her behavior but he would brush it off like I was just being dramatic. The day she cut her hair he shrugged and laughed it off like it was no big deal. I was horrified.
By the end of the five weeks we shared together, the little girl turned into an angel.
I gave her stability where there was confusion. I gave her structure where there was chaos and I showed her a safe way to express her feelings.
Then one day, her father said he had found a relative to watch her for free. I was sad and I missed her, but such is life.
Fast forward a year. I was surprised to have the father call me again. He asked if I was still available to babysit. I was going to say yes and then I heard the distinct sound of a temper tantrum in the background.
It only took a few seconds for me to realize she was right back to where she had been when I first started watching her, and since my sister had a newborn in the house now, I just couldn’t do it.
Plus he had only offered fifty dollars for the entire week this time.
I truly do hope that school gave the little girl the structure she so needed badly, but as a sixteen-year-old child myself, I just couldn’t do it.”
Avert Your Eyes!
“My mom told another mother she knew I was looking to babysit, so she hired me. The job was going to be for her two kids which was a seven-year-old boy, and a ten-year-old girl. The other family’s kids were three girls and one boy all around the same ages as well. In total, I was to look after six kids. By this time, I was really new to babysitting and didn’t have that much experience.
That entire day was a nightmare.
There was about an hour before the parents would get home, and all of the kids decided to play with nerf guns which resulted in tears, yelling, screaming, and almost broken furniture. One kid was trying to ‘shoot’ the boy of the other family. The second boy was terrified. I told the first boy we were done using nerf guns, and instructed him to put it away. The scared boy was cowering behind me and crying. I felt extremely bad that I let it go way too far
The boy still holding the nerf gun tried to shoot around me to get the scared boy, but couldn’t. I was going to protect the scared boy at all costs.
Without warning, the disobedient boy holding the nerf gun reached out and pulled up my shirt, revealing what two seven-year-olds should not see. I immediately drop the only thing defending the scared boy, my hands and yank my shirt back down. The barbaric boy used that as an opportunity and struck the scared boy with a nerf bullet.
I had no idea what to do for the rest of the night. I don’t even remember what happened. But it was way too chaotic for me to ever go back again.
Also, their pay was TERRIBLE. I got fifty bucks for around seven hours of work and SIX children.
I almost gave up on babysitting then, but I really needed money, so I had to continue, but not for them. My other experiences with babysitting have been really amazing, thankfully.”
You Missed A Spot
“I had a family I never liked babysitting for.
They were wealthy and lived in a nice area. Their daughter was spoiled and not nice at all. Usually I could tolerate every child since I’m the oldest child in my family, but their daughter was the first child I met that I simply loathed. She was unusually defiant and a horrific brat.
One day the parents called and begged me to sit for for them. By then, they had two children.
That entire night was like a comedy skit. Both of their children were puking everywhere while I was trying to run with them up and downstairs because there was no bathroom on the first floor. Cleaning up puke when it’s not your child is horrible and I had a strong stomach.
I was gagging and my eyes watered each time while I cleaned up the slate floor over the entire front hall. I was used to cleaning our home every week, for a meticulous mother, so I’m far from lazy.
I was so grossed out I just wanted to go home and shower. The parents couldn’t have been unaware of how sick their children were. When they came home, the wife got snippy with me because she saw a tiny bit of vomit I missed in the grout.
After the wife insulted me, both parents went to a different room to retrieve my pay. When they returned, I swear they came back and counted out in change, including pennies, my pay. The parents didn’t tip at all and paid the bare minimum.
The wife continued rubbing my face in an already horrible situation by deliberately humiliating me. That was it for me. I think that was the only family I ever refused to babysit again for.”