I was told precisely what to make for dinner. Mom and dad didn't enforce portion size (or number of portions), nor did they enforce a balance of the items on the table so the child never ate vegetables. I was specifically hired to bring this child (just turned 9) in first grade up to grade level (redshirted, then held back a year, brought in half way through the second year), so they wanted him spending a minimum of 2 hours every night on tutoring in addition to normal homework. Add in that I was hired a week before Christmas with a start date a week after New Years, the child hated the cold and wet, it was the year of the crazy ice/snow even where it normally gets minimal winter weather, and short of dressing him myself and picking him up... he wasn't going to go outside! Anyway, the kid wasn't 5 foot tall yet, but he was already a size 14 when I started. I kept saying he was overweight, unhealthy, etc. He ballooned up to size 20 in 2 months. Of course, the parents blamed me.

Moved to a small college town with terrible job opportunities and happen to land a $15 per hour job with the professors. The pay for the area was good. I was making more than a lot of people with Masters degrees. I had a contract for a year, then they wouldn’t need me and my SO would be done with her PhD program and I could leave. I just needed to be able to pay my bills and if I didn’t keep this job I’d be working at a daycare center for $8 an hour.

Three children. Two when I started, 2-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy. MB was pregnant with a third. The boy is a complete and utter spoiled brat. Very intelligent and could behave but zero boundaries at home meant he’d hit, scream, pout and be a general little asshole if he didn’t get his way. He was also extremely babied and basically had to have everything done for him and be entertained 24/7 when not in school. The two-year-old wasn’t far behind, super smart (scarily smart) with the vocabulary and reasoning skills of a much older child. But she was pretty miserable and mostly screamed and I believe has some underlying pretty serious mental issues (saw things, would break down over nothing, super anti-social, most inactive toddler I’ve ever met). She did not like me. I also worked with Grandma who didn’t want me there and was super passive aggressive and terrible messy. DB was an arrogant demanding asshole and MB was super sweet but such a pushover and the reason the boy was such a little horror.

I was responsible for all housework. Cleaning kitchen, sweeping, all laundry, cleaning up toys, errands, schools runs...on top of caring for newborn that refused bottles. No one ever cleaned up after themselves. I was a Cinderella and totally taken advantage of but given my other job options I delt with it for 11 months.

Absolutely despised it and truely the first and only job where I didn’t care for the children (well, I loved the baby but I imagine she’ll grow up to be as terrible as her siblings).

When I was an au pair many years ago and had a 13yo, 8yo 6yo and the Mom was pregnant. The 13 would wear clothes for 5 mins and then leave them on the floor and i had to pick them up. I was 18 at the time and it was so demeaning.
I had to do all the laundry for the whole family, only had one day off a week, they would leave all the dishes from Sunday in the sink for me on Monday morning.
They never showed me how to drive the car, I had a Lic and could drive but had never driven an automatic before, they just kept putting it off.

One day I was playing Chess with the 8yo and the 6yo asked me to play with him, I told him to wait a few minutes because I was already in the middle of the game.
Next think the Mom comes barging in and demands I amuse him because he is not old enough to amuse himself and the 8yo is. Poor kid had to give up playing Chess with me.

I only lasted 5 weeks and I switched families.

I found out later that after another au pair left that they were taken off the Agencies books and were not allowed to get an au pair anymore.

annoying mother or dad at home spoiled him and then i have to take care of a brat and they just put him to sleep.

The one where I had to work alongside a Grandmother all darn day.

She would always act suspicious of me.
If her grandchild cried & she was out of eyesight, she immediately was all over me....
Asking like 20 questions about why the baby never cried when she had her.

I was running & playing in the backyard w/her oldest grandchild, doing what a good Nanny does right?

Well he tripped on something and fell down and began crying.
She gave me a dirty look, called me irresponsible + told his parents that I was careless.
The parents understood how she was, but I couldn’t take another of this crazy lady.

I quit on the spot and will never regret leaving her high + dry.

Life is much too short to go home crying everyday after work and dreading waking up the next morning.

I lived-in on a working ranch in Montana for the owner’s 5 yo daughter and 2 yo son. The 5yo was given free range of the ranch—including horses, cattle, farm equipment and a river running through the middle of the property in which a grown man went swimming and drowned in the current while I lived there, not to mention the cougar killed on the property while I lived there and the fact that only the permanent ranch hands had any background checks, there were none for the itinerant laborers. When I tried to set the limit that the 5yo needed to be with me or with one of the permanent ranch hands, the dad insisted that she was fine because “she’d not stupid. She’ll be careful.”

Lovely family, really but a bad situation. I was a weekend nanny for a very wealthy little boy. His parents were home all weekend and we were not allowed to leave the property for security reasons. I worked 7 to 7. I used to count the minutes until I could leave.

one stay at home mom would change my hours at the last minute all the time, or text me twenty minutes before i was set to arrive saying that they were in a completely different location. she would take her child to a park that was forty blocks from their house, and then she would claim she had something important to do and take a cab back, leaving me there with the kid and the stroller in 90 degree heat. she would frequently cancel my hours, saying she felt like going out of town. i was never paid for this time. after i had been there for about 6 months, they had a man come and install additional security cameras around their apartment. she had him come while i was working and kept asking him to rearrange them so it would be impossible to block them with cabinets etc. totally bizarre behavior-their kitchen wasn't even an eat in and the child was never in that room. the apartment it was already filled with cameras-two in the child's bedroom, one in the hall, and two in the living room. the mother wanted one in the kitchen and additional coverage in the living area. frequently, she would stay home and lounge in her room while i was playing with her child. if she did leave the house to get her nails done, go out to eat, or go to an exercise class, she would watch the camera and text me comments and criticisms. i put up with this for a few months because i was focused on school and other things, but the last straw was when she mentioned casually that she didn't think she would need me much the next month and that i should figure out another way to get money (her words, not mine). I immediately started interviewing for other jobs. When that date came around, she acted like we'd never had that conversation and expected me to come to work as usual.
what was your worst job?