Thursday

Babysitting Horror Story

This is the story of how I learned to meet a family before accepting a job. I am a nanny for an amazing family but I will occasionally look for a babysitting gig for some extra money. About a year ago I found a job on care.com for later that night. I know a lot of people on here will criticize the mother for leaving her kids with someone she just met (lucky for her, it was me and I took great care of them). She was hoping to see a concert with a friend that night and I told her I could watch her two kids (I believe they were 6 and 2 at the time) She said that they would both be sleeping by the time I got there, when I arrived both children were awake. She said she kept them awake so they could meet me (I agree that this was a good decision). She had her son show me around their apartment which was disgusting. It was dirty, and messy, and things just everywhere. I was supposed to go home at 11. She told me that she wasn't feeling that great and would probably be home early, I said okay and told her to have a good time. I put the kids in bed at 9, which is the time she told me to put them down after saying "oh you can stay up a little later tonight, I'm sure Becky won't mind". I really didn't mind, because I go to actually spend time with the kids then instead of sitting on the couch. The daughter (the 2 year old) laid down right away pretty well. The son did not want to go to sleep though. I told him I couldn't let him stay up any longer because I cared about him, and it was late and that I wouldn't be doing a good job taking care of him if I let him stay up until his mom came home. He eventually felt better about going to sleep and fell asleep fast. I decided to sit on the couch and watch tv until their mom came home. It was around 10, only one more hour to go, and I could go home and go to sleep. When it turned 11 and she wasn't home yet, I didn't get upset. It had only just turned 11, she could still be on her way home. It was then11:30 and I decided to send a friendly text asking if she would be home soon, she said she was just leaving and would be home in 5 minutes. I kept dozing off on the couch but waking myself up because I did not feel comfortable sleeping in her home, I was getting upset because she still was not coming through her door. 2 hours later at 1:30 am she called and said she was on her way home and would be there shortly, I said "okay thanks for letting me know." I didn't believe her, I was panicking, I had to go to bed so I could be up at 6 am to go to work. Luckily, this time she really was coming home. She barely apologized to me for being so late, and hugged me goodbye( it was so uncomfortable) and told me to call her when I got home because it was a mild snow storm. She then asked if she could keep my number in her phone for the future, I told her she could. I left, got in my car and counted my money, surprisingly, she paid me accordingly. I drove home which took a good 45 min from their apartment downtown, to my place out in the suburbs. I parked my car and texted her saying I was home. Luckily, I have never heard from her again, and I'm not complaining since I had no plans on ever watching her kids again.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This site is getting really odd. Why is this even called a "horror story"....it's barely a story.

Susan said...

Agreed. All that and then the very nonchalant oh well it's really no big deal. So you complain, which was warranted. Then you say it's ok to give her your number why? So it could happen again (what you just wrote about I mean). Then....oh well no biggie haven't heard from her again. HUH? Odd as all get out! I used to be addicted to this site new owners I realize but that has nothing to do with the submissions. Most are quite odd.

Unknown said...

OP here, I poorly titled this, and I'm sorry. The kids were great, really! It was a horror story to me I suppose because of how late the mom was. Mostly because se kept telling me she was on her way, and ended up not being home until 3 hours after she was supposed to be home. I was new to nannying and I didn't know how to say no you cannot keep my number because I can't trust you on what time you will be home. I just planned on not returning her calls or texts if she did contact me. That job was a learning experience for me though, meet who you are going to work for before you actually show up to work, and don't take any job just because you will get paid.

Anonymous said...

Do you live in Birmingham Alabama by chance?I had a lady message me on care.com asking to babysit her children so that she could go out with her girlfriends to a concert. She wanted someone until around 2am. I wonder if it was the same lady.

Unknown said...

No sorry! I live in Milwaukee, Wi