Babysitting is pretty weird: you have your young kids being watched (a lot of time) by other kids who are also pretty young.
What could possibly go wrong?!?!
And sometimes, things go sideways and babysitters have to call the cops for one reason or another.
Have you ever had to call the police while babysitting?
AskReddit users shared their stories.
1. Awful.
“Alright so, little backstory. I had a friend, we’ll call him S. Him and I were tight and he went out and got a girlfriend. Her name is M.
We all 3 hang a couple times, she had 4 kids, but only custody of 1. Couple weeks go by, she asks if i would mind baby sitting. I said sure, no problem, start sitting 2 times a week. That goes on for about 2 months and bam… She lost her house. So, being the naive 19 year old I was, rented a house for them in my name.
Put the deposit down, turn on utilities, borrow money from my boss at the time to do it. They move in, life continues pretty well for another couple months.
One day I get a call from S saying M dropped off the baby and went to work and he needed to stay late so could I come get the baby. Ok. I go get him. I called M later to ask about pick up, she asks if I can keep him over night. I say ok, no problem, baby is asleep anyways.
I didn’t hear from M or S for 5 1/2 months. I kept baby, had to hire another babysitter so I could work and was desperate to find M. Finally, she calls one night. 2 am. M tells me she lost track of time and wanted to come get baby, she missed him. I said hell no, you disappeared for 6 months bro. She finally said she would call the police for kidnapping if I didn’t bring baby back.
Now, I’m 19, and had no real life experience yet. So, I cave. Take baby to the house on a Friday. Bring diaper bag and such and tell her I will be back sunday to check on them. She says ok, no problem, they were just gonna hang there for the weekend.
I come back sunday, gut feeling, early afternoon. I walk up to the house and the door is open a little. Walk in and everything was super quiet. “Hello?” I Hear baby in the kitchen. Walk around the corner and he is sitting on the floor eating a block of cheese, fridge wide open. Absolutely COVERED in literal sh*t.
Wearing the same clothes, diaper, and socks I dropped him off in. I rush to pick him up and head to the sink. Im yelling for M and S but don’t hear anything. Get him cleaned and make a bottle for him, clean up the kitchen floor where he had smeared sh*t from crawling around and went to look for M and S. Locked bedroom door. I broke in with a butter knife to find both of them passed out on the bed. M has a needle in her arm still.
Got the baby, left the house, called the cops and didn’t see either of them until court 2 months later. She screamed at me in the middle of court saying I took everything from her. S wouldn’t say anything.
I stayed with baby at DHS until grandparents from out of state got there. Turns out M had taken baby and disappeared without birth fathers knowledge, and baby actually had an amber alert from out of state. Birth father got there within 2 hours of grandparents and cried into my chest and thanked me over and over for finding his baby and taking care of him for so long.
I still get yearly updates from birth father and grandparents with school pictures and stuff. So glad I was around to help that sweet boy.”
2. Call CPS.
“My mom called CPS.
I was 14-16 and a neighbour had asked if I could babysit her 3 kids overnight. Being young, and it being a school night my mom said no. They talked a while and ended up with a compromise. She would go out early and be home by 9.
She never left a number to call as she didn’t have a cellphone, as it was a low income neighborhood (just above community housing), and most families around didnt have any.
Watching the kids was fine, as I knew them well, and i did some dishes and basic cleaning around the house. 9 p.m. came around and no sign of her. 10 p.m. nothing. Around 11:30 I decided to call my mom. I was tired, and unsure of what to do. My mom came to the house and sent me home and filled me in the next day.
Apparently around 4 in the morning my mom was fed up and called CPS for abandoning her kids with a babysitter. She showed up at 9 the next morning with a random guy (she was a single mother; no boyfriend).
My mom just told her to never ask any of us to watch her kids again, and the lady just gave her $20 as my mom left.
$20 for about 19 hours of babysitting.”
3. Ugh.
“It was my third time babysitting for this couple when they decided to have me babysit to go to a local beer festival.
They had two kids who were amazing the entire night.
Around 11 pm, I hear the parents pull up into the driveway and the car doors slam pretty loudly. I then began to hear shouting and the sound of someone screaming I go to look out the window by the door and the parents were screaming and throwing rocks from the driveway at each other
At this point I’m freaking out because they are both clearly drunk and getting closer to each other at one point the mom got so close and began taking swings at the dad and at this point I decided to call the police,police arrived and arrested both of them for drunk driving and assaulting each other.
The kids had woken up at this point and were sobbing and I had to give statements to police and child protection services had to be called and I didn’t even get paid for babysitting. I was later told the parents had gotten into a fight because the wife found out her husband had been cheating on her and met the side chick at the beer festival.
They’re divorced now and no longer have custody of the children and apparently the side chick and husband are getting married next year.”
4. OH MY GOD.
“I was babysitting a 5 year old.
I let him download an app and said if your parents say to take it off you have to listen. I went to the bathroom when the parents came home once I got out of the bathroom I saw his dad punch him in the stomach about 13 times yelling “I told you not to download apps”.
I called the cops,they came and I didn’t babysit that family again.”
5. Single mom.
“I started babysitting for a newly single mother.
She had just moved into an apartment with her 3 kids so things were a total mess. Bare mattresses on the floor, clothes in piles, no food, the only furniture was a couch and her bed.
At first I was sympathetic, I only watched her kids for her to work as a server in the evenings and she expressed how hard she was trying to get her life together, but nothing changed at all as the weeks went by. Then she started coming in way later than when I knew the restaurant was closed, visibly messed up on drugs and alcohol.
The last time I watched her daughters, she stumbled in in the wee hours of the morning vomiting, completely out of her head, /showing off a fresh tattoo/ while earlier that same evening I had genuinely struggled to find enough food to satisfy all three kids. I was so sad and overwhelmed.
She was paying me so well, but I realized even at 17 years old that was called hush money. I couldn’t hush. I ran into the kids in a grocery a few years later with their Dad and Grandma, where they told me they had been living since they saw me last, they gave me hugs and looked so happy and healthy.
No one but my Mom ever knew about my involvement.”
6. Horrifying.
“I used to work overnights at a 24 hour daycare center, and we had to implement a rule that parents couldn’t drop off sleeping kids.
We used to allow it, because a kid might be asleep when a parent needs to go into work for a swing or 3rd shift. But we had a toddler almost die in our care because he was dropped off “sleeping”, when in reality, he had been unconscious since earlier that day when his mother shoved him, he fell back and hit his head on the floor.
When doing checks on the kids, we noticed the lump/gash on his head, and when we couldn’t wake him, called the police and ambulance. It was absolutely horrifying.”
7. Call the ambulance.
“Not the cops but an ambulance.
My husband’s cousin had just move in an apartment down the road from me. She had 2 kids both daycare age. One morning she called me and asked if I could watch little baby boy. She then proceeded to tell me the older one would be going to day care but baby had a bit of a cold and daycare wouldn’t allow him there.
I said sure 10 minutes later she showed up with him. He was sleeping at the time. She told me he had just eaten and would sleep for a bit. I was fine with that. She left immediately after no meds no directions. I had a 1.5 year old so I had supplies.
I felt his head and he was hot I took his temp and it was high, way higher than it should be so I called her work ( before cell phones). And I got her on the phone proceeded to tell her this baby is sick very sick he needs to go to the emergency room. She refused. I called our grandmother and told her what was going on and called her dad. The whole time this baby hasn’t moved. And I am starting to panic.
My uncle told me to call the hospital and call an ambulance. Uncle called Mom and finally got her to acknowledge how sick he was. He was in intensive care for almost a month and almost died. Because of the lack of oxygen he has learning disabilities and pretty much will never be on his own. His mother blamed vaccines.
Because of the situation cps then had to do a ” wellness check ” on my home. I will never forgive her for what she did to that baby and how he could have died in my care.”
8. Happened twice.
“When I was young my babysitter had to call the police twice.
Once because my mom, who had limited visits with us 3 kids, came banging on her door to get us and take us who knows where. Babysitter hid us in a closet and called the cops.
Second time was when we were playing hide and seek in the apartment courtyard and my brother took hide and seek a little too seriously. He refused to come out from his hiding spot and then some person said they saw him leaving with a strange man.
Finally, after the cops showed up, he came out from under some bushes proud that not even the cops could find him.”
9. Yikes.
“I used to work at a summer camp when I was a teenager. About once a week we would all walk down the street to the community outdoor pool.
There were two girls, 5 and 8, who were very shy nd stuck to themselves a lot. We only had them for about 3 days at this point. I tried to include them in games but it was like they didnt see anyone around them and just lived in their own bubbles.
One day when we were getting ready to go to the pool I was helping some of the younger kids put sun screen on their backs. I remember asking the younger girl if I could help her and she nodded.
When I lifted up the back of her shirt to get her shoulders she was absolutely covered in bruises and what I guess were cigarette burns. Every inch of her back. It was the most horrifying thing I’d seen at that point in my life.
I was 16 myself, so I went to my boss and showed her the girls back. Her older sister was exactly the same. We ended up calling the police and they came and got the girls that afternoon.
The shape of the bruises almost looked like whip marks, like they were whipped with a belt until it left insane bruises. It was so sad. Never saw those girls again.”
10. Whoa.
“She had baby formula next to a m*th pipe on the counter.
I was young and couldn’t get the baby to stop crying so I called her and she sent some random girl over. The random girl revealed that there was a toddler asleep in the back that I didnt know about.
I told my mom and she called CPS and the cops. Turns out the woman had like two or three more kids that she wasnt allowed to see.”
11. This is wild.
“I always watched this one family that had 3 kids (11, 6, and 4) anyway one time I watched them and they were super excited because their dad was coming home (military family).
So we made signs and cookies to welcome him. I noticed the 11-year-old was quieter than usual but his mother said he had started puberty and was a bit moody so I let it go. Anyway, The next time I came was two days later because the parents wanted date night.
The mom said that the 11-year-old was in his room and wouldn’t come out and if I wanted to I could try to get him to come out but she was fine with him needing alone time. I went upstairs after a while to bring him a sandwich and I saw him leaving the bathroom. He had massive bruises on his cheek and on his arm.
As soon as he saw me he ran to his room but I caught the door before he could close it. I questioned him (very gently) about the bruises but he wouldn’t give me a straight answer just half mumbled excuses. I immediately knew what was going on because I myself had been abused as a kid.
When the parents came home I told them what I saw but they just laughed it off. I then said that I know what abuse looks like and maybe they didn’t know this was considered abuse. The father got really defensive and even raised his hand to slap me. Yelling about stupid b*tches and them being HIS kids and what do I know.
So I called the police and after an investigation, it turned out that he was suffering from PTSD and hitting the 11-year-old as a coping mechanism. The mother refused to believe it and kept calling the kid and me liars, eventually, the kids were sent to family while the father went through therapy.
As far as I know, the kids are all safe and happy now, thank god, and the father got through his PTSD and is now a stable man who runs a garage.”
12. The new folks in the neighborhood.
“Me and my best friend, both 14 year old females, were to babysit together for a new young couple in the neighborhood. We arrived at their house and they seemed nice and friendly.
They gave us all the instructions and told us they would just be down the street but would be out quite late. 1 am rolls around. We had both of the the kids we were watching in bed upstairs and we were both dozing on the couches in the living room.
At this point the father came home, saw us dozing on the couches, screamed bloody murder at us, threw a few things, and then left while screaming that he was going to get his wife and they were going to kill both of us for endangering their house and kids.
It was obvious that he was drunk (smelled of booze) and possibly coked out. My friend freaked out so I sent her upstairs to guard the kids. I called my friends dad because he was only 5 houses away from us. I told him what happened. He said lock the door and he would call the cops and be over right away.
I locked the door, grabbed a huge kitchen knife, and stood guard. Her dad showed up just as the parents arrived. The wife attacked my friend’s dad while the husband kicked in the door of his house. The cops arrived just as he smashed the door off its hinges (small town, local RCMP attachment only 20 blocks away, three cars arrived with 5 cops). The cops took down all three adults but sorted out pretty quickly who was a problem.
The one cop walked in on me, commented on the knife I was holding, and asked if I, and if everyone else in the house, was okay. The parents were arrested, I assume child services was called for the kids, my friend went home with her dad, and I was driven home by the cops.
My dad came to the door when I got home and the police talked to him because they wanted him to know what happened and that I wasn’t hurt or in trouble. My mom, being the nut job she was/is, decided that the situation was still my fault and grounded me.”
13. Mother of the year.
“Caught the lady blowing m*th into her 21 month old daughters face.
I exclaimed, “What the hell are you doing?!”
And she said she didn’t want her to grow up fat.”
14. Child Protective Services.
“I called CPS on the parent of a kid I babysit regularly.
The kid is older and a bit of a mental health disaster. She’s got attachment issues and some other weird habits. I’ve written about her before. Anyway, the kid lives in my neighborhood and is at the age where she can go outside and be relatively unsupervised. She runs to my house when she’s fighting with her parents or her parents are fighting.
One afternoon, she runs to my house and gives me the run down on the blow out with her mom. “She pinned me down and was threatening to punch me in the face.” Then her mom texts me asking if I have seen her and mom is really concerned that the kid is trying to get her arrested.
Since I know the kid has an interesting relationship with the truth, I am not sure who to believe. I have a heart to heart with the kid and tell her to please do what her mother asks and not start telling back. If she has to run somewhere, I’m always home.
My husband and I talk about it and we decide to make the call. Before we could make the call, she was at our house three more times for these crazy blow out fights. We relay all of this to the intake person on the phone and then didn’t ever hear anything back about it.
The kid’s mom and I are pretty good friends and she’s been giving me the run down of this free family therapy program they have been doing and I finally put the pieces together that the family therapy is actually mandated and CPS is involved.”
15. Left behind.
“I am a babysitter and used to work at a daycare. The assistant director and I had to call the police once because a child was left behind over an hour after closing time.
We were afraid her mom had been in an accident or something. Turns out there was a miscommunication between mom and dad regarding pickup.
I really just think the dad forgot about her, as the mom was always the one picking up. It makes me sad to think that her dad forgot her.”
16. Terrible.
“Dad and mom came home super drunk.
Dad started beating the sh*t out of mom over $20. She yelled from the back bedroom to call the police so I did. She came out asking me if I really called the cops….yeah I did! I was like 13 at the time.
Scared me so bad I couldn’t look at the dad the same ever again, even though they were back together not long after.”
17. Definitely call the cops.
“Yes.
I once babysat a 9 year old child and his 7 year old little sister. When I came one day to babysit them, the 7 year old had bruises and scars all over her face.
When I asked the children what happened, the 9 year old boy said that she hadn’t finished all her homework and had been beat by her parents, beating children is illegal in my country (New Zealand).”
18. Daycare.
“I was a daycare provider.
Once there was a new kid whose mom needed care while doing a job search. On the second day she never showed up and an hour after closing I called the police because mom was not answering at any of her contact numbers and I didn’t know what to do.
Mom had found a job and gone out drinking to celebrate. When they called me to update me mom had also stolen a vehicle and was being charged. Child protective services came to pick up the boy a couple hours after my call to police.
Another time I was called after hours by the police asking if I could care for one of the daycare kids because his single mother was very drunk at home and unable to take care of him. Neighbors had called the police.
The boy stayed the night with me and police arranged for his estranged father to come from out of town to pick him up at my place the next day. I am pretty sure mom lost custody completely.”
19. Weirdos.
“The very first family I ever worked for got weirder and weirder as months passed working for them.
When I started with them they both left the house to work their full-time jobs. As months passed the mom began staying home because she was “sick”. Unfortunately, it became exceedingly clear that she was extremely depressed. The mom was so kind, if not a little odd, but I felt so bad for her because her husband was literally the creepiest and most bizarre man I have ever met.
So the mom continues to stay home from work and eventually gets fired. The problem is, they lived in a tiny one bedroom apartment with 2 children. So mom stayed home to “job hunt” and I nannied for their daughters. Then the dad starts working from home, leaving me to sit inside with the two girls, their mom and their dad in the same damn room for 9 hours a day.
I eventually told them I wasn’t cool with them both working from home as they were extremely loud and the father’s home etiquette became creepier and creepier. He started having me wake him up the morning when I came in for the day. Always asleep shirtless.
Then he worked in the living room with only boxers and a robe on. He also used to insist on hugging and kissing his daughters while I was holding them. He also insisted on watching me bathe his youngest daughter. Lots of borderline harassment moments.
But what brought me to consider calling CPS on them was the way the dad would kiss his oldest daughter. He would kiss her arm slowing from her hand all the way up to her shoulder and it felt inappropriate for me as she was nearly 6.
I had an affectionate family but kissing up an arm felt extremely romantic not fatherly. He also out of nowhere would say things like “I don’t bathe with the girls anymore because it wouldn’t be appropriate.” Completely out of context.
I also learned that his last nanny came across a journal he had left open in the kitchen that comprised of notes he took in order to get over his p*rn addiction.”
20. Didn’t come back.
“I had to call the police because the parents didn’t come back!!
My dad was a gas station manager, and one day while I was hanging out with him at work a regular customer asked if I ever did any babysitting. I looked at my dad and he nodded a bit so I said sure. He told me that guy had been coming to his gas station for years and he knew him and his wife decently well and he thought it should be fine.
Well the plan was they were going to pick me up from my dads gas station and bring me to their place, go out for a while, then when they got back they would bring me back to him at the gas station. So they come get me and everything seems ok. The kids are a little bratty, fighting in the backseat but no big deal. Their house turned out to be a run down trailer in a small trailer park in the boonies.
I grew up poor so it’s not anything I wasn’t used too, but it surprised me since their car was really nice. Turned out they didn’t have a phone either, and this was right before cell phones were a really thing. So the three hours I was supposed to be there goes by, then four then five then six. At this point it’s past 10 and I’m freaking out. I decided to leave the kids in a playpen and try and see if any neighbors will let me use their phone.
After several door knocks I finally find one and call my dad. I’m in tears at this point but I give him the address and he comes to sit with me at the trailer. Another hour goes by and we call the police. The parents still didn’t come back during the whole interview process, and the kids were taken by dcs.
My dad is thinking something terrible has happened to them, as surely they wouldn’t just abandon their kids with the 15 year old babysitter right? Well they finally came home the next day (over 30 hours after they had dropped me off at their house) and it turned out they had went and done a bunch of her*in and were to messed up to keep up with time.
Turns out my Dad didn’t know the guy that well after all.”
21. A reverse story.
“I have a bit of a reverse one where the babysitter was taken away in handcuffs.
It was about 20 years ago now and my dad’s sister had 2 kids who were around 2 & 4, she hired a babysitter for the night so her and her partner could have a date night. Don’t know how they found her but she was not stable enough to handle kids as full on as they were, she ended up drugging them with her anti psychotics and ADHD meds.
The parents got home a few hours later and realized something was very wrong.. they called emergency services and the kids had to be taken away in an ambulance and the girl was arrested and charged.
It made the news and was crazy as hell but the kids were okay but I have no idea how it turned out for the babysitter.”
22. Should have called…
“I didn’t call anyone, but should have.
I was watching a kid who was around 9 who told me his dad let him smoke cigarettes. I thought he was just saying it so that I would let him (I didn’t) but when the parents came home the kid told the dad I hadn’t let him smoke and the dad scolded me and gave his child a menthol.
He smoked full flavors, I suspect he got menthols literally because his 9 year old liked them better.
The mom is in prison now for some kind of fraud and the kids live with their much much older brother. I don’t know where the dad is.”
23. Fire department.
“I had to call the fire department once.
I was babysitting my neighbors three kids which I did frequently. There was a lit candle in the fireplace mantle. The cat jumped on the mantle and over the candle catching its long, fluffy tail on fire. It it’s understandable panic it set a curtain on fire.
With three screaming kids and a flaming cat as well as burning window dressing all I could do was rush everybody outside and call 911. The cat returned about a week later filthy, half bald and with some infection.
A vet visit fixed it up and the damage to the house was relatively minor, thank God. I continued to sit for them for another 3 years”
Do you have any weird babysitting stories?
If so, spill your guts in the comments.
We’d love to hear from you!
