Crazy, hilarious, scarey - tell us your best babysitting stories?

When I was 16 or 17 my best friend’s aunt had a newborn. She was supposed to babysit this baby overnight, but we all had fake id and wanted to go out. So we look in the want ads and find a local sitter that takes drop ins and over nighters. We took the baby there and went out and partied. We forgot where we had left the baby. In the morning we scoured the ads, calling every one of them, and manged to find the baby and get it home like 10 minutes before the aunt turned up.

When I was about 14 my friend got a babysitting job, babysitting a baby that was about six to nine months old. Old enough to crawl pretty well. She and I were not paying attention, and we heard “boom boom boom.” We found the baby had crawled to the steps and fell down the steps head first, and his ankle was wrapped in the railing. Luckily he was not hurt. I remember we were laughing and laughing after we were relieved that he was ok.

I never left my daughter with any babysitters, other than the regular one she had during the week day and my parents. After what happened with that baby when I was 14, I wouldn’t take a chance.

My sister once got tied up by the kids she was sitting, thinking they were playing a game. They then went wild, and my sister couldn’t get free.

One time a friend of mine was babysitting, and her brother climbed up on the roof, and began moaning down the chimney. Freaked the kids out, and the sitter!

I’m sorry @ibstubro but when it comes to babysitting I only have scary stories.

One day when I was 9 my parents had to attend to some matter and left my brother for me. I was in a middle of a good video game that time, so my eyes moved from my brother, who was on the bed, and the game from time to time. Next to the bed was a table, and there was a big gap between the bed and the table. Eventually I couldn’t wait anymore. I put my brother in the middle of the bed and jumped down to the game. While I was still playing I heard a loud “band” noise. I turned around and saw my brother’s head stuck in the above-mentioned gap! Horrified, I ran to the bed and pull him out. I wanted to cover all this up, but his loud cry had reached my parents, and they rushed to my place. They didn’t know the details, but at least they knew my brother had fallen down. Talk about my silliness…

My sister was always the go-to babysitter in our neighborhood. She had to chase down the neighborhood trouble maker through the street as he chased a dog with a lawn mower. Naked. On multiple occasions.

She was also the one who had to take care of me when someone bit the tip of their tongue near off when we were on the trampoline. Girl who lost her tongue was fine- I was the one who fainted!

My sister was a trooper.

@Mimishu1995

”... there was a big gap between the bed and the table. I heard a loud band noise.”

So cool that you had The Gap Band playing between the bed and the table! ;-)

Hah!
Time warp to the 10th power.
I was 14, babysitting a one yr. old, and her 3 & 4 year old brothers. that lived on the block right behind my house. My mom was at home on standby in case I needed any help.

My best friend at the time came over and we decided to make the kids some mac-n-cheese for lunch. We had never made mac-n-cheese before and did not know we were supposed to drain the water off the pasta. Soooo…we just dumped in the milk and butter and cheese sauce, and it was a soupy mess. The kids ate it though. lol

Another time, watching the same children alone the 4 yr. old boy climbed out an upstairs window onto the roof and while I was getting him back in the 15 month old went in the bathroom and proceeded to open a jar of vaseline and rub it all over her hair.
I washed her hair about 4 times but it was still a greasy mess. haha
Those kids were insane!

I didn’t realize there would be so many stories of potential tragedy, @trailsillustrated, @jca & @Mimishu1995. What a fine line there is between abuse, neglect and accident. Glad you all lived and learned from the experience.

The stuff of comedy movies:
@filmfann ‘sister tied up’
@Raerae009 ‘chasing a naked kid chasing a dog with a lawnmower’
@Coloma ‘Vaseline head”
Funny stuff!

I didn’t think I had any babysitting stories, thinking of my childhood, not remembering that I used to sit with Ben and David, who were, maybe 8 & 10. Kind of a Bohemian family, so hard to tell when they were putting me on.
The lived in ½ of the ground floor of a Victorian McMansion. 15 foot ceilings. One day I didn’t see Ben, so I holler. “Here I am!” he calls from the top of the 12’ doorway. He’d X walked his way to the top. One day they offered to show me the new toy dad bought them at the hardware store – a rat trap. They paid me $2 an hour (in the 80’s, not 50’s), so of course I made breakfast (“mom usually makes us eat our eggs raw”) and lunch. As long as I was there, the laundry was started, if I didn’t mind ‘cycling some of it through’. The whole project pretty much ended when I was held over by my regular job and was 15–20 minutes late. Mom read me the riot act, as she needed to get back to her job as a reporter on the local newspaper.

@ibstubro I’ve come up a title for my story too: “Gamer Babysitter: A True Tragedy” lol

I only ever babysat once with my elder brother when we were just kids ourselves.
The evening passed by with little alarm or incident save for our mum bailing us out when the parents came home later than expected. Nothing scary though.

Father and Mother work in glorious Soviet tractor factory. One day, they get tired from building communism, so go into city to stand in bread line. They hire babysitter to watch over us children for night. Babysitter left with us in proud Soviet home. Tells parents will take good care.

Babysitter call after a few hours. Babysitter tell father that us children reading Marx like good Soviets, but room is drafty because there are no windows. Asks father if okay to move us to parents’ room to read Marx. Father says okay, but babysitter have one final request. She ask if can cover up Lenin statue in room because it is frightening her. Father drop phone (should have worn gloves), then tell babysitter, “Take children and get out of house. We do not have Lenin statue!”

Mother and father race home to find KGB at house. KGB arrest babysitter for finding Lenin statue frightening, then arrest my parents for not having Lenin statue.

Such is life in Moscow.

I baby sat an infant when I was 14. We didn’t have disposable diapers in dem days. I was changing the kid’s diaper when she started crying. She had reflexively grabbed the open safety pin I left too close to her and reflexively brought it up to her face and stabbed herself on the cheek. I kinda freaked, thinking how she could have put her eye out.

I had a daycare. One of the kids came down with a temp of 106. I called Mom, told her to get over here NOW. She called me back and said she’d made a Dr’s appt for 3:00, which was about two hours away. I told her she had to come get the kid NOW.

When my son was 3 months old he managed to throw himself out of his car seat, which was sitting on the dining room table, and he fell 4 feet (?) to the floor. He just splatted! Didn’t even cry. Scared the crap out of me.

Had a teen babysitting my kids once. She went to make popcorn, but left it in the microwave too long and our microwave caught on fire. So she went to make another batch, but didn’t think to reduce the time or maybe even read the directions, and caught the microwave on fire again.

@Dutchess_III Wow..darwun award for the popcorn moron. lol
Probablt the type that would put her dog in the Microwave to dry it after a bath. haha

Yeah! It kinda sorta destroyed our microwave too! I call her parents to talk to them. I said, “One time I could consider an accident, but to do it TWICE?”

Funny, @ragingloli! Thanks.

Leave it to @Dutchess_III to have a list. lol I like the “splatted” story best. I hope you didn’t pay the microwave arsonist!

Yeah…I got lists of shit! The splatting thing…OMG. Yeah, I’d put the car seat with the kid in it on the table. Unbuckled him. Went into the living room for a second. Heard a splat and….my blood just froze. I thought “No way. Oh My God, NO WaY!” I ran back into the kitchen and….Yes, Way. Oh Jesus. He was so fat though that he just splatted. Didn’t hurt himself at all. Wasn’t even crying. Just laying there on the floor, on his stomach, waving his arms around like a little fat seal, with this look on his face like, “That was COOL! I can FLY!!”
The next 23 years were a series of just keeping the kid alive! Seriously. And it’s interesting…he is SO slender now, when he was SO fat as a baby.

Regarding the above post:
One time a friend of mine was babysitting, and her brother climbed up on the roof, and began moaning down the chimney. Freaked the kids out, and the sitter!

This morning it occurred to me that I hadn’t mentioned that the brother had switched off the circuit breaker to the house before moaning down the chimney.
I need to remember to take that Ginko Baloma, or whatever it’s called.