Children’s honesty and warmth have a way of turning an ordinary afternoon into a story worth telling. Little notes that say “I love you,” craft sessions that end in chaos, attempts to get a small person to eat porridge — these are the everyday moments that make up the lives of nannies and childcare workers. Some of these 15 stories will make you smile, some will bring back memories, and at least one will leave you genuinely surprised.
- Worked as a preschool teacher. Breakfast is coming to an end, the kids are eating their oatmeal, and one little girl sits with a serious expression, not touching her food at all.
I ask, “Tonya, why aren’t you eating?” I thought she might miss her mom or say she doesn’t like oatmeal, but after her response, I couldn’t stop smiling all day. She declared, “I have lipstick on!”
Tonya had lipstick on and was NOT about to ruin it for oatmeal. 😭😂 What's the most unhinged reasonable thing a kid has ever said to you?
- I worked part-time as an evening nanny. Then a friend calls me, saying there are 2 wonderful girls. But there’s one thing. The girls are French. They don’t speak English.
And my friend persuades me, saying that the girls don’t need special attention, you just need to babysit them. Well, alright, I agreed, and stopped by the store for some puzzles and games.
I arrive. Their uncle, who speaks English, introduces us. The girls are shy. In the end, I sit down, kind of uninvolved, assembling a puzzle. And they, like all kids, get interested and start participating.
We communicate with the older one through an online translator. Sometimes I have to guess because the girl writes with mistakes, and the translator doesn’t understand what the word is.
At the end of the evening, I tell the girls, reinforcing my speech with gestures, that it’s time for them to wash up and go to bed. The older one starts saying something quickly in French, and here, to my surprise, I understand her.
So, I say, “You already washed up, did you?” She happily replies, “Qui” — meaning “yes.” I say, “Well, then change into pajamas — and go to bed!” They obediently changed into pajamas. This is how we unexpectedly understood each other.
- A friend of mine worked as a nanny for a boy who just went to school in a wealthy family. She was supposed to pick him up from school, give him dinner, and help with his homework, because no one was home until 8 p.m.
She mentioned that bundles of money were lying around the house anywhere: in the bathroom, under the bed, under the table, and so on. She would pick them up and put them on her employer’s desk.
One day she got a little sick and asked for time off. Her boss, not seeing the money on the desk, immediately called her and asked where the money was. She told him the places where they might be. The boss was really puzzled.
- I work as a nanny in the evenings after school. The child is 5 years old, and we’re making doughnuts out of playdough. Suddenly she says, “Daddy was with another woman. Just don’t tell Mommy. He said it’s a secret.”
I just froze. Great. Wonderful. Just what I wanted to hear today — about someone else’s affairs. I was supposed to turn on cartoons and heat up some porridge, not end up at the epicenter of a potential divorce. I gather my thoughts and ask as calmly as possible:
“And what were you two doing there?”
“Looking at a cat. Daddy said maybe we’d get one like that. I crawled under the table while they were talking.”
I pause. Okay. Later, the mom casually mentions:
“We went to the shelter, a friend showed us some cats. We’re thinking of adopting one.”
And that’s it. No drama, no infidelity. Just a child saw a snippet and retold it as she understood it. And my heart almost stopped.
Too many people take their speculations as facts, and quick to accuse. When more than half the time they're not true.
- I work as a nanny. The little ones who come to me are very young and often cry when their mom leaves. So I pick up the child to soothe them, sit on a bean bag and hug them tight. 99% of the time, this helps and... the little one falls asleep. Even though it’s not my intention to put them to sleep.
One day, parents brought me a shy little boy and told me that he’d just had a 2-hour nap, so he definitely wouldn’t sleep now. They left him with me, he started to whimper, I took him in my arms, sat down, hugged him, and comforted him. It took literally 5 minutes for him to fall asleep. And I wasn’t even trying, honestly.
That is quite a super-power. Putting little children to sleep with a hug!
Work as a nanny, and it’s such a thrill. I’ve fulfilled so many childhood dreams. I have a huge trampoline, a ball pit, a whole wall of toys, various cars, dollhouses — everything I ever wanted.
I painted the walls with pictures. Now the place is so bright and colorful, I just love it. When people come in, they usually pause for a couple of seconds.
- I worked as a nanny for a family for almost 3 years. Yesterday they let me go because the little girl I cared for started calling me Mommy. Her biological mother was furious.
In fact, I’ve been with the little one since she was 2 weeks old, and her mom only appeared at home when the child was down for her afternoon nap.
In the child's eyes, the nanny was her mom.
- The girl who I used to look after invited me to her wedding. We were together for 4 years, from 1st to 4th grade. She visited our home and went to the same school as my sons. We remain friends to this day, even though we live in different countries.
I still spend time with kids I use to babysit their in their mid 20's now and the girl is married with a son of her own
- I work as a daycare teacher. A dad came in recently. He didn’t know the group, didn’t know the teacher’s name. But he did indicate his child’s height, mentioned it was a girl, and told her name.
The thing is, we have no girl by that name! After a long series of questions, it turned out he needed the school across the street.
- I worked as a nanny. The mother demanded to wash her 2.5-year-old’s hands a thousand times a day. If the pacifier fell out of the sleeping child’s mouth, the nanny had to immediately replace it, place the dirty one with others, and then sterilize it by boiling. Food was also prepared in sterile conditions.
No other children were allowed near the child. The sand in the sandbox was sifted through a sieve, and at night the sandbox was covered with a special plastic sheet.
This child mightaswell live in a plastic bubble. Sorry to say but the mom is doing her child no favors. I can just imagine how the child will turn out, it won't be pretty.
- I work as a nanny. Sometimes the parents ask if I can run the dishwasher if there’s time. Just my luck, the dad was at home, I set up the dishwasher and poured in liquid detergent instead of a tablet.
It turned into the best foam party of my life! I was covered in foam, the kid was covered in foam. It stressed me out, but the kid had a blast. I cleaned it all up, and learned a lesson for a lifetime.
You must be fairly young. The dishwasher/washing machine overflowing with bubbles with a staple episode of pretty much every sitcom of the 70's!😂
I work at a kindergarten. Today my kids decided to open a tattoo studio, and of course, I visited it. They’re doing their best, good job!
- I was a nanny to a boy. I looked after him from the time he was 3 until he was 6. We spent a lot of time together. He even sometimes called me Mom. We cried when it was time to part ways.
And a year later, I met him and his father. I said, “Hi, Antony! How are you?” And he was like, “Lady, who are you?!” I am still haunted by the question: did the boy lose his memory or have I changed that much.
I can imagine it. Depending on how old he is now, like if he's in his late teens or an adult he might not remember much from when he was a young child. I mean he was 6 the last time she saw him. I don't remember much from when I was that young, especially certain people that I haven't seen since then.
- I work part-time as a nanny for some acquaintances. Their child is still young, and his teeth have only recently begun to grow, which naturally bothers him a lot. Apparently, I took his suffering so much to heart that last night I couldn’t sleep because my own teeth began to hurt too.
So here we are sitting in the park, 2 sad faces, one is 9 months old, and the other is 23 years old, both suffering from the same problem: he’s getting milk teeth, and I’m dealing with wisdom teeth.
- Once, I was asked to urgently babysit 2 children. I was quite a high demand babysitter because I actively spent time with the kids: playing with them and reading.
So, I show up and instead of 2, I see 6 (!) children under the age of 9. Noticing my confusion, the parents offered me more money and told me they'd be back by midnight.
Around 5 p.m., I fed the kids. We played outside, enjoyed some games, and watched cartoons. Before bed, I read to them and tucked them in. I felt utterly exhausted. I sat down to watch TV while waiting for the parents.
11 p.m., midnight, 1 a.m. One of the parents called to say they were running late. Around 4 a.m., I couldn't fight off sleep any longer.
I fell asleep and dreamt I was on a frigate, being heavily rocked by the sea. I woke up to find it wasn't the sea rocking me, but an angry parent trying to wake me. They never asked me back to babysit.
Why would you agree to that and then act surprised it went badly?
- I was a nanny to a 5-year-old boy, Mike. One day while we were walking, he decided to share a secret with me. He said, “Come, I’ll show you my dad’s second family!” He grinned mischievously, grabbed my hand, and led me somewhere. I followed him reluctantly.
We approached an apartment building, and there was a sturdy cat house with soft bedding. It turned out that his dad was simply feeding a stray cat and her kittens there, unable to bring them home due to his wife’s allergy.
- I work as a nanny. Once, I was babysitting 6-year-old Diana. We were painting with colors. She suddenly opened up and whispered, “Nataly, do you know what Daddy hides under the bed? A box that says ’do not touch’.” Well, okay.
A day later, I come back, and Diana hands me this box tightly sealed with tape and says, “Open it, I want to see what’s inside.” Of course, I refused. But Diana insisted.
Later that evening, I told her dad about it when he came home. He laughed and lifted the lid of the box right in front of us. Inside were... candy wrappers that Diana had hidden there herself and forgotten about.
“Oh,” she said, “I used to collect those a long time ago.” Her dad laughed, “You almost got me.” It turned out he occasionally hid toys under those wrappers, which he planned to give to her as gifts.
Comments
I was an extremely shy five-year-old girl, and I was blessed with the sweetest, most compassionate kindergarten teacher. She always made sure I was included and made me feel seen. One day, I got hurt at recess and couldn’t stop crying. My teacher bandaged me and said: “You’re not the first child to get hurt. It happens to everybody.” I was still weepy when we went back inside the classroom, so she took me on her lap and led the class in singing my favorite song: “Oh Yellow, Yellow Daffodils” just to cheer me up. She inspired me to become the kind of youth worker I am today.
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