There’s one unique body part found only in newborn parents, and both moms and dads know that's "mom's gut." If "mom’s gut" is telling you there’s something not quite right with your precious baby after a day spent with the nanny, it ain't lying. And you'd better have that baby cam up and working in no time.
When one Reddit user asked parents with nanny cams what they have caught their babysitters doing, the thread started flooding with teeth-clenching stories. 41K upvotes later, it became obvious that there’s never too much you can do to make sure your baby is in the right hands.
We invite all the Pandas to share their own nanny cam discoveries, whatever they may be, in our comments! Plus, read Bored Panda's interview with Carly Glendinning, the editor of Absolutely Mama magazine for modern moms, about the role baby monitors play in parenting.
#1
My grandpa was staying with my parents but they figured it best to hire the regular sitter to watch my younger siblings overnight since they didn’t think my grandpa was up to the task and they were attending a wedding a couple hours away and made plans to spend the night in a hotel nearby. They had set up a nanny cam in a couple room, my siblings bedroom, the master bedroom, living room and kitchen. All motion activated. They normally wouldn’t bother looking through the footage if everything seemed fine upon returning home and their master bedroom cam had never been triggered before. When they returned they noticed that the cam in the master bedroom had been triggered so they decide to take a look, cut to footage of my grandpa and the sitter both naked aggressively making out from the entrance of the room staggering while intertwined towards the bed and then about 20 minutes of banging on my parents bed. The sitter was about 20 years old and my grandpa was around 70 at the time. My dad called me immediately after he saw the footage laughing his ass off, and I could hear my mom crying in the background completely mortified from what she had just witnessed and shouting at my dad to throw out the sheets and kick out grandpa. My mom called the sitter to confront her and she just apologized and said there was “connection” or some sh*t to that matter, when she ask my grandpa what he was thinking he just said “At my age you must seize every opportunity.” I wish there was audio for the build up, I lay awake at night sometimes just wondering what kind of game my grandpa was talking to get in that sitters pants.
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136points
#2
A little late to the party but here goes.... My mom suspected our maid of stealing the silverware. And she's just f**king nosy. Anyway, the maid was indeed stealing the silverware. I think that ended up being overshadowed by my dad f**king her, though.
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102points
#3
I bought one to keep an eye on the cats when we drove to see the eclipse and visit my fam a couple years ago. My one cat figured it out and would sit there having random conversations with me, rubbing his face on it.
It really entertained my family. Got a ping during the eclipse, seems he was seriously concerned about the planet. I could see my ancient cat running laps in the background while Smart Cat was giving me a rundown. The third cat was mysteriously absent.
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97points
Bored Panda talked to Carly, the editor of Absolutely Mama magazine, about the importance of baby monitors. According to her, it’s really up to the individual parent to decide whether their family needs a baby cam. However, she noted that “we’re seeing a trend for the next generation of baby monitors.” Carly explained that these new-generation monitors “don’t just enable you to see and hear your baby, but also allow you to record sleep data, monitor heart rate and breathing, and even enable you to speak to your baby to let them know you are coming.”
#4
Friend caught hers rummaging through her closet and stealing a blouse. She confronted her about it when she returned home, and the woman played innocent.
She was wearing the f**king blouse.
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96points
#5
This isn´t something that I caught a babysitter doing but I remember that I once saw on TV the case of some parents that went with her baby to the doctor because she cried a lot for apparently no reason. The doctor told them that she looked really stressed and asked them if they were doing something that could make her act like that. They didn´t. Then the doctor and the parents noticed some really tiny dots in the girl´s belly and they had no idea where they came from. The babysitter told them that she had no idea but they didn´t believe her and secretly put cameras to spy what she was doing.
Turns out that she was crazy. She was stabbing the baby with a needle from time to time and doing things like shaking her cradle incredibly hard to torment her. Of course, they called the police, confronted her and she got arrested
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89points
#6
Wish I had a nanny cam! My step sister was watching my brother with disabilities for me. She would dump out the contents of his capsules meds and use them later.
Didn't find out about it till he stared having seizures constantly and ended up in the hospital for the second time.
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87points
Most parents install a baby monitor once their baby is sleeping on their own, but Carly believes it’s never too late to do so. “There really isn’t a right or wrong time to do this, though. If you didn’t install one to begin with, but later on feel that it will give you peace of mind, then it’s not too late to get one.”
However, spying on a babysitter with the hidden camera is not a clever solution. “If you feel the need to ‘spy’ on your babysitter, then you probably need to rethink who you’re leaving your child with.” However, some new parents don’t have trusted friends or family close by to rely on. The Absolutely Mama editor assures readers that there’s always a way to go about it. “There are apps such as Bubble, where you can find a sitter who has been background checked and is recommended by other parents.”
#7
I pay my neighbor to feed the stray cats in my garden when I'm away for days at a time, and the camera caught my neighbor trying to come in by pole (bamboo) vaulting one time. He nailed it, amazingly.
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85points
#8
I was the babysitter who was caught. It actually wasn't a nanny cam but a security cam pointed to their back door. They caught me walking outside to smoke a bowl of their weed while the baby was down for a nap. Not my proudest moment but we're friends and they didn't give a damn about the weed. They just thought it was hilarious when I started talking to the dog about how great the weather was.
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84points
#9
Well a case which happened near where I live, woman used to work, husband out of country. Had a 2 year old kid. They hired a nanny to look after him during daytime. Day by day kid started looking malnourished. So she set up a spy cam.
Apparently the lady used to bring her kid and feed him all the food left for the kid she was supposed to babysit. Then she would feed the kid cheap biscuits. She was promptly handed over to police.
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78points
If you notice at any point that your nanny is behaving questionably, “it’s always best to talk through any worries with your nanny and explain why you might be uncomfortable with certain behavior.” In order to build a trusted relationship with your babysitter, “set out some ground rules and guidelines from the outset.”
In the end, you should trust the person who takes care of your baby, and a nanny cam might not be an excellent tool to make sure of it.
#11
We have a nest in our kids room and living/dining. You can see partially into the kitchen from the living room cam but not much. About the second week into using a new sitter we catch her talking tons of sh*t about my wife and how she coddles our 18 mo old son. Bragged about how she was going to quit at the end of the day because she hates working for us and doesn’t like our son. While she’s in the kitchen she puts him in his high chair and turns on an iPad for him to watch Elmo(no screen time allowed). He asks to get down and go play after a few minutes and she says no, he starts to cry and she basically yells at him “OMG are you serious right now?! Your so damn needy.” So he cry’s harder, about 10 minutes later she takes him back to his room where he calms down. I get home a few minutes later and send her on the way. Sitter: “Ohhh your home early, we had a rough morning but we are feeling better now” Me: “Yeah, hey you know that camera in the living room is on all the time and I can hear everything you say and do in the kitchen right?” She kinda stuttered and I told her to gtfo. Then me and my kid hung out all day and had a blast. The thing that got me was being mean to my son, like he’s not even 2 yet.
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75points
#12
Not a Nanny Cam because this happened in the 90s and I don’t think we had them in Scotland then but my mum came home early one day because she had become suspicious of our nanny as my sister and I never slept after a day with her. She found both my sister and I in bed in the middle of the day. Turned out my nanny had been dozing us up with child medicine to make us sleep all day so she could sit and do nothing.
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75points
#13
i’ve been a pretty regular weekend nanny for an amazing family for four years now. they’ve cycled through a couple different weekday nannies since i’ve been with them. there is only one monitor and it’s in the little dude’s room. once the mom showed me on the camera why they let one go. little dude said “mommy said i don’t have to do that.” and the nanny snapped back “well it doesn’t matter, mommy is a b*tch.” and then dragged the kid out of the room by his shirt. super fired.
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72points
#14
Not me but my aunts friend set up a nanny cam because she noticed that every time she changed her child’s diaper the child would start crying a lot more than usual. Turns out when they watched the nanny change her diaper, she would use Clorox wipes if they were nearby instead of grabbing the baby wipes.
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67points
#15
This was my (equivalent of) pre-k. All the kids were regressing in their movement ability and getting really fat so they set up spy equipment. Turns out one carer was doubling every baby’s food portions and forcefully overfeeding them.
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67points
#16
Chasing my cats around with a broom, hitting them. (She’s since been fired.)
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64points
#17
Not a parent.
Caught my little sister's babysitter catching a good hour long nap at 2 PM while my 1 year old sister was up having the time of her life destroying my playstation.
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61points
#18
Used knife to cut apples, licked knife clean, put back in drawer without washing. Yup. Wtf
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60points
#19
My aunt has a nanny cam and found my older cousin's babysitter playing blackjack with him......she lost $50 lol
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59points
#20
The family I nanny for told me that their previous nanny got caught doing LOADS of awful things. The couple that outraged me most were 1) leaving their 3 year old daughter in the tub with water up to her chest for TWO HOURS everyday while she sat in another room unable to see said child. And 2) once she went to run an errand with the same kid, and their doorbell camera caught her putting kid in car seat, not buckling her, and peeling off. The mom said you could see toddler trying to buckled herself in before they took off >:(
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57points