10+ Nannies Who Walked Into Situations No Training Could Have Prepared Them For

Changing diapers, warming up bottles, bedtime stories on repeat — sounds routine, right? Think again. Behind the curtain of nap schedules and snack times, some nannies find themselves in situations that rival a Netflix thriller. The women we spoke to aren't just caretakers — they’re crisis managers, secret-keepers, and sometimes accidental heroes. After hearing their stories, calling this job “mundane” feels almost laughable.

• I was a nanny for a sweet 5-year-old boy. He was allergic to nearly everything: eggs, dairy, wheat. One day, he accidentally ate my lunch. No reaction at all. When I told his mom, she looked shocked. After a pause, she gasped and said, “He’s been pretending to avoid eating what his dad cooks.” Turns out, the kid hated his dad’s cooking so much he faked allergies for years. We got him checked again, and he wasn’t allergic to anything.
• It was my first day as a nanny for a 6-year-old girl. While I was tucking her in, she said, “The lady I live with now isn’t my real mom. She told me not to talk about it.” My stomach turned. Later that night, I called the agency. Turns out the woman had recently gained emergency custody. The girl's biological mother had passed away suddenly, and she was the child’s aunt.

• 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
• So, it is that time of the month for me. I go into the bathroom, and while unwrapping a feminine hygiene product, the kid yells from outside the door, "I can hear you eating candy in there!" It made my day, and made me wish that I was really eating candy. © HalleysComet5 / Reddit
• Watching a family and had just put the kids to bed. I was watching TV and heard the garage door open, so I knew the parents had just arrived. The door opens from the garage, and in walks a 6’3″ man. I froze and was thinking that the kids and I were in danger.
  I guess the oldest kid was still awake and came downstairs and yelled out, ’Darrell!’ and went and hugged him. Apparently, this guy was living in the basement, and the parents forgot to mention it. When they did get home, they apologized profusely and gave me extra money. © Awdra / Reddit

• 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 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 nanny for a year. I should have see the red flag when I was the 5th nanny for a 2 1/2 year old girl... Doesn't say much about how long they stayed. Honestly, it wasn't the child's fault. She has two parents that had kids as an accessories or because all their friends had kids. I had to keep a log of the devil child's activities. How many tortellini she ate, how many mins of tv time or outside time she had. How many ounces of milk the baby boy had, when I changed his diaper, what was in his diaper....you get the hint. The mom wanted to feel involved without actually being involved. I wasn't allowed to the use the word "no" because it was to negative. I wasn't suppose to use negative phrasing such as "don't throw that on the floor" , instead I was instructed to say "leave that on the table".
  I couldn't send the child to her room because it was suppose to be a happy place. I had to place her in Timeout, but of course what 2 1/2 year old sits in time out. So I had to sit in time out too. Lots of fun when you have a 6 month old too. The parents refused to go anywhere and do anything if they bother weren't available, but I got to do the groceries with both kids in tow. I had to do "mommy and me" gymnastics with the little girl with the baby strapped to me in a carrier. I left the job the day the father was working from home, came downstairs, dropped his towel and asked me if I wanted to mess around while the kids were napping. I noped myself right out of there. © Annami316 / Reddit
• A lady tried to dump 2 extra kids on me without paying when she realized I was babysitting her neighbor’s kids. Her rationale was that I was already babysitting 2 kids, and 2 more weren’t that much, so I should watch her kids for free and let them eat her neighbor’s food. © CaptDeliciousPants / Reddit
• I nannied a kid who would dig his poop out of the toilet and play with it in the bathroom sink. Psycho mom on a power trip made me clean it up. Quit soon after that. Honestly though, 9 times out of 10 that I've had an issue with a family, it's the parents who are the problem.. © Unknown author / Reddit

• The dad of the kids I watched liked me on Tinder. Then, when I told his wife, and she didn’t believe me, he convinced her that “his Facebook was hacked.” The kids were almost always wonderful. © marymoon77 / Reddit
• I had a phone interview with a mom that went really well, so we met in person for a second interview with her husband and 4 children. It went well until she explained her nanny was fired for having an affair with her husband and how their new nanny needed better morals and to limit her interaction with her husband (who was sitting there the whole time with us).
  I’ve never felt more awkward in my whole life as she told me that I’m pretty but thankfully not his type as he just nodded his head. I just find it irritating how it’s the nanny’s fault when her husband also had the affair, and how the nanny needs morals when her husband clearly doesn’t. So yeah, definitely not accepting this job! © thisisdevon- / Reddit
• 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

• The dad of the kids I watched liked me on Tinder. Then, when I told his wife, and she didn’t believe me, he convinced her that “his Facebook was hacked.” The kids were almost always wonderful. © marymoon77 / Reddit
• I'm a nanny, and I heard her first word (it was hippo). But the family won't ever know that. Some secrets are better to keep. © positivityfox / Reddit
• “I went to change a baby’s diaper and had the 5-year-old son with autism in his room for just that minute with the door closed (rooms were next to each other). Went in to get him with the baby to discover poop all over the walls, all over the floor, all over the bed...him running and jumping in it. I quickly put the baby back in the crib and started frantically cleaning it up, cleaning him up...all while the baby screamed in the crib. Did not help that the family had a fear of germs... It was overwhelming. Learned my lesson to not leave him alone for a second.” Kbctreatz444 / Reddit

Being a nanny might seem like an easy job—until you hear these stories. We’ve gathered nine real-life tales from nannies that sound more like scenes from a thriller than a day at work.