11 Nannies Who Wished Their Job Came With a Manual

Let’s be real, being a nanny is like jumping into the unknown every single day. From unexpected gifts to kids making up their own rules, it’s a job that constantly keeps you on your toes. And while you might think you’re ready for anything, these hilarious stories prove that no one can ever be fully prepared for the chaos that comes with the job. Nannies everywhere will agree that a manual would’ve come in handy!

• The current family makes me buy dinner at a restaurant every day, haircuts, and other expenses on my card, and then gets mad at how much they cost and yells at me.
  I drive their kids around for about 3 straight hours a day, following the mom’s instructions. Then, she yells at me for “always being out of the house” and doesn’t pay for car deterioration/miles. © Individual_Gap_608 / Reddit

• Okay, so I was watching this 7-year-old boy whose parents had this super fancy house in the suburbs. One day, I went to clean the bathroom while he was watching cartoons and found a tiny snake just chilling in the bathtub. I freaked out. Meanwhile, the kid casually walked in and went, “Oh, that’s George. He lives here now.”
  Apparently, he found it in the yard and decided it was his new pet. I had no idea what to do. I called the parents, and they were like, “Yeah, we were wondering why the hamster food was disappearing so fast.”

• The 6-year-old I watched was obsessed with making money. One day, he said he had a genius idea. He wanted to collect dog poop from his neighbors’ yards and sell it back to them “as fertilizer.” He even drew up a flyer with little cartoons and prices.
  I told him it wasn’t going to work. He replied, “You’re not the target audience.” I’ve never felt so professionally dismissed in my life.

• The first family I nannied for was a NIGHTMARE. The parents were sweet people, but complete hot messes. I was basically treated more like a housekeeper than a nanny (or “babysitter” as they called me, which I despised because it makes my job sound cute when I’m actually a professional!)
  They were both huge slobs— I’d spend hours cleaning the downstairs, only to come back the next day and have it all be wrecked again. Toys strewn about, clothes I’d folded and put in baskets knocked over on the filthy floor, crumbs and bits of food everywhere.
  And the best part is that I was being paid $13/hr, part-time! At the time, I thought I was making bank (I was coming from working retail), but now I make almost $20/hr at my current job and want to laugh at myself for what I put up with.
  On top of all of that, their oldest child had major anger issues and had to go to therapy twice a week. He was a sweet kid, but one time he flew off the handle and wrecked the house while I was there, complete with punching a hole in the drywall. All at 6 years old! Eventually, they let me go because the parents were separating, but I couldn’t help but be relieved, honestly. © j4ne-eyre / 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-Set5396 / Reddit

• I went to a café for a nanny interview. Janet, the mom, came with her children. We exchanged numbers, and I got hired.
  After they left, a handsome man approached me and said, “Sorry, ma’am. Are you going to work as a nanny there?” I said yes.
  He replied, “Don’t try to get involved in that. I’m afraid I have bad news for you. I know that family. They constantly change nannies, and you won’t be the first. They don’t pay. I worked in this café and have heard their story about nannies.”

• Used to nannying for a family with a ridiculously spoiled child, they expected me to do a lot of housework too. The house was always so messy. I brought my own baby to work too; he was just crawling at that age.
  One day, I caught him crawling to a MOUSETRAP in the kids’ bedroom, and I closely averted disaster. The parents hadn’t even bothered to tell me about this new hazard, and I was also mortified that they had mice.
  I started looking for a new position, met a lovely family, got a job then gave notice. Then the new family did a U-turn. I soon found out they knew each other, so I was out of work. © mrsglitz / Reddit

• The 4-year-old girl I watch is tiny but mighty. One afternoon, she wanted a cookie, and I told her it wasn’t snack time yet. She didn’t like that.
  She calmly walked over to me, held up one of her dolls, and said, “If you don’t give me a cookie, I’ll make this doll sit in the corner for five minutes.” I didn’t think she was serious. But she kept going, “I’ll make her sit there and think about what she did. She’s already been bad.”
  I’m just sitting there laughing, like, how is this my life? Eventually, I caved, because what if the doll really was being punished? Turns out, it was all an act, but she sure knew how to manipulate the situation.

• I was hanging out with the 7-year-old boy whom I was nannying, and he pulled out a piece of paper and said, “You’re hired.” I was like, “Hired for what?”
  He says, “I need a personal assistant. You’re good at cleaning up, so you’re hired. You’ll work for one cookie a day.” I thought it was cute at first, but then he started actually assigning me tasks.
  He wanted me to fetch his toys, organize his Legos, and even make him snacks. When I asked about my pay, he shrugged and said, “One cookie a day, but you don’t get to choose the flavor.”

• Ugh, I was a nanny for a beautiful little baby girl, and her mama was a wfh, and she worked right in the living room all day every day. There was no nursery, no room for the baby, no crib, no bottle; it was bizarre.
  I had to hold the baby for all naps, all day, all the time. The mom fed on demand, and there wasn’t a single bottle in the house.
  There was one silicone bib, a travel swing, and that was the end of the baby things. No toys, the days were so long sitting on the couch next to the mom working from 9 to 5:30. I thought I would lose my mind. © Lalablacksheep646 / Reddit

• Two-bedroom apartment, 8 cameras. Mom spent the entire two hours at the coffee shop next to the house, watching me. She obviously hadn’t told me that (no issues, but this woman had my references and asked for a copy of my driver’s license beforehand).
  She came back after two hours, asking me why I had given her 4-year-old a snack at 11:15 instead of 11:30. The child was hungry.
  She then accused me of giving her one-year-old a UTI. The child had been sleeping the entire two hours I was there. Not sure how that would happen. © Cosima1987 / Reddit

One woman found herself facing a harsh fallout after refusing to help her stepdaughter’s sick baby, a decision that led to unexpected consequences for both of them.