17 nannies and babysitters share the story of the worst kid they ever watched.

Kids can be extra unhinged when their parents are out on a date night and the babysitter is in charge of making Mac and Cheese, reading the bedtime story, and pulling a pound of crushed goldfish out of the youngest's hair because it's 'National Prank Day'...

Picking up a few shifts for the family down the street is one thing, but people who have careers in wrangling unruly kids have enough content to make American Horror Story: The Nannies.

So, when a Reddit user asked, 'Nannies/Babysitters, what is the worst child you've had to care for and why?' people who work in childcare were ready to share the tale of the shift that made them consider calling an exorcist.

1.

I've babysat a lot of nightmare kids in the past, but I can't remember a lot of them now (I think I've blocked out the trauma). There was this one little f**ker who didn't want to go to bed at bedtime.

He was probably 5 or 6 and he told me that if I didn't let him stay up and watch tv he'd tell his parents I beat him and then before I could do anything threw himself down a flight of stairs! Thank god it was a short set of stairs and he wasn't hurt.

He kept threatening me and trying to hurt himself on purpose and I couldn't calm him down so finally I took out my phone and told him I would record him and show his parents. This was like ten years ago and all I had was this old flip phone that didn't even take pictures but he didn't know that and it did the trick and he finally went to bed.

Side note: I'm a seasoned babysitter and what I've experienced is that the parents are a lot worse than the kids. 9 times out of 10 the reason I didn't continue working with a family was because of how awful the parents were - DemelzaR

2.

I nannied a kid who would dig his poop out of the toilet and play with it in the bathroom sink. Psycho mom on a power trip made me clean it up. Quit soon after that. - [deleted]

3.

Right now, I'm a nanny for a family of three kids. 11F, 14M I just drive them around and help with laundry/dishes. The third kid is 18M and I'm not responsible for him, but he's the biggest jacka*s I've ever met.

Hasn't done laundry in a month, doesn't shower, lies constantly, quit college to work and then quit the job. The parents just enable all of his bad behavior and the younger kids always say they don't want to be like him. - PekingSaint

4.

I babysat these two WILD terror boys that lived across the street when I was young, maybe 14. They were never disciplined and incredibly hyper and violent. The youngest one, maybe 4 at the time, swiped a pencil from a drawer and stabbed me in the forehead above my eye with it HARD.

The lead broke off under the skin and I couldn’t get it out. It ended up getting infected and becoming extremely painful. I ended up having to have surgery and still have a scar from it. The kids parents paid the medical bills but never apologized. She just basically said that boys will be boys. They were awful people. - rachfitz

5.

I was babysitting these demon siblings. It was when I first started babysitting. They were 8/9ish, boy and girl, generally bratty but I thought I could handle them. We were playing a game of hide and seek in the house. I was hiding in a tiny closet and the kids locked me in there.

I yelled, screamed, begged all they did was giggle. I was locked in there for 3 hours before their parents came home and let me out. By that time I was crying and had peed myself, not my proudest moment. I quit on the spot. To this day I still won’t babysit or nanny older children. Generally once they’re potty trained or start school I’m out. - [deleted]

6.

I was reading to a 6yr old on the couch when his twin brother came running past to the kitchen. Twin then came running back the opposite way with a knife in his hand. I jumped up and ran after him as he tackled another kid on the trampoline and tried to stab him. I didn’t babysit at that house much longer. - breauxsb4hoes

7.

They decided they didn't like me, so they locked me out of their room and all three of them climbed out on the roof with the cordless phone. Then they called their grandmother who came over and scolded me. - witchwithflyinghead

8.

I was playing hide-and-seek with the three kids I was babysitting (they were 3, 6, and 9) and I was seeking. Well, I found the oldest and the youngest but couldn’t find the middle child. After thirty minutes of searching (the house wasn’t that big), I just wanted to die.

I couldn’t believe I actually lost a child; it was like a bad movie. So I called the parents, ready to have the worst from them on account of losing their child. I told them what happened while I’m scared sh*tless, and they laughed and said “did you specify the boundaries?”

The WHAT. Turns out the smart ass middle child hid in a bush in their neighbors front yard (a place that she had hidden in before, which is how the parents new about it) because I didn’t SPECIFY the damn BOUNDARIES of hide-and-seek. Even though the parents weren’t mad, I still have nightmares about that.- mai_life

9.

Not paid, but I was babysitting my brother while my parents went to Miami to get my mom her passport. This was around the time my little brother got pills for a.d.d and he was having the worst time swallowing one pill by itself and water...

Cue it gets around 8 pm and my brother comes down and says I practiced swallowing my pills! he was super proud and I was terrified. I thought he swallowed the whole bottle or enough to be overdosed. Call my mom up and she's like okay get him water and try to get him to throw it up. He probably thought I was crazy for what I tried to get him to do. I learned later he was practicing with candy, specifically skittles. Just that gut wrenching moment was terrifying to me - crazyrandomnerd

10.

I was babysitting my niece a couple of years ago (she's six now, so she would have been three then). I put her to bed, read her a story, gave her a cuddle, then went down to watch a movie and ended up falling asleep on the couch in the living room.

I don't know how much later it was, but I woke up to something grabbing my ankle. My eyes shot open, I freaked the f*ck out, and I shook my leg as hard as I could. Bad idea.

She'd managed to unfasten her door, climb over two different baby gates and get down the stairs without doing herself an injury, all to ask me if I could read her another story. We don't tell her mother about the time I almost dropkicked her daughter across the living room. - Portarossa

11.

I babysat this family of 4. The oldest girl had Down syndrome and was the sweetest, most well-behaved little girl I had ever babysat. Her little douche bag brother excluded her on all the games we played.

She would just sit up in her room and Id try to get her to come play but she would say her brother wanted her to stay upstairs. I would look at his brother with such contempt. I always imagined him growing up to be such a tool. I really hope he ended up accepting his sister in the end. - [deleted]

12.

I once nannied ( summer gig) for a family with 3 kids. Spoiled F*ckin brats (Hong Kong expats). One who didn't like the batter on his chicken nuggets, so the helper peeled them. Another didn't like the crispy bits on the eggo waffles, so they were cut off. I flat out refused to do that saying, just don't eat that bit. (Plus, the crispy bits are the best bits) He told his parents and I got told off. Terrible job! - Whoneedsyou

13.

A boy and a girl with death wishes. The girl made a bomb by putting cut open fireworks in a Pringles can and placing it into an old microwave they threw away. The fireball was large and the door came off and hit her in the arm requiring 7 stitches.

He called the mom and she wasn't phased and told him to just call the family doctor number on the fridge. while in the waiting room the boy ran outside and tried to play in traffic. No sh*t the kid booked it into traffic to see if he can beat the traffic cross count down. He did by forfeit on the part of the truck. - suitology

14.

I was nanny for a year. I should have see the red flag when I was the 5th nanny for a 2 1/2 year old girl... Doesn't say much about how long they stayed. Honestly, it wasn't the child's fault. She has two parents that had kids as accessories or because all their friends had kids.

I had to keep a log of the devil child's activities. How many tortellini she ate, how many mins of tv time or outside time she had. How many ounces of milk the baby boy had, when I changed his diaper, what was in his diaper...you get the hint. The mom wanted to feel involved without actually being involved.

I wasn't allowed to the use the word 'no' because it was too negative. I wasn't suppose to use negative phrasing such as 'don't throw that on the floor,' instead I was instructed to say 'leave that on the table.'

I couldn't send the child to her room because it was suppose to be a happy place. I had to place her in Timeout, but of course what 2 1/2 year old sits in time out. So I had to sit in time out too. Lots of fun when you have a 6 month old too.

The parents refused to go anywhere and do anything if they both weren't available, but I got to do the groceries with both kids in tow. I had to do 'mommy and me' gymnastics with the little girl with the baby strapped to me in a carrier.

I left the job the day the father was working from home, came downstairs, dropped his towel and asked me if I wanted to mess around while the kids were napping. I noped myself right out of there. - Annami316

15.

I babysat for some neighbors when I lived in New Mexico. Very rich lawyers with a boy (about 8 years old, named Tyler, as in Tyler Durden, should've been a sign...), and a girl (about 5 years old).

Before the parents even left, the little girl was on the monkey bars in the backyard, and whipped her panties off to pee in the breeze. After the parents left, the boy let his creepy psycho self go full steam. He still peed the bed, so he was under orders to wear diapers. Refused to put them on.

Refused to brush his teeth. Wanted another bedtime book, and another, and another, and another.....oh wait, he wants the book from daddy's shelf, with the topless girls in it....no, he doesn't want tap water, he wants the special filtered water, he can totally taste the difference.

I figured out why the parents built their master suite 100+ ft from the children's rooms. Found out later Tyler claimed I beat him or some nonsense like that because I made him brush his teeth. Never again. - thangle

16.

I was babysitting a 4 year old girl. She went to the bathroom and insisted that she didn't need any help. A few minutes later, I went in to check on her and she had put her poop in the bathroom sink. Nope. Never babysat again. - Mryder91

17.

Once I babysat my sister when she was about 10. I told her she couldn't go on a walk by herself and she got a knife out and threatened to stab me. She had it pointed at me and I talked her out of it by saying things like, 'do you think mom's going to love you if you kill me?

She's not even going to visit you in jail!' She started crying at the thought of not seeing mom and put the knife back in the kitchen. Never babysat again. - [deleted]