12 Hours of work + 0 dollars = Angry Cath (Longish)

[reformedwaitress]

I love kids -- any kids -- so I always did, and still do sometimes, baby sit. I never really had any horrible kids, but there was one day that almost brought me to tears.

I was baby sitting for this one family that had 3 boys and a little girl. The boys were 10, 7, and 5 and the little girl was 3 and a half. I was almost seventeen at this point. So their daddy had started travelling for work recently and the little girl, who was VERY much a daddy's girl, missed him. So he was home for the weekend and Mommy and Daddy were going out to dinner and a party with friends. I got there about 6.

So we were going to order pizza for dinner and while we were waiting the boys wanted to go play in the back yard. So I told "Maddie", who had been sitting on the couch pouting since her father left, that we should go out and play. She said no. I tried and tried but she wouldn't move from the couch, so I said okay. I stood in the door way to the back deck, where I could see the boys and her at the same time.

So at one point, one of the boys fell hard and I went to check on him. I turned my back on Maddie for less than two minutes and when I looked back she wasn't on the couch anymore. So I told the boys to come inside and we were going to find their sister.

So before we even get inside I hear her wailing and it sounds like it's coming from the front hall.

Maddie had stuck her head between two spindles on the stairs. And now she couldn't get it back out.

Noting we did helped. We just could not get her out and that poor girl was sobbing cause she was scared. I got her to stop crying by singing songs with her. The pizza came so I sat the boys at the table with food. I tried to get ahold of the parents but couldn't, so then I called my dad and he said he's be over in a minute.

He got there with a hack saw and Maddie started screaming and crying. Then she sniffled and looked at me and said "You gonna cut my head off?" I couldn't help but laugh. I hugged her and told her we were going to cut one of the spindles so we could get her out. So she just closed her eyes and sang with me until Daddy finished.

For the rest of the night she just curled up with me and was so good.

I explained it to the parents when they got home and offered to pay for a replacement spindle and they were cool about it. They just laughed and said it wasn't my fault and said not to worry about it.

I kept baby sitting for them, as they always paid me well, and I never had another problem with Maddie. She loved me after that.

[SnapAddict218]

I had a phyco sitter:

I remember the babysitter that I had when I was younger. She was about 8 blocks from the school we all attended (with her own children). She would pick up her own kids and drive them the 8 blocks back home, however all her babysitting kids had to walk. It's not that far really, and we lived in a small town at a safer time in history, but still in the rain, she'd speed by us in her station wagon while her kids gave us dirty gestures from the car windows.

Some times she'd give us after school snacks, but most often she wouldn't, and her damn kids would flaunt their cookies infront of the rest of us, taunting like. If we tried to take their snacks for ourselves we would be punished. Severley. Just like she'd load EVERYONE in the car from time to time and take us to the Arctic Circle (anyone remember that burger place??!!!) where she would order for her self and her kids. Only. If we were lucky 10 hungry kids ranging between 5 and 11 years old would have to share one kids meal.

She had a TV room that was just big enough for a couch and TV, and how they got the items into the room I still don't know. It was very narrow and did not have windows (it was a very old house, I assume it was a storage area of some sort in the beginning). Any hoo, on rainy or snowy days she would shut her babysitting kids in here to watch TV untill our parents came, all 10-12 of us, with periodic release for bathroom breaks. On decent days we were shut out of the house and penned up in the back yard. There was little grass (which meant more mud) and most of the toys were broken. To be let back into use the bathroom we had to be spotless, which is hard when you are 6 years old and left out in a muddy back yard. The swing set was on a grassy patch, with the swing chains covered in plastic and just generally nice and new. This was for her kids and her kids only. It was fenced off with a little gate and we KNEW better than to go in there for any reason what so ever. If her older kids didn't beat us up (got a black eye from her son) then she'd be giving spankings (at least).

Once her own daughter (13ish) broke the bed frame by jumping on it with her friends. I mean the mattress fell trhough to the floor! The daughter and friends blamed it on me (6ish) and I received a severe whoopin (again, different time, when babysitters could swat you for misbehaving, but this was unacceptable) and was banned from every room in the house but the TV room.

For some reason it never occured to me to tell my parents what Angela's house was like untill much later. She was really mean.

[Lace Neil Singer]

My parents used to make my older brother babysit me and my 2 little brothers for free, so I never had to deal with any bad babysitters. My older brother used to just let us do what we liked, like watch 18 rated movies, just so we'd leave him in peace. It rocked.

[Tigress]

I had a phyco sitter:

I remember the babysitter that I had when I was younger. She was about 8 blocks from the school we all attended (with her own children). She would pick up her own kids and drive them the 8 blocks back home, however all her babysitting kids had to walk. It's not that far really, and we lived in a small town at a safer time in history, but still in the rain, she'd speed by us in her station wagon while her kids gave us dirty gestures from the car windows.

Some times she'd give us after school snacks, but most often she wouldn't, and her damn kids would flaunt their cookies infront of the rest of us, taunting like. If we tried to take their snacks for ourselves we would be punished. Severley. Just like she'd load EVERYONE in the car from time to time and take us to the Arctic Circle (anyone remember that burger place??!!!) where she would order for her self and her kids. Only. If we were lucky 10 hungry kids ranging between 5 and 11 years old would have to share one kids meal.

I went to a day care center like that, too. The owner was a freakin' sociopath. Half the kids were related to her and they got away with almost anything. Those of us not related to her caught her wrath for the smallest things and got bullied by her nieces and nephews.

She kept milk well past its expiration date and served it to us during lunch. She also didn't take the time to cook lunches completely (sometimes her meat dishes were still moving) or store food properly. Then she yelled at the kids if they dared to get sick and throw up on the carpet. I learned very quickly to bring my own lunch to avoid getting sick.

She wouldn't let us flush the toilet after using the bathroom, unless we did number two. So, by the end of the day, the toilets would be filled with urine and wads of toilet paper. It was really gross.

There were a total of two people on the payroll, responsible for 30-40 kids, which was a disaster waiting to happen. So what was the owner's brilliant solution to this dilemma? Enlist the older kids to watch the younger ones! Free employees! I'm sure the labor department and CPS would have had something to say about that.

The aforementioned kids related to the owner knew that they could do no wrong. So they bullied those not related to them. When my brother and I came home with bruises, the owner always had an excuse as to why, usually that we brought the abuse on ourselves. In reality, we were minding our own business when the kids decided to abuse us. The worst incidents were during pool time and the monsters tried to drown us while neither the owner nor her spoiled teenage daughter did anything to stop or punish them.

And to this day, I can't stand to hear a child cry or scream because the owner took it upon herself to physically discipline the kids. When they spilled something, flushed the toilet, got sick, or (in the case of toddlers) wet their pants, the owner would beat the kids. There were quite a few times when the kids would have unexplained stripes on their legs.

Eventually, my mom started working there and saw the abuse and neglect for herself. She quit and pulled us out shortly afterwards, knowing that she could do a better job of watching us herself.

I really hope that hellhole got shut down.

[Jester]

And the above two stories are one of many reasons I won't have kids.

Because if anyone ever did anything like that to any of my kids (hell, if anyone ever did that to any of my nieces or nephews), they would never, ever, ever find any part of that fucker's body.

[Banrion]

When I was a kid my mom found a woman up the street to babysit me and my younger brother after school. This woman was just as bad at the previous horror stories. When we got there after school, she told us to lay down on the couches and face the wall. She didn't let us up for anything. If we had to go to the bathroom, or weren't feeling well, she would just yell and scream at us until we went back to facing the wall then she would tell my dad that at 5 years old, I was still having bathroom problems. She let us get up about when she saw my dad's car pulling up on the street. My dad is not an idiot, so after about 3 months of us running crying to him everyday when he showed up, he decided that is wasn't just the new sitter and decided to try to figure out what the problem really was. He left work early and parked at home, which was within walking distance of the sitter. He walked into the house and the woman had a conniption fit right in front of him. That was the last day we ever had to go there.

As an interesting PS: About 15 years later her son murdered 6 people.

[protege]

My parents used to make my older brother babysit me and my 2 little brothers for free, so I never had to deal with any bad babysitters. My older brother used to just let us do what we liked, like watch 18 rated movies, just so we'd leave him in peace. It rocked.

As someone who had to do that...trust me, it sucked. I was *not* getting paid to babysit my brothers when my parents went out, yet I was expected to clean up after those little annoying shits. My younger brother was a bastard when the parents weren't around--he'd run away, make lots of messes, etc. After a bit of that, I had enough--I told my mother that I was *not* doing it; anything they did, to themselves or the house was *not* my problem. If they wanted quality care for the kiddies, they're going to pay for it

[RecoveringKinkoid]

And the above two stories are one of many reasons I won't have kids.

Because if anyone ever did anything like that to any of my kids (hell, if anyone ever did that to any of my nieces or nephews), they would never, ever, ever find any part of that fucker's body.

You and me both. I'll bring the lime.

You know, something like that DID happen to a teacher at a school where my sister went when she was very small. My sister got so she was afraid to go to school. Turned out, the teacher was being extremely nasty, and in some cases abusive, with some of the kids in her class. She was a really nasty, mean natured bitch of a woman, and most of the kids hated and feared her.

If you hate kids that much, there are other professions. Why choose to teach???

Anyway, I don't remember if the teacher got moved or my sister did. But a couple years later, that teacher ended up murdered in ditch.

I don't know if the murder was ever solved. Maybe she was into stuff she shouldn't have been into. Maybe it was random violence. I don't know. But I can't help but think someone had one too many mornings of Little Johnny crying in fear of being sent to school.

[Jester]

You and me both. I'll bring the lime.

I don't need lime.

As I tell the boys who date my teenage nieces, "I have lots of friends with boats and a whole ocean to work with."

[Lehk]

I don't need lime.

As I tell the boys who date my teenage nieces, "I have lots of friends with boats and a whole ocean to work with."

first day, ask the boy his name, write it in sharpie on a shotgun shell

then place it on a shelf next to a bunch of spent shells

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Lehk, I love you.

That's awesome. I was thinking about when my girl gets dating age, start a rumour that I did time for murder and canibalism.

[Noelegy]

Does anyone else have any adventures in babysitting?

My twin nephews were born when I was 13. During the first summer after they were born and nearly every weekend after, I was available to help my sister-in-law with the care and feeding thereof. After all, my brother and sister-in-law had air conditioning and cable TV, two things I didn't have at my house. I didn't mind babysitting, even though I never got paid in cash (my sister-in-law was an awesome cook and would frequently pay me after one of her grocery-shopping-without-two-small-babies trips by inviting me over for dinner for a shrimp boil or some other yummy delicacy).

When I got to high school, I started having a fledgling social life, and Friday nights were suddenly out because I was in the marching band and had to go to every football game (I still can't follow a football game, though). The summer between my sophomore and junior year, I had my first on-the-books job (nurse's aide at a retirement home), which took 20 hours out of each week, and I started (gasp) dating.

I was asked out by a boy I'd been crushed on since junior high, and I spent a giddy week looking forward to the date. My older brother showed up that Saturday afternoon, literally two or three hours before my date was due to pick me up, and wanted me to babysit. I couldn't, I said; I had a date. "Cancel it," he replied, and when I refused, he got very pissy. My mom surprised me by taking my side: "It's not as though you ever pay her, anyway."

[sportsmom]

That's awesome. I was thinking about when my girl gets dating age, start a rumour that I did time for murder and canibalism.

I'm already trying to figure that one out for myself. Our girls are 12, 8 and 4 and it's starting to get to the time where boys aren't really so icky after all. AAAHHHH! Help me!

[ArenaBoy]

first day, ask the boy his name, write it in sharpie on a shotgun shell

then place it on a shelf next to a bunch of spent shells

Lehk, you are awesome. I own quite a few swords and daggers and will be ready to use them once my sister reaches dating age.

RecoveringKinkoid, you're a member of the SCA if I recall, if you happen to own a sword do this: Make a dummy head and ask for a pic of the boy and then do the same thing with Lehk's idea but keep your sword in direct view.

Jester said: Because if anyone ever did anything like that to any of my kids (hell, if anyone ever did that to any of my nieces or nephews), they would never, ever, ever find any part of that fucker's body.

I am like that with my little sister, we may fight a lot but by god if anyone dares try to harm her or my family for that matter, I will be their worst nightmare.

[Banrion]

As an interesting PS: About 15 years later her son murdered 6 people.

Here's a link to the article:
http://siouxcityjournal.com/articles.../export622.txt