10 Nannies Whose True Stories Could Inspire a Thriller Movie Plot

Sometimes, real life can be stranger—and scarier—than fiction. Nannies often see and experience things most people never would, and their stories can range from heartwarming to downright chilling. In this article, we’ve gathered 10 real-life tales from nannies that sound like they were pulled straight from a thriller movie. Prepare to be captivated, surprised, and maybe a little spooked by these nanny adventures.

• I babysat a 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

• Years ago, I babysat a quiet 5yo girl. Her dad has told me he’s a widower. He had a locked room in his house, and seemed uneasy every time I went near it.
  One night, I saw the door slightly open. He was inside, talking to someone. When I moved closer, I heard a woman’s voice. Curious, I peeked in.
  I froze when I saw the walls of the room completely covered with family photos featuring his late wife. A large screen in the room played a video of her on loop—that explained the woman’s voice I heard. He had turned the room into a private sanctuary, filled with memories of the woman he had loved and lost.
  I realized this was where he went whenever he missed her, speaking to her photos and reliving moments through the videos. When he saw me, he looked startled and uncomfortable. I quickly apologized for intruding and stepped away.
  To this day, I can’t forget that moment. It left me with a mix of chills and deep sadness for a man clinging to his love in the only way he knew how.

• 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

• I was hired by a tech entrepreneur to care for his 9-year-old daughter. She was insanely smart and loved building robots. She showed me her “workshop” in the basement, which turned out to be an actual laboratory full of wires, gears, and drones.
  One day, while playing hide-and-seek, I accidentally triggered a hidden switch. A wall slid open to reveal a room straight out of a sci-fi movie, complete with a holographic map and gadgets that looked like they belonged in a spy movie. The dad caught me and calmly said, “That’s not part of the tour. Let’s stick to the playroom.”
  I still don’t know if he was secretly developing tech for good or... something else.

• I was in the living room, watching Sister, Sister, when all of a sudden I hear a man say, “Hello.” I check the front door, look out the window at the driveway, the parents aren’t home. Go upstairs and check the kids, they’re both still in bed.
  Go back downstairs, hear it again, from the darkened dining room, “Hello, I am Armando.” They had a freaking parrot. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I was nannying for a family who had just moved into a huge old house. The kids, 6 and 8, were sweet but very curious. One day, they asked me about the locked door in the basement. I hadn’t noticed it before, but they said their parents told them it was “just storage” and not to worry about it.
  One night, after the kids were asleep, I heard a strange noise coming from the basement—like scratching. My curiosity got the better of me, so I went down to investigate. The locked door was slightly ajar. Inside, there was a room full of antique dolls, some of them positioned as if they were looking at each other.
  I froze when I noticed one of the dolls had moved to face the door since I first opened it. I locked the door and never went back down. The family moved out two months later, claiming the house had “too much history.”

• The job sounded great: a high-paying nanny gig for a wealthy family in the city. The catch? I had to sign a massive non-disclosure agreement. On my first day, I realized the family had three kids—one of whom was the son of a foreign diplomat. Suddenly, it made sense why there was so much security.
  One afternoon, I took the kids to the park, and a man approached us, asking weirdly specific questions about the kids’ routines. Before I could say anything, the “family dog” (a huge German shepherd I thought was just a pet) launched at the guy and chased him off. Later, the parents admitted the dog was a trained protection animal, and I was technically part of a covert security detail for the kids.

• The mom was a single parent and seemed super sweet, though always a little flustered. She worked odd hours and often left me with her baby late into the night. One night, after putting the baby to bed, I heard the front door slam. I checked, but no one was there.
  The next day, the mom asked how the night went, and I casually mentioned hearing the door slam. Her face went pale. She hesitated and then told me her husband had died unexpectedly two years ago. Ever since, she sometimes heard the front door open or close, as if he was still coming home. She wasn’t afraid of it, though—she said it felt like he was watching over her and their child.

• I once nannied for a family with three boys who were wild in the best way. They loved pretending they were wolves, howling at the moon and crawling on all fours. One evening, during a backyard campout, they convinced me to join their “pack.”
  While playing along, I noticed real howling in the distance. The kids got quiet, staring into the woods behind the house. Suddenly, a large shadow darted past our tent. I panicked and got the kids back inside.
  The next morning, we found paw prints circling the tent. The boys were thrilled, claiming they’d attracted a “real wolf.” I never camped with them again.

• 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

Job interviews often come with the standard set of questions: “What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?” or “Where do you see yourself in five years?” However, in this article, we explore stories of candidates who faced questions so unexpected, they were left completely speechless.