10 Babysitters Who Realized Too Late the Kids Weren’t the Real Problem

Sometimes, the real nightmare isn’t the children — it’s the adults who never show up, stop answering their phones, or treat nannies like disposable backup plans. These babysitters thought they were signing up for an ordinary night. What they experienced instead were moments so uncomfortable, stressful, and unsettling that they still think about them years later.

• The house was grimy and dirty. There was a whole colony of ants on the kitchen counter. He definitely expected me to be a maid on top of childcare. The dad was mean to the girls. He’d snap and yell at them over any little thing. When he’d come out of his office for lunch, he did not even want to see them and would get mad at them for trying to hug him or talk to him. The older daughter would cry. I was at a loss. I felt horrible when I quit because I felt like I was abandoning them. © corinnigan / Reddit

• I had a lady tell me she needed a nanny for two kids. I got there and it was 5 kids 3 babies under 3. They family then left, not telling me when they were going to be coming home. They stated it would be “a couple hours”. They then came home about 8 hours later, never told me I would have to feed the kids dinner (which is fine I can feed them). My issue with this was the disrespect of my time and complete lack of communication. © QuantityOld2233 / Reddit

• This particular gem was a stay-at-home mom, and she would sit in her “office” all day, “working” while on Facebook and gossiping on the phone with her friends. The worst part was that come pay day, she would try to deduct all her kids’ napping time, claiming I wasn’t doing anything while her “baby” slept, as well as deduct all the accumulated interruptions from her child.
  
  Her daughter would repeatedly come running and screaming into her office, complaining about how I was being mean to her because the cat kept choosing to run to me rather than her. The mom would then laugh and coddle her while mocking me for being so mean to her poor angel. © TBeIRIE / Reddit

• Worked for a VERY famous person. She refused to speak to me for three days because she had to wait for her children to get in the car for a whole 20 seconds. I had let the children out of the car to let them play in the kitchen because they had been sitting in the vehicle for 40 minutes, waiting for her. © Particular-Set53** / Reddit

• The mom told me pickup would be “right after dinner.” Hours passed, and the kids kept asking if they were in trouble. When I texted her, she replied, “Can you just stay longer?” At 1 a.m., I got another message saying she decided to sleep over at her boyfriend’s place. She added, “The kids won’t mind. They’re used to it.”

• I had a family that when the 3-year-old was potty training, he wet his bed, and I got in trouble for washing his sheets because I was told, “He needed to learn his lesson, next time leave the sheets on the bed and don’t touch them or wash them.” I left the following week because I could not morally accept this. They also didn’t have any toothbrushes anywhere for the kids in the entire house. They didn’t believe in “discipline,” so I was supposed to let them do whatever they wanted.
  © Independent_*****391 / Reddit

• The parents warned me their son was “a little dramatic.” That night, he locked himself in the bathroom and refused to come out, saying his parents did it all the time when he cried. I was ready to break the door when he finally opened it — calm, smiling, and holding his tablet. That’s when he admitted later he only did it because it was the fastest way adults paid attention to him.

• I worked for a school counselor and her banker husband. 3 kids. Mom was never around because she also coached sports after school. Dad would go out after work. I handed off to other sitters more than the parents. I’d come in at 10 and the baby (2m) would be in his dirty diaper from the night before. Can’t list the amount of casual neglect that happened, but the cherry on top was finding out the mom was having an affair (Dad didn’t know). © marla-M / Reddit

• So I worked for a family with seven kids. Oldest was 14, youngest was 3. They only had the dad, the mom died when the youngest was born. Dad was insanely strict (he was in the military) and also never around. No playing, I was supposed to keep them “productive” all day. Literally for exercise, I was supposed to lead them in walking around the house, rather than let them just run around the enormous lawn. We weren’t allowed to walk on the grass. If I let them play, he would find out and either come home or call to yell at me (idk if it was the housekeeper or the kids who would tell him). The kids went through at least 6 nannies before I came. © jerseamonster / Reddit

• Only worked with the family for ~8 months. 3 kids, G2 months, B4 yr and G6 yr. I prepared their meals, did their remote school, when the oldest went back to school, I got her ready for school, picked her up from school. I did dishes, loaded and emptied the dishwasher. I was making $13 an hour, and when I asked for a raise (after realizing they wanted more than they had disclosed), they declined to offer any raise, instead offered to decrease my hours, said that I “took this too seriously” and that they would rather spend money on remodeling their house and getting the kids into competitive figure skating. Needless to say, I put in my notice. © Unknown author / Reddit

For many nannies, the hardest part wasn’t the long hours or crying kids — it was realizing just how easily some parents walk away. If there’s one thing these moments prove, it’s that babysitters often see sides of family life no one else ever does.