2. No Regrets
I house/dog sit for friends of my parents. The first time I did it they mentioned they had a security camera by the front door that was motion-activated, and I didn’t really think anything of it at all. They were gone for a few weeks, they came home, their two giant huskies were happy, I got paid, and all was well.
A couple weeks later my mom calls me laughing and laughing—my parents had dinner with the friends I dog sit for and they showed a video to my parents from the front door cam. Apparently all it showed was me sprinting full speed down the hallway, a dog toy in hand, biggest stupid grin on my face, followed by the two huskies running and sliding after me, followed by me, followed by the huskies...over and over and over and over again. I sit for them as often as I can.
3. Cut!
Using a baby monitor to care for aging parent. My sister comes in and tries to convince my dad to cut me out of the will and give everything to her.
4. Blueberry Boys
Watched her outside playing with my dogs (she was dog-sitting). Our yellow Labrador and golden retriever puppy started munching the blueberries off our blueberry bushes. They know dang well they’re not supposed to get into the blueberry patch...we watched our dog sitter run over to them and try to get them to stop.
She then ran inside and ran back out with a bowl. She proceeded to race the dogs for the blueberries. Had to be one of the highlights of our trip. We came home to a bowl of blueberries in the fridge and two very guilty puppers.
5. Super Sitter!
Not a parent, but once caught the babysitter taking the baby's blanket, putting it around her neck like a small cape, and "flying" around the room with it on. Keep in mind, the baby could only see out of the crib and was not present for the show. Needless to say, we found out she was often very high during babysitting.
6. Our Little Secret
My story isn't that interesting, but I have a camera to check in on my rabbit when I'm not there. The biggest surprises were mostly just how almost nobody followed my pet-sitting instructions. The one exception, ironically, was my brother who often claimed to hate the rabbit and always wanted to get rid of it. I got an alert one day that my camera had detected movement while my brother was there taking care of him, and I decided to take a little sneak peek.
I opened the app connected to the camera and saw my brother walk into my room, lay on the floor, and start playing with my rabbit. It just warmed my heart so much.
7. Playing Doctor
I can tell you in like 1995 I was babysitting for this really wealthy family, and I couldn't figure out how to turn the TV on. The little girl was fast asleep and I was so bored. I checked out her enormous playroom, and ended up playing with a doctor kit with their little shih tzu dog. They literally walked into the house on me, with a doctor coat on, weird doctor headband that looks like a headlamp, taking the dog’s heartbeat with the stethoscope.
I was like 15 and so bored. They were speechless.
8. A New Pet
I dog sit for some neighbors, one of whom told me she has a camera in the living room/dining room for her dogs. You know those ones that dispense treats? Yeah, one of those. Anyway, I thought it was a strange essential oil diffuser until she told me what it was. I was being paid to play with them for an hour. But she found out from the nanny cam that I was actually staying for two or three hours.
When she asked me about it, I think I said something like, "I'd definitely want someone to do the same for my dogs.” Ever since then she leaves me treats in the kitchen and even got me a Christmas present "from the dogs."
9. I’ll Get It
My buddy has a camera that sits on his doorstep. It has a motion sensor and every time it detects someone or something on the porch, it snaps a photo and sends it to his phone. It's a Sunday morning, and for once, his two-year-old isn't shouting into his bedroom to get him out of his crib. Ah, yes. A rare morning to lay in bed.
His phone goes off. A photo of a little red-headed boy reaching out of the front door to grab a package appears. And that's how he discovered that his son could get out of the crib.
10. The Hug Cam
I was the kiddo. My mom often tells the story of how she watched me give a big old hug to my babysitter who just broke down out of nowhere after serving me lunch. Turns out her dad had passed on a month back and it just wasn't a good day for her. I still remember you, Ms. Yancey. I hope you're doing just fine now!
11. Safe & Sound
About two years ago, after our son was born with some breathing issues. He has a rare form of dwarfism and his airway is just smaller than most. We were issued state-funded nursing. A nurse came at night to watch him overnight and make sure he was safe. At the time he was very stable and really didn't need the nursing, but because he had a tracheotomy tube you legally need the nursing.
He was a little over four months old at the time of this incident. One night I heard his oxygen monitor beeping, which was not unusual since it frequently malfunctioned. We had been so tired from getting up all the time from the beeping and stupid stuff that the nurses would frequently do, so I didn't hear it for quite a while.
These were not highly trained nurses. We had been getting very little sleep for months. Very high stress. I walk in and the baby is royal blue and lifeless. An image I will never be able to erase from my brain. The oxygen monitor says 20% oxygen (normal would be 95-100%). I yell to my wife (who happens to be a surgeon) and she rushes in and we both start doing CPR on our kid.
We call 9-1-1. The nurse is standing there just kind of staring the whole time. She didn't call 9-1-1, she didn't call us. I didn't understand what just happened. We do CPR for 15 minutes. No sign of life. The EMTs get there and do CPR for another 12 minutes. At the end of the 12 minutes they get some small signs of life and rush him off to the ER.
My wife hops in the back of the ambulance and continues to do life-saving measures for the whole ride. At the hospital, they call a code and do life-saving measures for another two hours. He was in and out. When I got to the hospital they brought over the chaplain and asked us these end of life questions. I was destroyed.
He survived the whole ordeal but suffered significant right and left-sided brain damage. He is three now and making great progress but I believe he will never be the same. He doesn't talk yet but is getting close. He says a few words. He is a good kid. Only a few days prior to the incident we set up cameras in the room because the nurses seemed a little unsafe, but I had no choice. Long story there.
I went back and watch the recorded video. When I saw what really happened, I almost lost it: The nurse (either on purpose or by accident) had taken the nebulizer machine (an air mister, to blow medicine into your airway), and in an attempt to give him his breathing treatment (accidentally or on purpose) attached it directly to his airway (trach).
Meaning, that instead of gently misting medicine into his airway, he had a strong burst of compressed air being forced into him. It punctured his lung (think a balloon being blown up and popping) and caused crepitus (air under the skin) and he was without oxygen for over six minutes. If it weren't for the nurse, he'd be fine.
He was a stable kid who needed a little extra help in the beginning of his life to get to average. He was not a child on life support. His form of dwarfism is limiting, but oftentimes these kids have higher IQs than average, and we don't know why. Unfortunately, that won't be the case for him. If it weren't for my wife being a doctor and constantly saving lives, he'd be dead without question.
She is a professional life-saving master. I knew CPR, but she knew exactly what to do to save his life and not to quit. We had a few extra lifesaving things like an ambubag and we were able to save his life because of that. We sued the nursing company and won, of course. The money goes into an account to provide services for him for the rest of his life.
After we are gone, we want to make sure someone will take care of him. The nurse did not get her license revoked. She is still "practicing." We tried to appeal to the nursing board, but that was the result.
12. Cleanliness Stings
My aunt’s friend set up a nanny cam because she noticed that every time she changed her child’s diaper the child would start crying a lot more than usual. Turns out when they watched the nanny change her diaper, she would use Clorox wipes if they were nearby instead of grabbing the baby wipes. They fired the nanny immediately and the father became a stay at home dad.
13. The Secret Dance
My girlfriend's (now fiancée’s) parents have security cameras. I used to pretend to not care much for my girlfriend's cat around other people. Then when they were out of town, we took care of the dog and brought the cat over. They saw me on camera holding the cat over my head and dancing softly in a circle while looking into his cat eyes. The jig was up.
14. The Naked Truth
Friends of ours don’t have kids but have dogs. They were going out of town and told the dog sitter about all of the cameras, including the one that is outside but sometimes picks up reflections and will actively notify them of motion. The dog sitter seemed to get it, but she forgot to convey that to her boyfriend, who came out and walked around naked quite a bit!
15. Boss Baby IRL
Okay, not a parent, and not a nanny cam, but my nephew and his baby monitor. Sis called me cry-laughing to tell me that her niece went into the nursery and proceeded to lay out a few "house rules" on her four-week-old little brother. Sis says it was things about sharing, cleaning up, being nice and protective, and minding his manners.
That was funny enough, but niece finished with the greatest line I've ever heard: "Everybody pulls their weight in this family. You're lucky you're only nine pounds." That little bossy munchkin. She's super protective of him, still. I have multiple pictures of them holding hands while they nap. It’s literally the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
16. C’mon, Grandpa
I got a nanny cam to keep an eye out for my elderly grandfather, especially when the home aides were there. My grandfather started asking for lots of cash and couldn't remember what was happening to it, a broach that my aunt was supposed to get disappeared, and then I heard reports of my grandfather being inappropriate with some of the home health aides.
He was busted squirrelling away the medication that he was supposed to be taking in his chair, giving money to an aide, and harassing another aide.
17. Literally the Worst
I know of a family who had a full-time plus nanny/cleaner/cook (known as a "helper" in Hong Kong and often expected to work 20 hours a day, plus sleeping in the same room as the kids, with only Sundays off). They got a nanny cam and fired this woman because after spending her entire day getting the kids ready for kindergarten, cooking a hot breakfast, picking up after the family, doing 3-4 hours of cleaning, prepping for dinner, setting out activities for after she went out to get the kids, in other words after a very full days work for minimal pay, she had the audacity to sit down on the family's couch.
It was in the communal room of the house she was contractually obliged to live in, for 15 minutes to have a rest before leaving to get the kids. Work for 10 hours straight and sit on the couch for 15 minutes of downtime before getting the kids, making dinner, cleaning the house, welcoming the parents’ home, serving dinner, cleaning up after dinner? Fired.
18. Dressed to Lie
Friend caught her nanny rummaging through her closet and taking a blouse. She confronted her about it when she returned home, and the woman played innocent. She was wearing the freaking blouse.
19. The Moni-ster
Not on a cam, but on a baby monitor. My aunt liked to tell a story from a time when her children were small. One time she was lying in bed, everything fine, and then suddenly she heard a deep voice saying: "It's me, the monster, I came to get you." Of course, she went into panic mode instantly, ran to her child, and... nothing there.
So, she went back and heard the voice again, realizing that it was one of her neighbors playing with his kid. Turns out those devices used the power grid, and since they both used the same model, apparently allowed her to hear what was said into the neighbor’s baby phone. Talk about a nightmare-inducing design flaw.
20. Half-Measure
We didn't have a nanny cam, but my mom set up the camcorder when she suspected our babysitter was stealing... and then caught the babysitter in the act. She returned most of the stuff when my mom threatened to report her to the authorities. I think she should still have reported her anyway. She probably just went on taking stuff from other people's places.
21. Don’t Play With Your Food
Our crib was under a window (shut and locked, don't worry). Every few days or so a hawk or some other kind of large bird would land on the outside of the window. The bird and my daughter would sit there for a good 10 minutes bobbing their heads at one another. It was adorable, despite the fact the bird probably wanted to eat her.
22. Breaking the Moral Compass
My family bought one to see our dogs when we leave on vacation twice a year. It's one where they can hear us and we thought it’d be great (we hardly used it). We also asked our maid to dog sit for us while we were out. Once when we looked at the feed, we saw the dog sitter there a solid 30 minutes early just petting the dogs and playing with them.
She's since retired from working, but she was the sweetest old lady and we love her so freaking much. Another time my dad left a wad of cash on top of the washing machine (about $600) and she put a rubber band around it with a note saying he must have misplaced it. Really can’t get much sweeter and honest than that.
23. Yeah, They Caught You
Not a parent, but I'm almost certain my dad caught this. When I was in college, my dad asked if I would dog/house sit for he and my mom while they were away. I said sure as long as they didn't mind if my girlfriend came. They didn't; I'm pretty sure they like her more than me (we're now married, so it’s all good). The week comes and like any college couple, we got busy...everywhere.
Partway through the week, we're sitting in the living room and, "Everything going well? The dogs okay?" comes out of the clock. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Turns out my dad had installed a mic/camera system throughout the house. I don't know if they caught us, the cameras deleted everything from 24 hours prior, but there's a distinct possibility.
Needless to say, we kept our antics to my room from then out.
24. A Step Too Far
I have caught our babysitter making pillow forts that are heavily resistant to the monsters that may or may not come out during heavy thunderstorms with my kiddo...twenty minutes after bedtime! Needless to she was dealt with appropriately.
25. Watching the Clock
When I was a toddler, I went from fairly chubby to very skinny in a matter of weeks. My parents were worried that I was sick, and when they asked our nanny, she said, "Everything is fine." A few days later, they decided to install a camera to see what was wrong—and they couldn't believe what they discovered. Keep in mind that after lunchtime, she would let me nap and then go home (that was the deal).
It turns out that she would feed me a few bites and then throw my food away so she could leave earlier. I was too young to make anything of it. This was all caught on camera, and she was fired the next day.
26. Helping Kitty
I'm not a parent, but my dad used nanny cams and told me a story that happened when I was three years old. Apparently, he was watching TV in his room and heard some very weird noises. He looked at the nanny cam and saw a lump of blankets, so he just assumed it was me. He shrugged it off and went back to watching his movie.
The noises started again. They were like gurgling noises at this point, so he thought I puked and choked on it again (severe acid reflux, now diagnosed with GERD). He lifts up the blanket and sees that it isn't me. He looks under the crib and sees me and learns that the gurgling noise was the cat having a seizure. I was trying to hold him still so he wouldn't hurt himself. The cat was fine, turns out he had brain cancer, but he ended up being cured of it (I heard) and he lived another six years. But I had nightmares for years afterward.
27. Furry Guardian Angels
Buddy of mine had a kid at the beginning of last year, discovered that both his cat and his beagle would climb into the crib with the baby occasionally during naps. Cute, right? Both animals made it a habit to climb in, kick/push the baby to the very side of the crib, and curl up in the middle completely alone. You'd catch them glaring at the kid if he started to roll back over and invade their space.
28. The Bird Know No Limits
I got fired because of a nanny cam. I was working for a very rich (by Australian standards) family. The dad was a surgeon and he'd invented some kind of special surgical screw. Anyway. So, I was 25, looking after their five children, all boys, aged 17, 16, 11, 9, and then a surprise baby who was three years old. The two older kids obviously don't ever need me, and the 11 and 9-year-olds were really sweet and cute and didn't need that much.
The toddler though, was an utter nightmare. Just the worst kid I'd ever cared for. Really bratty and awful, but stopped short of torturing small animals. One day we're stuck inside playing Star Wars Lego. He's bossing me around and talking about the "Cat-Cat Walkers" we're building. I'm like, “Little dude, it's AT-AT for real.” He cracked it, flipped over the fancy Lego table, told me he hated me, and ran downstairs.
Being the consummate professional I am, I calmly flipped him off for two whole minutes before I went down and helped him cheer up. Next day I was fired.
29. Come to Daddy
We have a security camera in my bedroom for my free roam bunny so we can keep an eye on her whilst at work, if we go on holidays, etc. Well, my dad is 50 and is a big bloke who acts like he doesn’t like pets. He came over to visit one day whilst I was out. He went in my room and crouched down calling the bunny.
He spent an hour trying to pet the rabbit, and kept repeating in a soft voice, “I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to pet you and see how fluffy you are.” He just about soiled himself when I spoke through the security camera to tell him she’s very fluffy and precious. One of the greatest moments of my life.
30. Auto-Play Has to Go
Not a nanny cam but one of the audio ones so you can hear if they're crying or whatever else might be going on. I was up very early one morning (around 5:00 a.m.) getting a little work done in my house office. Had the thing with me so I could hear my baby daughter, who was about two months old at this point.
Suddenly, I hear a woman talking very, very softly. My whole body went cold in a panic. I stopped everything to make sure it wasn't just my imagination. Yes, I still heard it. At the same instant that I prepare to dash into her room, I listen a little more and realize I'm hearing a freaking auto play video/audio ad on a tab in my web browser coming from my computer speaker, which was turned down really low. I thought my heart would never slow back down.
31. The Cherry on Top
My mom suspected our maid of taking the silverware. Pretty typical paranoid stuff, I know. Also, she's just really freaking nosy. Anyway, turns out the maid was, indeed, taking the silverware. I think that ended up being overshadowed by my dad screwing her, though.
32. Grandma Walks a Thin Line
When I'm home from college I babysit for these pretty wealthy people. At the time of this story, the boys I would babysit were about two years old and nine months old. It was summer and I had laid the younger one down for a nap, then took the monitor out with me to the backyard so the two-year-old could play.
I hear the sound going off and see arms reaching into the crib to the sleeping baby. I grabbed the two-year-old, a knife, and slowly walked upstairs. Their grandma had come to see if I needed any help, but didn't have my number so she didn't text me she was there. We laughed about it but never have I ever been so ready to shank someone.
33. Leftovers
Well, this was a case that happened near where I live. There was a woman who used to work, and a husband who was out of country. They had a two-year-old kid. They hired a nanny to look after him during the daytime. Day-by-day, the kid started looking malnourished. So, she set up a nanny cam like any mother probably would.
Apparently, the lady used to bring her kid and feed him all the food left for the kid she was supposed to babysit. Then she would feed the kid cheap biscuits. She was promptly handed over to the authorities.
34. Invisible Goats
I have my house surrounded by CCTV cameras. One day, just all of a sudden, in the city of New York, in Flushing, an entire heard of goats just randomly walked into the area where our tiny front yard is. They stood there and nobody came to get them. It was completely bizarre. I looked up any information I could find about parades.
I tried to find anything that would have had goats around. None of the neighbors saw anything. This is a regular street in Flushing with only houses around me. My mailbox was eaten off the fence post by these goats. They were around for 20 minutes that day. I’m sure I’ll probably never know why they were there.
35. Needlepoint
This isn't something that I caught a babysitter doing, but I remember that I once saw on TV the case of some parents who went with their baby to the doctor because she cried a lot for apparently no reason. The doctor told them that she looked really stressed and asked them if they were doing something that could make her act like that.
They didn't. Then the doctor and the parents noticed some really tiny dots on the girl's belly and they had no idea where they came from. The babysitter told them that she had no idea but they didn't believe her and secretly put cameras to spy what she was doing. Turns out that she was a complete psychopath. She was stabbing the baby with a needle from time to time and doing things like shaking her cradle incredibly hard to torment her. Of course, they called the authorities, confronted her, and she was detained.
36. The Black Mass
I was babysitting for my sister a few months ago and was checking on my two-year-old nephew through the nanny cam, asleep in his crib. I got up to put dinner in the oven and when I came back, I checked the cam again and...there was a huge black mass in the crib with him. My sister doesn't have any pets, so I was like, what the heck?!
I imagined the worst. A black dog or cat or something had got in and is attacking my nephew! I ran upstairs like a silver bullet and saw, to my horror, my nephew had pulled a huge black bag into the cot with him and had crawled inside!! I got him straight out of it and he was fine. I took the bag back downstairs and just sat on the floor crying.
This was my first time babysitting for my sister. I had a go at her when she got home, "Who keeps a huge bag out where their baby could get it?" And she said there was one in his cupboard full of diapers well out of reach, so we checked and the diapers were in there but the bag had been taken out, somehow?
37. Do a Flip!
My son was awake in his crib babbling to himself and having a good time. My wife and I were watching him through the baby monitor kind of laughing at him being silly. He could pull himself up and while holding the crib rail slowly walk around the inside edges of the crib. As we're watching him, he comes around and looks directly into the camera. He was looking directly at us in the baby monitor.
As we're watching him, he reaches out to try and grab the camera. We see him leaning over the crib rail stretching his hand out for the camera which is just out of reach. Suddenly he flips right over the crib rail while we're watching live and lands with a thump on the carpet. Cue his crying and our running to check on him. He was scared but otherwise fine.
In my mind's eye, I can still see that sudden look of surprise on his face as he flipped. He never tried to climb out of his crib on his own like his sister did and I wonder if that was the reason why.
38. Nanny Cam Superstar
I was the one caught on camera a few times. A family who had bunnies caught me on camera booping noses to the beat of the song I was singing.. “Little bunny foo foo was hopping through the kitchen...picking up all the lettuce and munchie munchie munch!” A different family saw me get freaking tackled by their 95 lb. mastiff puppy.
They immediately called me to make sure I didn’t have a concussion since I just kinda laid there for a while. I was fine, I just got the wind knocked out of me. Yet another different family saw me reading a book to their kids, and later complimented on all the voices I make. I had no idea they could hear audio and I got so embarrassed, since I really did go all out.
39. Curiosity Caught the Crooks
Not me, but a coworker. It was not actually nanny cams per se. She has three cats and apparently while she was at work, they were damaging things in the house. She set up the cameras to find out which cat was the culprit, and how it could be stopped. Well, before she was able to figure that out, something much, much worse happened. She actually WATCHED as three men broke into her house.
Now, she could not call 9-1-1 because she lives in a different state than she worked in. The 9-1-1 centers had no way to hand calls off to each other. She got lucky! Another coworker happened to live at the opposite end of the same county as she did. He was closer to my age and lived there before there was 9-1-1.
Just like me, growing up his parents made him memorize his county's seven-digit emergency dispatch number. Luckily, his county had left that number active so that employees and other departments had a way to call directly into the dispatch center. He rattled off that number and she dialed it. VOILA!!! It got into her county's dispatch center.
She was able to talk to the authorities and tell them not just what the guys looked like, but which room they were in and where they were crouched down. They were detained without incident, although all three had pieces on them. All property was recovered not only from her house, but from two other houses on the same street. They got long prison sentences. And it all started with one really bratty cat!
40. Dog School is In Session
I travel the US for work, and am fortunate enough to be able to bring my two beagles with me. They have never been away from my side longer than the time I’ve been at work (they are 10 and 13). I have a camera that I use to check in on them sometimes, mostly because my larger beagle is quite the ingenious guy.
Opening doors, scooting chairs over places so he can jump up onto the counters, etc. etc. Last year I was in Oregon and had to go home to Michigan for an emergency. I do NOT fly with them, I will only drive. So, I was in a pickle and reluctantly hired someone off of Rover who was willing to come stay over at my hotel room for three days.
She was great, kept up on texting me about the dogs, said things like, “tossing them a ball right now.” So I would check-in via the cam when I thought it was appropriate. This woman was amazing. Not only was she playing with them enough to make them exhausted, she was even teaching them new tricks, making them use their brains to solve puzzles, and even got my 42-pound beagle to get up on her back so she could do push-ups (she was an avid cross fitter). I was extremely happy.
41. A Little Off
My brother had a camera that was left in the basement just for safety reasons. He had some workers over to fix a tile shower since it didn't drain properly. I guess the guys were pretty annoyed at having to fix it, but it's their own fault for not doing it right the first time. Fast forward a couple weeks and my brother's sister-in-law is turning 21.
They are in his basement bar when they start pouring shots of Viniq for her. As they were pouring they could smell something wasn't right. Her boyfriend immediately thought it smelled like nail polish remover. They decided to check the camera and sure enough, the workers drank some alcohol and replaced it with a full bottle of nail polish remover. They found the empty bottle under the bathroom sink and my brother's wife knew that was her unopened bottle she had bought previously. Kind of messed up.
42. Secretly Slaying
I used to babysit a nine-year-old kid with Autism, along with his almost two-year-old brother. He really liked to watch YouTube videos alone in his room, and his parents were cool with me letting him during the three to four hours they would leave me with the kids, as long as he ate lunch and as long as he didn't watch anything inappropriate.
They had a nanny cam in the baby's room. So, one afternoon I put the little one down for a nap and brought the laptop with the nanny cam feed with me to the living room, so I could get some reading done. I look up maybe 10 minutes into nap time, and I see the nine-year-old performing the most mind-bending and impressive dance choreography I've ever seen.
His little brother watched in complete awe. This kid was like a little Beyoncé. The best part was his parents confirming that they had watched it too, and they had no idea that he was studying dance videos on YouTube and that he could actually perform such an amazing routine. Five years later, they're on Facebook sharing how he's in his high school's pom squad and how dance has helped with some behavioral delays.
43. Hello In There
It’s pretty standard as a parent to instinctually hear a noise in the deepest sleep in a really awesome dream and immediately wake up and turn the monitor on to investigate. Albeit, that lightens up with their progression. Anyway, my kid was of the age that she was standing and talking and liked to aimlessly travel around her 3x5 crib.
On this particular night, I awoke out of a sleep because of some odd noises, like rustling, and then sort of labored breathing. Then other noises I'd never heard before. So, as a parent (and if you don't have kids, you won't understand until you do) my heart drops. In that one second, someone has broken in, made it past our alarm, past our sleeping dog, and is now trying to take my sweet precious little girl!!!
So, in two seconds flat, I sit straight up like they do in the movies and I look straight over at the dark screen. I grab it, turn it on, and OH MY GOD!! I was NOT prepared for what I saw. My kid’s freaking face was the entire monitor screen, head turned sideways. All I saw was her cute little face and little beady night-vision eyes.
It's an image that's hard to explain, but it scared me more than the initial thoughts that ran through my head; my heart skipped a beat for sure. That's when we found out she now knew what the camera was and could communicate with us through it. She was whispering into the camera while looking into the camera eye. She was whispering, "I love you mommy and daddy, can I come to your bed?" It really was a scary few seconds, then that weird feeling you get when you realize your child's curiosity is so cute and they're learning.
44. Practice Makes Perfect
My child was nonverbal as a baby. Obviously very smart, so we weren't worried about it and just figured it would happen when it happened. You would ask her questions and she'd point at things, or if you said something funny, she would laugh. She also mastered the art of giving meaningful looks, of which we now have many, many hilarious pictures.
We also tried to teach her sign language, which she thought was silly. Wife and I occasionally talk about it, but no big deal. Then one morning we hear our daughter through the monitor. She woke up early and was sitting up in the crib, practicing her words. She'd say a word over and over until she got it right, then move on to another.
This was accompanied by grunts of frustration if she got one wrong. Wife wanted to run in and give her kisses, but I had us wait it out so we could see how deep her vocabulary went. It was actually pretty big, more than 20 words. All that day and for at least a few weeks more, still nonverbal. Then one day she simply started speaking in complete sentences. It was the same when she started walking later.
45. Leave Them Kids Alone
We have a nest in our kids’ room and living/dining rooms. You can see partially into the kitchen from the living room cam, but not much. About the second week into using a new sitter we catch her talking tons of smack about my wife and how she coddles our 18-month-old son. Bragged about how she was going to quit at the end of the day because she hates working for us and doesn’t like our son—but that was just the beginning.
While she’s in the kitchen she puts him in his highchair and turns on an iPad for him to watch Elmo (no screen time is allowed). He asks to get down and go play after a few minutes and she says no, he starts to cry and she basically yells at him, “Oh my God, are you serious right now?! You're so freaking needy.”
So, he cries harder. About 10 minutes later she takes him back to his room where he calms down. I get home a few minutes later and send her on the way. Sitter: “Ohhh you're home early, we had a rough morning but we are feeling better now.” Me: “Yeah, hey you know that camera in the living room is on all the time and I can hear everything you say and do in the kitchen, right?” She kinda stuttered and I told her to get out. Then me and my kid hung out all day and had a blast. The thing that got me was being mean to my son. Like, he’s not even two yet.
46. Goes Down Smooth
I had it set up while me, my husband and kids went away for a few days to visit family. I had a friend of mine (who was a recovering alcoholic and staying with us to help get straight) watch our house and take care of our dogs. I felt like it was a simple enough task. There was zero alcohol in our house and she had no car.
The closest store was like 10 miles away, and her mom was her only contact in town if she needed help. She definitely wouldn't get her alcohol. We are about two days into our trip. I text my friend to see if everything is going well. Hours go by with no reply. I try calling her several times and she won't pick up.
Her sister calls me worried that she can't get ahold of my friend, either. So, I turn on my nanny cam to see what's going on. She’s laying on my couch with nothing on but a tank top and my front door is wide open! I can talk through the camera and tried talking to her, but she was unresponsive. I can see that she is breathing, though.
I call my uncle to go over to my house to check on her and find my dogs. I can see on the camera when my uncle gets there. He tries to shake her awake, but she just groans and won't talk. He throws a blanket over her and finds my dogs locked in the laundry room with poop everywhere. And my dog chewed up the hose on my new Dyson, I was pretty mad.
My uncle hangs around awhile until she wakes up and has no clue what happened. He asks her how she got so messed up—and I still can't quite believe her answer. She drank a bunch of mouth wash!!!!! Don't underestimate addicts. I'd like to say though that she's been sober a year and employed and getting her life on track now. So that’s good at least.
47. I Didn’t Need to Hear That
My mom gets very creeped out by paranormal stuff. Well, one day she walks into my sister’s room and hears the baby monitor intercepting the neighbor's phone conversation. All my mom hears is, "And I looked in the mirror and a fiery demon was standing behind me," before my mom shut the monitor off and ran downstairs with the baby. My grandma was raised in our house, and when she was younger, the lady next door ended her own life by lighting herself on fire. My mom knew all of this when she heard the phone conversation.
48. Old Dog, Great Tricks
My grandpa was staying over, but my parents figured it best to hire the regular sitter to watch my younger siblings overnight since they didn’t think my grandpa was up to the task. They were attending a wedding a couple hours away and made plans to spend the night in a hotel nearby. They had set up a nanny cam in a couple rooms: my siblings’ bedroom, the master bedroom, living room, and kitchen.
All cameras were motion activated. They normally wouldn’t bother looking through the footage if everything seemed fine upon returning home and their master bedroom cam had never been triggered before. When they returned they noticed that the cam in the master bedroom had been triggered, so they decided to take a look—and they were scarred for life.
Cut to footage of my grandpa and the sitter both naked, aggressively making out from the entrance of the room, staggering while intertwined towards the bed. Then, about 20 minutes of banging on my parents’ bed. The sitter was about 20 years old and my grandpa was around 70 at the time. My dad called me immediately after he saw the footage.
He was laughing his butt off, and I could hear my mom crying in the background completely mortified from what she had just witnessed. She was shouting at my dad to throw out the sheets and kick out grandpa. My mom called the sitter to confront her and she just apologized and said there was a “connection” or something to that effect.
When my mom asked my grandpa what he was thinking he just said, “At my age, you must seize every opportunity that you get.” I wish there was audio for the build-up. I still lay awake at night sometimes just wondering what kind of slick game my grandpa was talking to get in that sitter’s pants. Absolutely legendary.
49. Let’s Make a Deal
Not my kids, but my sister’s. This was when my nephew was still very young and my sister was still breastfeeding. Long story short, my sister caught the babysitter drinking her breast milk. She had her suspicions because my nephew would go through twice as much milk when the baby sitter was taking care of him.
My sister set up the camera and caught the guy in the act. Apparently, the guy was some sort of fitness nut and had read that breast milk can be very beneficial. As weird as it sounds, my sister ended up working out a deal with the guy. She got him to drop the price of watching the kid in exchange for a bit of breastmilk every now and again.
Sources: Reddit,
