30 Babysitters Spill The Tea About The Weirdest Rules They Had To Follow

The world of babysitting is utterly captivating. I’ve been down this particular rabbit hole more than a handful of times, speaking to babysitters and industry professionals about their experiences taking care of other people’s children. Bizarre rules often spring up from the fact that each and every parent believes that they (and they alone!) know what’s best for their child.

There’s nothing wrong with that, however, it can make it difficult to look at things objectively from time to time. Your child might be the center of your universe, but that doesn’t mean that the 101 rules you’ve got in place for nannies are solid—they might scare away potentially great babysitters, instead.

Babysitting can be very lucrative if you’ve got the right skills and work with the right clients. Professional babysitter and redditor, Nannyponyo, told Bored Panda earlier how she once worked a job where she got a whopping 700 dollars per week. The clients also provided room and board and compensated for the use of her car during work hours.

“I think the most unreasonable demands are absurd restrictions for no reason. I have worked with several special needs kids or kids with special circumstances (severe allergies, anxiety, etc.), and some truly need healthy restrictions, but I’ve met with many families who expect a 45+ hour work week and the caregiver is not allowed to leave the home with the child,” the nanny shared with Bored Panda the range of parents that nannies can expect to work with during their careers.

According to redditor Nannyponyo, parents who don’t let their kids leave the house and, well, play and act like kids are doing them plenty of harm. “They’re destroying any chance for their child to grow and develop socially and often motor skills are delayed because they’re afraid to let their child out of the house to run and climb and play the way they should,” she said.

“I think they believe that it’s their child that they are raising the way they want to (which I do agree with, to an extent) and all rules should be blindly followed. But some nannies (like myself) have been in the field for many years and can offer valuable insight and advice, which they are rarely willing to take because parenting is so personal,” the babysitter explained that some parents are unwilling to listen to professional advice, no matter how good it might be.

“That’s the same reason I believe they often don’t want to offer adequate compensation: it’s personal. They’re (most likely, in my experience) paying you under the table, they’re trying to get a good deal, and they love their child. They don’t think that looking after their ‘precious angel’ is a job; it’s a treat. They would love to be home with their child all day, so I think they feel like it’s not a real job. It’s something you get to do, and they’re mad they have to pay someone to do it.”

Redditor Nannyponyo said that parents love their children and would be willing to do anything for them. “There’s a connection there that someone else could never have, and they can’t imagine not having that connection, so they treat it like it’s not a job, it’s a privilege. The ‘you’re so lucky you get to stay home with my baby while I have to go to work’ mindset, when in reality we leave our families to take care of yours; we don’t want to leave our families in the morning for work any more than you do, but it’s our job.”