Anonymous wrote:The worst job I ever had was as an au pair - I arrived in Europe on a Wednesday and on Friday both parents left the country for a week leaving me, at 18, alone with 3 children I barely knew (also you are NOT ALLOWED to leave the AP and kids home alone 24hr/day within AP programs). When they came back, at the end of my first week of work, the mom only paid me half of our agreed upon stipend, saying her friends had said she'd be overpaying if she gave me our agreed upon wage. I protested and ended up getting the full amount but she resented me massively for it. And she'd fuss about how I ironed the socks (THE SOCKS) and how I folded the shirts, asking me to do it one way and then complaining that I was doing it that way the next day. She was a monster and her whole family knew it - DB was perfectly pleasant and the kids were just kids, crazy and undisciplined but hard to blame them for that fact.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The worst job I ever had was as an au pair - I arrived in Europe on a Wednesday and on Friday both parents left the country for a week leaving me, at 18, alone with 3 children I barely knew (also you are NOT ALLOWED to leave the AP and kids home alone 24hr/day within AP programs). When they came back, at the end of my first week of work, the mom only paid me half of our agreed upon stipend, saying her friends had said she'd be overpaying if she gave me our agreed upon wage. I protested and ended up getting the full amount but she resented me massively for it. And she'd fuss about how I ironed the socks (THE SOCKS) and how I folded the shirts, asking me to do it one way and then complaining that I was doing it that way the next day. She was a monster and her whole family knew it - DB was perfectly pleasant and the kids were just kids, crazy and undisciplined but hard to blame them for that fact.

That's terrible! How are pepper such selfish inconsiderate people, and after they left you with the most important job- caring for their children?

Anonymous wrote:The worst job I ever had was as an au pair - I arrived in Europe on a Wednesday and on Friday both parents left the country for a week leaving me, at 18, alone with 3 children I barely knew (also you are NOT ALLOWED to leave the AP and kids home alone 24hr/day within AP programs). When they came back, at the end of my first week of work, the mom only paid me half of our agreed upon stipend, saying her friends had said she'd be overpaying if she gave me our agreed upon wage. I protested and ended up getting the full amount but she resented me massively for it. And she'd fuss about how I ironed the socks (THE SOCKS) and how I folded the shirts, asking me to do it one way and then complaining that I was doing it that way the next day. She was a monster and her whole family knew it - DB was perfectly pleasant and the kids were just kids, crazy and undisciplined but hard to blame them for that fact.

Anonymous wrote:The worst I had was a sort of mother's helper though they advertised for a nanny for an 18mo boy. The mother would micromanage to the point where I was afraid to breathe in her presence in fear I would do it wrong and will be nagged at. She hardly ever left us alone (advertised that she's be out), overdressed the child - and by overdressed I mean that in a well heated and warm flat when she and I were in tshirts, the boy would have on three layers including a woolly jumper, and she told me that if he gets sweaty to just continue to wipe off the sweat from his back and face but not to take off a layer or open the window.

I was required to use basically industrial strength bleach on his dishes and toys daily.

Then she would always come in when he cried, and of course he cried when she left the room, so I would have him almost calmed down and engaged in an activity when she'd come back to check up on him and start it all over again.

Once she was putting on make up to go out and the boy came into the bathroom, and she said, 'oh, i really shouldn't be doing that in front of him, he's a boy'. Yup, ladies, men should think we naturally have pink glossy lips and have no need to shave our legs.

Then she told me one day in stage whisper that she 'had to fire Mark the cleaner because it turned out he was gay' and that she was worried because of her son. Just to repeat, she never left her son with Mark the cleaner, but I do hear those gay spores are really contagious. Moreover, later that day she phoned someone and said, 'hi, Mark gave me your number because it turns out Mark is... well'.

Which was when I quit and said 'by the way, lady, I'm gay'.

Well, I haven't, but I should've. I did quit at the end of that week, but I didn't say that. It's really one of my biggest regrets in life! I would've liked to see her face.