10 Nannies Whose Disturbing Stories Could Become a Film

Taking care of children sounds like a sweet and simple job, but sometimes, it’s anything but. Behind closed doors, nannies can witness some of the strangest and most unsettling things families try to hide. From chilling secrets to shocking moments they never saw coming, these babysitters experienced real-life drama that could easily inspire a blockbuster.

• At 17, I used to babysit a girl for her single mom who went on dates and returned at midnight. One day, she went on a date and didn’t return. At 3 a.m., the police came and said her car fell off the cliff. She and her date died.
  8 days later, I got a call... from her. She begged me, “I need you to pack my daughter’s things and get her to the airport. I’ll be waiting there.” That’s when I found out she had faked her death. She wanted to run away with the man she had been seeing, a married man whose wealthy wife refused to let him leave.
  Their only way out, it seemed, was to disappear. It was all so confusing, but I knew it was really her. I told her I couldn’t help. I was only 17 and had no idea what to do. I don’t know what happened to her after that.

• I was hired to nanny for a family with two little boys. After a few months, I noticed they kept mentioning a baby sister, but the parents always changed the subject. One day, I found a fully decorated nursery hidden behind a locked door upstairs.
  Turns out, they had a daughter who passed away, and they never told me — they just acted like she never existed. The boys still talked to her like she was alive. I didn’t know if I should stay or leave, but either way, it haunted me.

• I nannied for a wealthy couple (she was a surgeon, he was an architect), and the husband had a study in the house that the wife joked about “never being allowed in.” Now, I’m a nosy person, and I was curious about why you wouldn’t let someone in a study, especially since it looked like a fairly normal room: big desk, walls covered in bookshelves, books of architecture everywhere.
  So one day, I just roamed around in there. I didn’t really find anything, and I was kind of disappointed, but then I grabbed a book off one of the shelves. The thing had money pressed between its pages — about $500, if I had to guess. I picked up another book, found the same thing.
  I think I checked like ten different books, and every single one had money hidden in it. Still not sure if the dude was just paranoid about banks, or if he was intentionally hiding money from his wife. © Unknown author / Reddit

• The little boy I nannied for would shut down completely every time he got hurt or upset. I tried comforting him once when he fell and scraped his knee, but he froze up like a statue. Later, I overheard the dad telling him, “Real men don’t cry, even if it hurts.”
  From then on, whenever the boy got hurt, he would just stare at me with wide, silent eyes. I finished my two weeks’ notice, but it broke my heart a little more every day until I left.

• I was hired to watch three young kids while their parents “worked from home.” Turns out, the parents locked themselves in their bedroom all day and barely came out. I cooked, cleaned, helped with homework, basically became a full-time parent for minimum wage.
  When I brought it up politely, the mom said, “That’s why we hired you. We’re tired of raising them.” I quit that night after putting the kids to bed with an extra bedtime story. They waved goodbye sadly from the window as I drove away.

• I thought I was being hired to take care of the kids, but during the interview, the mom started asking if I would “report back” everything the dad said or did when she wasn’t home. She offered me extra money under the table to spy on her own husband.
  When I said no, she got angry and told me I clearly “wasn’t loyal enough” for their family. I declined the job and walked out, feeling like I had dodged something way worse than just bad employers.

• The parents asked me to help plan a surprise birthday party for their seven-year-old daughter. They made it a huge event, invited tons of adults... but forgot to invite any of the girl’s friends. When she asked where her classmates were, her mom just said, “We didn’t want you to be disappointed if they didn’t show up.”
  The poor girl spent the whole party crying quietly while strangers told her how “beautiful” she looked. I stayed with her until the last balloon popped, and after that day, I turned down every babysitting offer they made.

• Once, I was babysitting and the kids had a toy room at the end of the hall. The light was out in the room, and it was nighttime, so, super dark. I asked 4yo to put something away in the room, and he started crying hysterically, saying there was a witch in the room.
  So, being an adult (I was actually a teenager at the time) I casually walked down the hall to put the toy away. The room was very creepy.
  As I was exiting the room, the kid was looking over my head looking terrified and started screaming, “The witch is behind you! The witch is going to get you!” I’ve never run so fast in my life. This_Conversation943 / Reddit

• I was hired for a “date night” babysitting gig, easy money. The parents said they’d be back by midnight. Midnight came, then 2 a.m., then sunrise and still no word. I called everyone I could, but got no answer.
  Finally, around 10 a.m., they stumbled in laughing, carrying coffee, acting like it was no big deal. They didn’t apologize. They just asked if I could come back next weekend. I said no and never answered their calls again.

• I babysat a little boy who had severe emotional problems. One time, he ran away while I was upstairs playing with his sister. He went to the park down the block, climbed a tree, and refused to come down because he believed “no one loved him.”
  I was young and didn’t think about calling the police or anything. I just sat at the bottom of the tree and literally talked him down.
  I convinced him that I loved him and wanted him to come home. His siblings also helped by saying they loved him too. It was so scary. © mieds / Reddit

Life isn’t just about shocking discoveries and dark twists; it’s also filled with kindness and uplifting moments. Sometimes, this goodness comes from strangers who step in to perform acts of true heroism.