I was 13 maybe?!? 1961?!? I was asked to babysit by neighbours with a very small baby not exactly newborn but a few months old. As soon as the parents left Baby started to cry. I picked him up and started to walk him and croon some little lullaby. Baby stopped crying. I stopped walking. Baby started crying. I ended up walking and singing for the whole night. I soon ran out of lullabies and children’s songs do it was mostly hymn and Christmas carols. I’m an Italian Catholic. The baby was Jewish.

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Bertha Madott

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That's not crazy, it's beautiful! So sweet.

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a coworker of my now ex husband had asked if we could watch their 6 month old son so he could take his wife out to dinner. no problem. so we go over to their place and the baby was napping when they left. after the babe woke up he needed a diaper change so proceeded to do that. while i was wiping his down i lifted his legs up to powder him as well and saw these horrible scarlet scars around his r****m. now, being in law enforcement who worked with family issues i realized that these looked like scarring that happens with abuse. i called my hubby in to look and both of us were in shock. so, the evening goes on and eventually they come back. by this time, the babe is down for the night. we asked how their evening went and they were both very happy. finally, i bring up the scars around the boy's r****m as calmly as possible. the look on their faces were indescribable because they knew what i was thinking. then, the wife starts apologizing for not telling us about it before they left. their son had been born without a r****m - seriously! apparently, the baby had developed a complete digestive tract with the exception that there was no a**s as it was totally sealed. this obviously had to be surgically created, hence, the scars. i felt so embarrassed for jumping to the conclusion that is was evidence of abuse. thankfully, they understood how it could have been misinterpreted and apologized for not mentioning it as it was something that was just the 'norm' to them.

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talliloo

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Ziggyc

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Good that you were looking out for the baby !

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I used to babysit for a family who lived in an old Victorian farmhouse located on a hill at the edge of town. They had an infant boy and a 2-year old girl who were put to bed by 8 o'clock so it gave me a lot of time to do my homework. They usually left me a soda and snack, so I'd settle down at the kitchen table and study.

One night the wind was blowing and would come in gusts that sounded like something big hitting the side of the house. I checked the babies several times because the wind made me nervous.

I'd just settled back at the table after coming down from upstairs when I realized that there were unusual sounds coming from the basement---squeeks and rustling and even thumps. I had never heard the noises when I had been there before and it worried me. I reluctantly decided I needed to look downstairs but the basement door was locked. The gusts of wind seemed to increase the sounds coming from below. I pushed the living-room sofa in front of the basement door to block it.

When the parents returned, they found me and both children barracaded in the master bedroom--I had pushed a heavy dresser in front of the door and hidden in their closet with a baby in each arm. I was prepared to protect them with my life.

Turns out, the father had decided to breed chinchillas for their fur and had several dozen cages on racks in the basement. The noises I'd heard were from the exercise wheels inside the cages and the chinchillas moving around.

[I should note that this was a long time before wearing animal fur coats became so controversial]

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Sara MacFarland

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David

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Nobody should leave you in a house with other entities without telling you. human or animal. Your story is a good reason why.

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Not a crazy story, but my most memorable. When I was 10 or 11 in the 70s, I would babysit my next door neighbors toddler. After putting him to bed, me and a friend across the street sat on the front stoop. I had the front door open and the screen door shut. Friend went in to use the bathroom and closed the front door on the way out, which was in the lock position. We were locked out. Tried for the longest time to bang on the child’s window to wake him up and let us in. Not happening. He slept like a log.

Ended up getting my older sister and her friend to help find a way in. No success there either. They ended up breaking a window to the side door, cleaned up and taped cardboard to it. Walked outside with the mom (I was a little intimidated by the dad) and was in tears telling her what happened and tried to refuse payment so it could go towards the window repair. She insisted on me taking the money then went home to tell her husband. My bedroom was on the second floor facing the street and she came back and threw pebbles at my window until I opened it. She just wanted to reassure me that her husband wasn’t mad. Such a sweet lady.

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Pandapoo

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Not exactly babysitting, but a childcare course. We had all been given the baby dolls to take care of for a week, and I kid you not, someone got in trouble because they gave it some medicine to keep it quiet, and it broke the doll. Needless to say, they did not pass.

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QueerAxolotls

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1 year ago

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I hope they don't have any real kids

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I was the go to babysitter for friends and family for years. So, when my only bio kid was 10 mos old, and I was breastfeeding, I had agreed to watch my friend's daughter (4 mos) for the day in advance. But that week another friend had an emergency and needed a safe place for her three kids, two in elementary and one 9 mos for a few weeks, so I agreed.
The older kids were sweet and always well behaved, and I was only going to have the four month old for a few hours.
Part of the reason I was go to for parents with babies was that I was perfect willing to nurse kids not my own. Meaning they didn't have to pump. We were a close knit community, and I wound up caring for and nursing a bunch of babies while I was nursing my son.
Anyway, there I am, five kids, three of them under a year old, when all three decide they want to nurse at once. I only had two boobs, so ... Yeah, it was like an hour of them setting each other off crying and total chaos until some of my housemates came home and helped out.

My second story is when I was a kid, 11 or so, I was the number one sitter in my neighborhood, even for special needs kids and babies, I'd spent my years caring for foster babies with my grandma and I had a baby brother I helped with, so sometimes I had more experience than brand new parents and taught them tricks and stuff they didn't know. But my parents, who happily vouched for me, refused to let me sit for them with my brother, which was a point of contention for us, and was mostly because my step father wanted to prevent me from bonding with the baby. (I wasn't even allowed to help when he was home). Anyway, I was out playing, came home, and they were just gone, they hadn't told me they'd be going anywhere. But my baby brother had a babysitter, this older girl (like 12/13) from my church my gay little heart had the biggest crush on her. My brother slept the whole time and she and I watch R rated movies and did some very PG but exciting for me experimenting on the couch.
My parents were suspicious when I suddenly fully supported her as a babysitter instead of me, and it never happened again. When my sister was born a couple years later they hired a real nanny and I basically moved out. Again, jokes on them, I would have happily done for free what they paid 20/hr for. They have regrets now but idgaf.

Bonded with my brother anyway. He's currently 25 and visiting me for a month. :)

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Ray Arani

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Ray Arani (Submission author)

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Also rn I'm realizing my 11 year old self had so much more game than my current 36 year old self.

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Not exactly babysitting, just making sure my 2yo counsin wouldn't get hurt while playing. I was about 10.

There was one of this indoor playgrounds inside a restaurant and she decided to play there. Naturally I went together, so I could pay attention to her. Anyways, I looked the other way for literally 1 second and the kid ended up falling 4 levels down those stairs/platforms to climb, and landing on the base with a extremely loud bang.

I never felt more nervous in my life, ran as fast as I could down that thing to check on her, only to find her laughing like crazy

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Take me to dinner first

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David

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Never tell a young child they are hurt unless it is an obvious wound. Many times they are just fine unless someone tells them they are not.

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Was babysitting for my carpools family. She wanted to go outside to see their bloodhound so we did… the. Got locked out of the house. She had to go to the bathroom really bad so I asked her which neighbors did she know the name of so we went there for her to pee. Then I called my mom who came over with my dad to try and help. The blood hound then got out and tackled my mother into the mud, might I add. So my mom keeps an eye on the five year old while my dad and I try to catch this behemoth of a hunter. We eventually get him back in their yard and leave a note for the families saying what happened and took her to my house where she then proceeded to have a very fun time. I was never asked to baby sit ever again

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Allison Peck

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I was about 12, and was sitting three kids (10, 8, 3) they were super chill so it was easy money. But they loved to play this game they called “Jurassic Park” where we each put a dog treat in our pockets and ran away from their crazy dog. Fun times.

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DustTea (she/her)

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David

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LOL That's great actually. We played a similar game but without the dog biscuits. One friend had a big dog that would chase us. Two trees in yard. We would jump down from one tree and run to the other tree before the dog got us. Except - I'm not honestly sure that dog would not have hurt us so we didn't do it too often. As an adult (and as a teen) I have no fear of dogs or animals in general. But at the time I think were were about 7.

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I was taking care of my infant cousin. My aunt said, if he gets really fussy, there's whiskey on the kitchen counter, and went on her way. He got REAL fussy after a few hours, so I put a little whiskey in his empty baby bottle and gave it to him. He was fast asleep within 10 minutes, so I put him in the crib and got in bed (in the same room). When my aunt got home and checked in with us, I exuberantly told her what I did when he got fussy, and she about had a heart attack - she then told me I was only supposed to rub some on his gums! Nevertheless, he was fine.

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Melanie Frey

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Emie N.

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She should have been more specific. It was wrong of her to assume everyone would know what that means.

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This was approximately '98 so I was about 16. There was a family that I used to babysit for on a fairly regular basis (once or twice a month) they had 2 well behaved kids about 5 & 7; they didn't pay well, but at 16 $15 was better than $0. One evening I went to watch the kids while they were going out to dinner with friends. The friends brought over their 9yr old daughter to be watched as well. (They had done that once before & the girl had been a total brat). Anyway they told me where they'd be & that there were kid cuisines in the freezer for the kids. The brat said she wanted a particular one, I said no because the one of the kids I normally watched had specifically pick out that one for himself at the store earlier that day. The brat completely lost it having a screaming kicking stomping tantrum like a toddler. She then ran out the door down the road towards the creek in the area. I called her name to no avail, I called the parents cell phone (they were techy so the had a cell) they didn't answer, I called the restaurant they said they'd be at, couldn't reach them. Finally in desperation I called the police non-emergency number to see if they could locate the girl. Finally there was a knock on the door about 15min later some upper middle aged women had come across the girl (stranger) and brought her back to the house. The woman than proceeded to lecture me about refusing to give her the supper she wanted. When the woman left I called the police to say the girl had returned. A little while later the parents returned I told them everything that had happened. I think I got $18 for the evening, I know it wasn't $20. Never babysat for them again.

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The Redhead

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I was 13 or 14, early 90s. Babysat for a little girl who had been adopted by a very nice, but older couple who had previously tried for years to have children unsuccessfully. Understandably, they were kind of helicopter parents before that was a thing. Well, I discovered that the girl, Ruthie, had never been allowed to play in mud with her bare feet (she was 4 or 5, I think.) A perfect mud puddle in the driveway after a recent rain (no rocks or surprises inside) + almost bathtime + we would be sure to clean up... She loved it! And we hosed off her feet before heading in for a bath. She was so excited she was running inside & RIGHT after I called out to be careful *slip *SLAP her wet feet failed & she slid into the corner of a wall and split open her forehead to the point where I could see skull. Thank goodness that my mom lived close & there was a pediatrician friend a few doors down because I had a really hard time finding her parents even though I had the # where they were (pre-cell era.) I think the grand total was 12 internal stitches and 7 external stitches. Most importantly, Ruthie was a PRO. She maintained pressure on her own head while I was calling for help and just once, tearfully, said "I want my mommy." No theatrics at all. The parents were very nice and forgiving, but I was not asked to babysit there again...

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over it already

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Oops but still fun

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I was probably 14-15 and babysat for these 2 adorable little girls. It was just a normal family. The mom was super sweet, the dad was super nice too. They lived in a nice home and were just...normal. I was putting the girls to bed one night and had to use the bathroom so I just used the parents bathroom off their bedroom. Sitting on the toilet tank was a stack of the raunchiest porn I had ever seen. It put Playboy and Penthouse to shame this was way back in the late 70s so it was tame compared to today).

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distant_echo

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Mrs.Malfoy

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EXPOSED

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As a 14 year old, I was asked to "babysit" my dad's new coworker's 2 children during the day for 3 straight day. This family had moved to the town where we lived maybe two months prior but I'd not met them before. I arrive at their house and I get some general instructions about where things were located and they left me some cash to walk the kids down the street to a small community diner type of restaurant to buy them hotdogs for lunch. It turns out there was practically no food in the house. I opened the refrigerator and there was a jar of cocktail olives, a few condiments, a bottle of wine, and some water crackers and nothing else - no fresh fruit or vegetables. In the cabinets, I found nothing at all - no staples, no snacks, no canned goods - nothing. I have no idea what these people ate. In my experience children want and need snacks. There was nothing for them to eat other than the hot dogs we ate at the small diner down the street. When they were thirsty, I gave them water, which is fine but there was nothing else to drink in the house except for the bottle of wine. It's been over 45 years ago, and I still think about how odd the experience was for me.

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Robin Roper

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Pandapoo

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You should have hit the wine and when they noticed said “there was nothing else to drink!”. Kidding.

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I went to babysit for a family that had 9 year old twin girls. When I arrived, the girls were on the porch, openly sharing a cigarette. I was alarmed. The girls explained, in their froggy little voices, that they got two cigarettes a day, but "they had to share them." I went to find their mother inside, and one of the twins yells "We did acid yesterday" the other one echoed "yea we did acid yesterday" it was like something out of a bad Appalachian cartoon

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GrowingThruConcrete

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Julia H

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Sounds like the twins who gave my daughter lice on purpose. The slept head to head so they'd get on her scalp. Their mom knew and did and said nothing

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So here's mine I'm 11(f) and this wasn't really me babysitting but it was funny. I was about five at the time and my nephew was two. So one day the adults are talking and I'm watching cartoons and we hear BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM so we go to see what it is. This baby (my nephew) was crawling up the stairs. My Mom called his name, big mistake! As soon as he turned his head and saw us he started crawling at top speed. We did eventualy catch him but, it did happen 3 - 4 more times. Idk what the adults were thinking but to me one of the funest days of my life, LOL!

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Nissia Washington

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Ray Arani

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My brother did this constantly at six months old, it was adorable because he couldn't crawl on a flat surface, but he was Speed Racer on the stairs.

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my brothers' football coach asked me to babysit 2 kids, ages 7 and 8. They asked me to get something from a closet and they locked the door behind me. I think the parents had a lock on the closet because of these kids! I was in there about 20 minutes

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Jen Mart

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Julia H

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Sweet kids

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The kid managed to get his balloon stuck in a tree. I offered to buy him another one, but he cried and cried and wanted exactly the balloon and made me climb the tree to get it, or he would call his mom and say I was bullying him. As another dumb kid, I was like, sure, just climb! And then I fell from a tree the fourth time in my life and promptly broke my arm

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HelluvaHedgehogAlien

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David

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OUCH! I don't do threats. Two girls I was babysitting were having some cereal. One dumps like a 1/4 cup of sugar on her cereal so I took the sugar away. She got all mad. I"M GOING TO TELL MY MOM! That's fine. I'm going to tell her too! LOL

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Wasn’t me babysitting, but when I was a younger my little sister (3 or 4 at the time) locked herself in my parents’ bedroom and we didn’t have a key. The babysitter had to call the police to get her out

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ace pirates (she/they)

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Mrs.Malfoy

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WELP

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Not technically baby sitting but at church I help watching the kids during service. But a 5 year old kid asked me, a 13 year old if I was pregnant. I sweetly replied "No, I'm 13 and too young."

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Skyler_They/Them

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David

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SADLY you were not. I've met a 13 year old who was near the end of her pregnancy. She was 12 when she got pregnant. But I agree you shouldn't have been. When he was young I had a nephew asking me about my baby. He had recently learned where babies come from. Except I'm a male. I was just middle aged and getting a gut. Humbling to say I'm not pregnant I'm just fat.

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I was about 12 and me and a friend were hired to babysit a neighbour's little boy, about 2. This kid was out of control, running around, ran outside butt naked, ran upstairs and locked himself in his room. His damn mom had her phone in her bedroom. The boy was shouting and screaming so much, instead of coming over to help, my mom came over to berate us over the noise and not being able to control the kid. We just left him in the room and hung out downstairs in the living room.
You could read all the Babysitter's Club books in the entire series and still be unprepared for babysitting a wild kid.

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I was 15 or 16 and my boss asked me to babysit his kids so he and his wife could go to a party. Sounded fine - little daughter Shannon was around 5 and baby brother less than a year. Mom went over things before they left and said multiple times “Do not wake the baby. You will never get him back to sleep”. As soon as the parents drove away, Shannon ran straight to the baby’s room screaming to wake him up. Lovely. He had very healthy lungs and cried and screamed almost non stop all night. Shannon demanded that I let her ride on my back like I was her horse. When I said we had played horsey long enough, she got her dads belt and popped me with it like a jockey would use a riding crop on a horse. After I got the belt away from her, and resisted the urge to wrap it snuggly around her neck, I hid it and told her we needed to calm down a bit and play nice. Baby is shrieking through all of this. While preparing baby’s bottle, Shannon vanished. I couldn’t find her and was getting a little frantic. Then she screamed “Up here!” She had gone up to the second floor and was leaning over a railing that looked down on the den. I urged her to not lean on that railing, that it was dangerous. She replied that she was going to jump and there was an evil sounding laugh. I was terrified, not knowing if I should stay downstairs to try to catch her or go upstairs to try to grab her. I started up the stairs just about the time she jumped. I ran back down to see that she landed on the sofa below and was fine. She thought it was the funniest thing ever to terrify me that way. I began to believe that this child truly was the spawn of satan.
The parents were supposed to be home by 11:00 and my parents knew I’d be home by 11:30. (This was in the late 1970s and there were only house phones) I called my parents to let them know I was still stuck in babysitting hell with the spawn of satan wielding a belt and a screeching infant because the parents still hadn’t come home. The kids were exhausted but wouldn’t go to sleep for anything. I got them close once, but then Shannon bolted out of bed and began racing all around the house and yes - jumped from balcony to sofa below again.
Finally, the parents came home at 1:00. They were both drunk and the wife was dripping wet and wrapped up in a beach towel - it was obvious she was naked under the towel. They seemed to be having a big fuss. I got out of there so fast I may have accidentally left skid marks.
He asked me a couple of times after that to babysit. It took every shred of restraint and trying to act professional to say “No” in firm but kind way without laughing in his face. That was forty plus years ago. I wonder what happened to little Shanon.

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Beatrice Fairchild

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Nothing good.

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if the parents are ersoles i give the kids a snack 15 mins before the parents get back. the snack is lots of candy and cocacola. never been asked twice

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les

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David

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Or you could take the high road and not do c**p like that and just say no the next time they ask you.

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She babysat me well it was her first day with us and she was chill played games then we went into the yard made bracelets I brought my friend over and we started to sell them to the neighborhood just kid stuff well then some other girl my age gave us money for some of the bracelets well she took it from her mom which we didn’t care about well we moved on later that day this girl came up to us and started saying she helped so she wanted some of the money well we refused so she grabbed like 20 dollars then brought another kid who came out of no where and started to give her some well we were confused but we were like whatever man we can’t get it back so then I got home and I was watching liv and maddie when someone banged on the door my babysitter answered it and she was like h- then this lady shoved my babysitter ran to the living room and started screaming at me well it was girl who stole from us’s mom and she not only barged in but picked up the remote turned off my show then screamed at my like 9 year old self for making her daughter cry and I was like bro what then my babysitter screamed at her to leave and I saw the girl crying and I was like whatever and kept watching the show and the babysitter was confused but determined she made us hamburger helper well she didn’t cook the meat fully and me and my sister got food poisoning and threw up everywhere and we haven’t seen that baby sitter since lol

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Madster

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Wow that was a wild ride!

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