15 Nannies Who Had an Unexpected Babysitting Experience

Being a nanny means not only taking care of children, but also coping with constant surprises. In this article, we’ll tell you about the most unusual and funny situations that happened while our heroes were babysitting other people’s children.

• I’m a nanny. A woman called and said that she urgently needed to go to hospital to visit her mother, and there was no one to stay with her son overnight. I agreed, thinking that the child was about 5 years old — I would feed him, play with him, and put him to bed. How wrong I was.
  When I arrived, a nice woman met me and took me to her son, who was... 25 years old. No, she’s not looking for a bride, he really needs a nanny. He’s an avid gamer, so addicted to the game that he forgets to eat and wash.
  His mom explained how to know when a round is over so that at that point I could feed him, remind him about the toilet, let him finish playing another round and send him to bed. She paid very well, by the way. © Caramel / VK
• Working as an on-call nanny for an agency. I decided that living in the same family for years is not for me, but helping parents for a couple of hours a day is fun.
  During this time I’ve seen a lot of kids, but almost all of them have one thing in common — simplicity and directness. They don’t hesitate to ask questions, like why the grass is green, how much candy you can eat, and so on.
  But recently one girl struck me. She leaned toward me with the serious face, and I was getting ready to tell her where babies come from. But the question was even more interesting: why, if men have nipples, they can’t feed their babies with them. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• My friend works as a nanny in the daily care. Yesterday, she told me a story over tea.
  “Children are so sensitive, you have no idea! Today I had a headache all day, my mood was terrible. Of course, it didn’t affect the children — I smiled, cared for them, as always. But at some point, Mary and Nora came up to me and said, ’Ms. Gala, you are sad! Don’t be sad, please.’
  Can you imagine? I thought I was a master of disguise, adults probably wouldn’t have noticed, but the kids felt it right away. I had to admit I had a headache. And the sweetest thing is that after that they started bringing me candy, apples and bananas to make me feel better.” © Not everyone will understand / VK

• I was playing hide-and-seek with the 3 kids I was babysitting (they were 3, 6, and 9), and I was seeking. Well, I found the oldest and the youngest but couldn’t find the middle child.
  After 30 minutes of searching (the house wasn’t that big), I just wanted to die. I couldn’t believe I actually lost a child; it was like a bad movie. So, I called the parents, ready to have the worst from them on account of losing their child.
  I told them what happened, and they laughed and said, “Did you specify the boundaries?” The WHAT. Turns out the smart middle child hid in a bush in their neighbors’ front yard (a place that she had hidden in before, which is how the parents knew about it) because I didn’t specify the boundaries of hide-and-seek. © mai_life / Reddit
• My favorite child that I babysit got mad at me and locked me out of the house with the meanest look on his face (his mother calls it angry baby face). Good thing the dad was doing work from home that day while I watched the kids. Since then, I’ve always kept a spare house key in my pocket while I’m there. © ilikethebluesky / Reddit
• Babysat for the neighbor of a family friend. A seemly normal house as you walked in the front door. Go through to what would have been a normal, family lounge...
  All 4 walls are covered floor to ceiling in tanks containing snakes, lizards, spiders, terrapins, fish. Go into the kitchen, more tanks. The kid I’m babysitting has 2 tanks in his room, there are tanks in the hallway upstairs — this house is basically a zoo.
  The guy was late for wherever he’s meant to be going because he was trying to get me to hold a tarantula that “hasn’t eaten for a few days, so may bite you.” Um, yeah, no, thanks. The longest 6 hours of my life, constantly thinking something was crawling on me. © petitepamplemousse / Reddit

• The last job I had, a 3-year-old girl, was the most stubborn child I have ever met. Literally, the only way to get her to do anything was to bribe her with a jelly bean. One, tiny, Jelly Belly. I watched her parents give her one all the time.
  One day I was trying, and failing, to get her to stop violently attacking her baby brother. So, I finally resorted to the jelly bean trick. Told the parents later, and their response (which completely ignored the violence) was, “Let’s maybe lay off the candy.” But day after day, they continued to give her jelly beans to get her to behave. Right in front of me. © Unknown author / Reddit
• The kid was already sleeping for a few hours, I was watching a movie. At midnight, I heard something scratching at the door.
  First I ignored it, got scared and checked again. Then I saw glowing eyes through the window: they had a dog, and they didn’t tell me. © 97Kelly / Reddit
• I was watching 2 kids, and I heard what sounded like a baby crying. I walked into the back to find a toddler just waking up that the parents hadn’t told me about. I called the parents. They told me they thought he would sleep the entire time.
  They had only told me about the older 2 kids. Needless to say, I was paid extra that night. © lilnosewhistle / Reddit

• I’m a professional nanny and one of the families I worked for had a strict “no games” rule. Not as in video games, but as in any game that could have a winner and a loser. No board games, no tag, nothing. “Winning and losing leads to hurt feelings” was their explanation.
  I’d have to stop the girls any time they said something like, “I bet I can get to the end of the driveway faster” and remind them, “Mom and Dad say no competition, remember?” Everything had to be perfectly equal, or the parents would lose it completely. I fired them as clients shortly after. © undeadgorgeous / Reddit
• On my first day, they sent over an adult male friend of theirs who asked to come in. I said no, and was then told I was being tested, and I had passed. © Onions*** / Reddit
• The family I worked for had a rule. I had to give the boy warm milk in a baby bottle right after every dinner — he was a fully functional 10-year-old boy. © Unknown author / Reddit

• One mother had me feed her 1-year-old only from a freshly opened baby food container. If she only ate 2 or 3 spoonfuls, I was to throw it away and when she wanted more in 15 minutes, I was to open a new one. I thought it was so she would finish her meal and be full for a while, but she said it was okay to feed her every time she wanted it.
  I would probably throw away 5 or 6 jars in a 2-hour sitting. They cost more than I usually made for sitting. © GooberMcNutly / Reddit
• I babysat for this family for the first time ever and the mother was walking me around the house, giving me instructions and showing me around and then stopped at the fridge. She explained to me that when I sent her son to bed, I was to give him 1 hotdog out of the fridge. No heating it, no bun, just a cold soggy hotdog for her son to munch on in bed.
  Apparently he ate one every night. This was like 7 years ago, and I seriously haven’t stopped thinking about it. © groceryenthusiast / Reddit
• Worked as a nanny for a family with twins. The parents were away, and I had to stay with them for 2 days straight.
  So, my first night as their nanny looked like this. I tucked them in and went to the guest room to sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night to a child’s voice, “Maria, I’m scared.” I start to get up, suddenly I hear from the other side of the bed, “Maria, I’m scared too.”
  Being sleepy, I didn’t realize at once that it was the second child, a twin with the same voice. I was so frightened that I started shrieking. © House No. 6 / VK

And here are stories from nannies that could rival a blockbuster plot.