“Yeah, No Thanks”: 8 People Share Their Wildest Babysitting Experiences

Looking after someone else's kids can be tricky. With your kids, you make the rules. You decide when is bedtime, how much screen time they get, and what's for dinner. When you're babysitting, parents are usually the ones who give you the guidelines. They might not align with what you have in mind as the babysitter, but you have to abide by them nonetheless.

Sometimes, parents might have some exceptionally odd or unusual instructions. That's evident from these two threads on Quora about the weirdest and most inappropriate requests babysitters got from parents. The people in the answers shared stories that make them scratch their heads to this day. And what about you, babysitting Pandas? Have you ever had a particularly jarring or strange babysitting experience? If so, don't hesitate to share it with us in the comments!

8 PHOTOS

#1

To not take them out of the house. I was with them for 3 days a week, 9 hours a day for a year. The first 2 months were fine. They let me take them to the park, to the library for story time, up to the shops for an ice cream, etc. After a while, the kids got attached to me and the mother got jealous and said I was no longer able to take them out of the house.

#2

Once, I had a parent bring in her teething infant. Poor thing was suffering with her teeth and drooling all over. She also brought in some whisky. Now, a lot of old-school people use whisky to rub on baby gums to help with the pain. Ok, not something I agreed with, but I had teething medicine. However, the request was not just to rub it on her gums. She was giving her a tablespoon every four hours for pain. I was like “Heck no!” Needless to say, they found someone else to watch the baby pretty quickly.

#3

“If they misbehave, there’s a ladle in the left-hand drawer.”

Yup, when I was babysitting the two daughters of one of our neighbors, the mom told me to hit them with a ladle if they were bad.

No, I never even considered it. And they were bad. A lot.

#4

The most inappropriate thing I was asked to do is actually only so, looking back on it as a mother.

When I was 10, I started babysitting my next-door neighbor's kids, they were 3 and 6 years old. I'd play with them after school for an hour or two while their mom went grocery shopping or whatever. Super easy, she'd give me $20 and a candy bar lol it was awesome. This was in 1987 so it was actually really nice pay!

My neighbor 4 houses down had a baby, and she was friends with my mom. When that baby was a week old, she asked me to babysit for her while she went to something. I was 10. This was a newborn. She left for 4 or 5 HOURS. I'm mixing bottles of formula, feeding the baby, holding him, changing his diapers. I had zero experience with a baby. The closest I came was playing with baby dolls. Oh it went fine and I called my mom when I had questions, but seriously who in their right mind would leave a newborn with a 10-year-old girl who had no experience at all for 5 hours?? And it became a regular thing. I babysat him weekly for the next 4 years until they moved away.

I consider this wildly inappropriate now as a mother. A newborn? A 10-year old? 5 hours? WTF was she thinking??

#5

Someone once called me at 11 pm on a worknight (I was in my 20s and worked almost full-time, but also babysat sometimes). I was fast asleep, and I was sick with a fever, and she asked me to come babysit. She then got angry at me when I said I couldn’t.

She then called my mom and told her I was being unreasonable.

#6

“Whatever you do don’t let him take an orange into his bedroom.”

The words didn’t mean a lot to me at age 15 babysitting little Timmy (aged 4 I can’t recall his name) but boy did they ever spring back in my memory later.

My best mate babysat this kid in my absence. We had babysat him together but I was away and no one thought to tell her about the orange rule.

I was away at a camp. Jen was babysitting. Little Timmy asked oh so sweetly for a piece of fruit and Jen gave it to him. He took his orange to his room. He tore it up with his bare hands and then sorted it into fleshy pulp, pith, and rind.

The fleshy stuff was fed to a GI Joe figurine he called “Chooms” (smooch backward according to his mum). Juice all over his bedsheets.

The pith was posted into the all-in-one TV-video recorder unit in his playroom (shh it was the 90s, yes I know I’m old) . This was discovered when I tried to put a Power Rangers video on for him on my next visit.

The rind he had been told was great for starting fires. Jen found him in the bathroom setting fire to toilet paper and orange peel with matches then flushing it at 10 at night. Little scientist. Bless. So glad it wasn’t on my watch. (Sorry Jen)

#7

In the 70s, I babysat once for my sister’s neighbor— just for the afternoon. The mom asked me to give the 6-month-old a bottle at 2 pm. Yeah, fill the bottle with Pepsi, she said. There was no milk in the refrigerator. I didn’t see any formula. He appeared to be a healthy well-fed baby. I did what I was told but I felt awful afterwards.

He slept like, well, a baby.

#8

One time while babysitting a friend of the couple (male, about 30) told them he would give me a ride home. Instead of taking me home - which was about five blocks away - he drove me to a remote area and started to grope me and try to kiss me. I protested and managed to back him off - even though I was only 12. It scared me. I never told anyone.