History Main / BabysitterFromHell

* Rat proved himself to be the absolute ''worst'' babysitter imaginable in the ''ComicStrip/BabyBlues''[=-=]''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' crossover strip: Here's a rundown of what happened: he agrees to doing everything Wanda and Darryl ask of him, and as soon as they leave, [[DrinkingOnDuty prepares to waste himself with shots of Tequila (and started wearing a beer hat)]]. He then has Zoe and Hammie go out to a package and liquor store to get more bottles of tequila (note: Zoe and Hammie, are incredibly too young to drive, never mind below the age limit of purchasing alcohol, so he's risking their being potentially arrested and doing time at a juvenile correction facility for driving below the age limit, underage purchasing of alcohol, ''and'' possession of alcohol while driving just to get himself drunk yet again, at the very least). Predictably, it goes as badly as possible, with Hammie apparently wrecking their parents' minivan, which also causes a gas station to explode, and apparently they accidentally ran over Jeremy from Zits, and his reaction was horror that their liquor run was delayed. Likewise, he left Wren unsupervised while he went to watch a movie, which nearly got Wren eaten by the crocodiles (only reason they didn't eat her is that she turned the tables on them and actually bludgeoned them to death [[BatterUp with a plastic bat]]). Honestly, at least [[WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents Vicky]] expressed some concern when Timmy disappeared under her charge.

* ''Film/DontBotherToKnock'': Nell may be the supreme example. She seems all right at first, but as the night wears on she menaces Bunny, neglects her when she cries, and at one point at least toys with the idea of [[DestinationDefenestration pushing her out the window]]. By the end she's tied the kid up.

* The Creator/{{Netflix}} original horror/comedy film ''Film/TheBabysitter2017'' takes this trope to a very literal extreme with the main character's baby sitter actually being the lead member of a Satanic Cult. At the same time it subverts it as, aside from the tiny detail of secretly using small amounts of his blood in rituals alongside human sacrifices, the titular babysitter is actually pretty great at her job and seems to genuinely care for her charge. Also worth noting, she isn't planning on sacrificing ''him'', [[spoiler:and even saves his life from another Cult member. She's still a villain.]]

* From the anthology series ''Literature/ClassicSingaporeHorrorStories'', one of the stories titled ''Suffer the Children'' revolves around an unmarried woman in her 30s who is tasked with taking care of her sister's two children. Harboring a grudge towards her far more successful sister, she instead spends her time whipping, beating and abusing both kids, culminating in an [[spoiler: AccidentalMurder moment when she smashed her niece's head repeatedly on a wall and crushing the little girl's skull]].

* ''Literature/AKindOfSpark'': When Addie was four and her twin older sisters Nina and Keedie were eleven, they had an abusive childminder named Mrs Craig. At this point Keedie had been diagnosed with autism, but Addie had not, and Mrs Craig thought Keedie was a spoiled brat. When Keedie couldn't stomach the disgusting dinner, Mrs Craig [[TantrumThrowing threw a plate]], pinned her to the ground, and screamed at her. At that point a neighbor heard the screams and intervened, but Keedie didn't come out of her room for days.

* ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris'' has the "Everybody Hates The Babysitter" episode in which the babysitter won't stay in the house, getting into a fight with her baby's daddy, and leaving Chris to look after the kid because she's too lazy. The episode ends with Chris blabbing everything she did and Rochelle getting ready to beat the hell out of her. There wasn't much saying this was another ImagineSpot either, so it probably actually happened.
--> ''Rochelle'': "Hold my hair." *hands Chris her wig as a boxing bell goes off*

* The first season of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had the Babysitter Bandit, a criminal who tried to rob the place. Bart, Lisa, and Maggie manage to defeat her and flee to a payphone, [[spoiler:but Homer and Marge get home before the police arrive, untie her and let her leave. Homer even carried the bags of loot she'd stolen from them to her car]].

* A robot babysitter (voiced by Sarah Silverman) looks after Meatwad in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce.'' She was made by Frylock, after he and Shake get jobs at a Slurp-A-Lunch but she does the opposite of what Frylock made her to do and abuses Meatwad. When she shows her true colors to Frylock, he gets rid of her by putting her (and her friend, Shiela) in the Slurp-A-Lunch's juicer. Earlier, they had Carl as babysitter and he let Meatwad get into the medicine cabinet.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' has Numbuh Two's mom hires ''Cree'', of all people, to babysit him and Tommy, who turns out to be only one of many babysitters plotting to dispose of their charges. [[spoiler:It turns out to be AllJustADream, but when Numbuh Two wakes up, his actual babysitter is at the door, [[OrWasItADream and the episode ends there]].]]
* Elmyra Duff from ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' is an unintentional example of this in the short, "Drooley Davey" (part of "The Wide World of Elmyra"). While she means no harm towards Davey, she is clearly too young and stupid to be a proper babysitter. Davey's parents are completely oblivious to their son being scared by Elmyra's presence and pass it off as him being excited to see her. At one point in the cartoon, Elmyra tries feeding him extremely hot milk. When Elmyra volunteers to babysit him again the following night, Davey packs his bags, says "I Quit" to his parents in a [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Baby Herman]]-esque voice, and runs away.
* In ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'', twin geniuses Susan and Mary are head over heels in love with their dumbass next-door neighbour Gil. But he never notices they exist despite them having been neighbours for seven years. In one episode, he starts a babysitting service, in which to get close to him, the two turn themselves into babies. In which his babysitting routine includes "bouncing on a pull out sofa" "watching horror movies" and "feeding them chili" (Not to mention he has no idea how to change a diaper). Their brother Johnny calls him out on each one, and questions why he even started a babysitting business.
* One episode, "Pet Sitter Pat", of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' shows Patrick in this light. First, he throws away the schedule [=SpongeBob=] gave him because he can't read it (he was holding it upside-down) and, two, he eats all the snail food Sponge left for Gary. Oh, when it's bathtime, he tries to bathe Gary with a ''flamethrower''. Though this is played with, as, other than the pineapple getting wrecked, the episode flip-flops on whether or not Patrick is as bad or less as [=SpongeBob=] keeps imagining him to be.

** In the episode "Sitting Bull," Lori, Leni, Luna, and Luan pride themselves as the best babysitters in town, and reluctantly allow Lynn Jr. into their business. They regret it almost immediately after a client calls to complain about how she forced her kids to perform rigorous exercises. When they threaten to kick her out of their group, she takes on their jobs and gets them fired, citing rough treatment. They then decide to stick her with the worst kids they know, to get her to quit. It doesn't work, as Lynn Jr. proves to be the only babysitter that can actually put up with them, and gets hired by that couple to care for their kids whenever they want to go out.

* ''WesternAnimation/LesSisters'': Madame Georgette, who is well-intentioned but not a very good babysitter. When she has to babysit the Sisters for the weekend, she forces them to eat disgusting soup instead of ordering a pizza like they wanted, makes them go to sleep before it's even night time despite Wendy telling her she had to watch an important episode of her favorite show, and confiscates Wendy's tablet and Marine's snacks.

* The Creator/{{Netflix}} original horror/comedy film ''Film/TheBabysitter'' takes this trope to a very literal extreme with the main character's baby sitter actually being the lead member of a Satanic Cult. At the same time it subverts it as, aside from the tiny detail of secretly using small amounts of his blood in rituals alongside human sacrifices, the titular babysitter is actually pretty great at her job and seems to genuinely care for her charge. Also worth noting, she isn't planning on sacrificing ''him'', [[spoiler:and even saves his life from another Cult member. She's still a villain.]]

* The Graphic Novel ''ComicBook/{{Blankets}}'' details this. Greg mentions that he imagined people who were mean to him eating their own excrement as revenge for the things they did. The picture shows his SadistTeacher, his schoolyard bullies, and the babysitter, whose eyes are never shown. It's never stated explicitly what he did... but the [[AdultFear novel gives enough hints to show that he sexually abused Greg and his brother]].

* Miss Andrew from the ''Literature/MaryPoppins'' series is so conceited and verbally abusive, Mr. Banks refers to her as, "a Holy Terror!"

[[folder:Fan Fic]]
* In ''Webcomic/KillLaKillAU'', we get this Rei the "Drunk Secretary", whose natural idea of babysitting Mako, Ryuuko, Nui, and Satsuki (the oldest of which is five and the youngest being two, along with the middle being three) involved sending them on a beer run when she runs out of booze, along with implications that she is rarely sober. Needless to say, Ragyo and Soichiro were none too pleased, Ragyo even hitting her with a baseball bat.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Calvin of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' ''thinks'' his babysitter Rosalyn is this but from her viewpoint, she's fending off becoming a BadlyBatteredBabysitter. [[spoiler:Then in her last appearance, a game of {{Calvinball}} brings them together, averting both tropes.]]
* In the original ''ComicStrip/LittleOrphanAnnie'' comic, the original orphanage manager, Miss Asthma, and her partner in crime, Mrs. Bottle, make Miss Hannigan seem saintly in comparison.
* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' has a strip in which the parents come home and find [[spoiler:that the witch they hired cooked and ate not one, but both children.]]
* Rat proved himself to be the absolute ''worst'' babysitter imaginable in the ''ComicStrip/BabyBlues''[=-=]''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' crossover strip: Here's a rundown of what happened: he agrees to doing everything Wanda and Darryl ask of him, and as soon as they leave, [[DrinkingOnDuty prepares to waste himself with shots of Tequila (and started wearing a beer hat)]]. He then has Zoe and Hammie go out to a package and liquor store to get more bottles of tequila (note: Zoe and Hammie, are incredibly too young to drive, never mind below the age limit of purchasing alcohol, so he's risking their being potentially arrested and doing time at a juvenile correction facility for driving below the age limit, underage purchasing of alcohol, ''and'' possession of alcohol while driving just to get himself drunk yet again, at the very least). Predictably, it goes as badly as possible, with Hammie apparently wrecking their parents' minivan, which also causes a gas station to explode, and apparently they accidentally ran over Jeremy from Zits, and his reaction was horror that their liquor run was delayed. Likewise, he left Wren unsupervised while he went to watch a movie, which nearly got Wren eaten by the crocodiles (only reason they didn't eat her is that she turned the tables on them and actually bludgeoned them to death [[BatterUp with a plastic bat]]). Honestly, at least [[WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents Vicky]] expressed some concern when Timmy disappeared under her charge.
[[/folder]]

* Inverted in Barry Louis Polisar's "When The House Is Dark And Quiet". Not a BadlyBatteredBabysitter case, as the kids don't run away or actually ''hurt'' their temporary caregivers: they just hassle them and drive them up the wall until they quit.

This villain type is always introduced the same way: parents need someone to care for their children. Often, possibly because either a parent or child has a bad reputation, short notice or bad timing (who'd have thought they'd schedule the high school prom and the elementary school PTA meeting on the same night?), the parents are left with few choices.

# Children are frightened of them. HilarityEnsues as adults take little notice of a child's instinctive concern, being either too busy or assuming it's just ordinary separation anxiety.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Stan's sister Skyler occasionally works as a babysitter, e.g. in [[Recap/SouthParkS3E7CatOrgy "Cat Orgy"]], and she's abusive. Then again, the only kid we've seen her babysit is [[{{Jerkass}} Eric]] [[FatBastard Cartman]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Stan's sister Skyler occasionally works as a babysitter, e.g. in [["Recap/SouthParkS3E7CatOrgy Cat Orgy"]], and she's terrible. Then again, the only kid we've seen her babysit is [[{{Jerkass}} Eric]] [[FatBastard Cartman]].

* ''Film/DontBotherToKnock'': Nell may be the supreme example. She seems all right at first, but as the night wears on she menaces Bunny, neglects her when she cries, and at one point at least toys with the idea of [[DestinationDefenestration pushing her out the window]]. By the end she’s tied the kid up.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Stan's sister occasionally works as a babysitter, and she's terrible. Then again, the only kid we've seen her babysit is [[{{Jerkass}} Eric]] [[FatBastard Cartman]].

The inversions of this trope are BadlyBatteredBabysitter, where the CHILD torments the babysitter, and BabysitterFriendship, where the child and babysitter love seeing each other.

This villain type is always introduced the same way: parents need someone to care for their children. Often, possibly because either a parent or child has a bad reputation, short notice, or bad timing (who'd have thought they'd schedule the high school prom and the elementary school PTA meeting on the same night?), the parents are left with few choices.

The Babysitter from Hell is often a JerkassAtYourDiscretion; only after the parents leave is the Babysitter from Hell revealed for what they are. Usually this character can be identified by at least three of the following traits or behaviors:

Only after the parents leave is the Babysitter from Hell [[TheReveal revealed]] for what they are. Usually this character can be identified by at least three of the following traits or behaviors:

** In the episode "Sitting Bull," Lori, Leni, Luna, and Luanne pride themselves as the best babysitters in town, and reluctantly allow Lynn Jr. into their business. They regret it almost immediately after a client calls to complain about how she forced her kids to perform rigorous exercises. When they threaten to kick her out of their group, she takes on their jobs and gets them fired, citing rough treatment. They then decide to stick her with the worst kids they know, to get her to quit. It doesn't work, as Lynn Jr. proves to be the only babysitter that can actually put up with them, and gets hired by that couple to care for their kids whenever they want to go out.

The inversion of this trope is BadlyBatteredBabysitter. If you have a case where this trope is subverted, check BadlyBatteredBabysitter to see if it goes there first.

** A more "literal" case, is one episode where Timmy in an act of revenge read her diary and sabotaged her love life. Since Vicky was too upset to babysit, Timmy's parents hired a replacement: a group of sitters who resemble ''THE FREAKING '''GRIM REAPER!!'''''

* [[PlayingWithATrope Toyed with]] in the 2015 thriller Emelie where the babysitter is an imposter seeking new kids to [[ReplacementGoldfish replace her son that died.]]

This villain type is always introduced the same way: parents need someone to care for their children. Often, possibly because either a parent or child has a bad reputation, short notice or bad timing (who'd have thought they'd schedule the high school prom and the elementary school PTA meeting on the same night?), the parents are left with few choices.

# The child is assigned all the chores while the babysitter chats on the phone, watches TV or otherwise refuses to help.

This is a villain type where on the SlidingScaleOfAntagonistVileness the Babysitter from Hell can range from pure evil, to a JerkassWoobie with a DarkAndTroubledPast of their own, and AlternateCharacterInterpretation may allow some to be regarded as both.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDDf7DSJBNI This Cap'n Crunch Cereal commercial]] involves the Cap'n taking two children away from the cross, elderly female babysitter Mrs. Winkler, to have a house party in his ship.
* This 1997 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-6MscY5nRg Burger King Kids' Club]] commercial features two siblings being frightened by their mean-looking elderly female babysitter, until the animated kid mascot of the Kids' Club zaps the siblings away to have fun at a Burger King instead.

* In ''Webcomic/KillLaKillAU'', we get this Rei the "Drunk Secretary", whose natural idea of babysitting Mako, Ryuuko, Nui,and Satsuki (the oldest of which is five and the youngest being two, along with the middle being three) involved sending them on a beer run when she runs out of booze, along with implications that she is rarely sober. Needless to say, Ragyo and Soichiro were none too pleased, Ragyo even hitting her with a baseball bat.

* Subverted with Elizabeth[=/=]Zee from ''WesternAnimation/MonsterHouse''. Though largely apathetic to DJ, she calls off her boyfriend when he continues harassing her charge, and even gives the kids some halloween candy.

* The Creator/{{Netflix}} original horror/comedy film ''Film/TheBabysitter'' takes this trope to a very literal extreme with the main character's baby sitter actually being the lead member of a Satanic Cult. At the same time it subverts it as, aside from the tiny detail of secretly using small amounts of his blood in rituals alongside of human sacrifices, the titular babysitter is actually pretty great at her job and seems to genuinely care for her charge. Also worth noting, she isn't planning on sacrificing ''him'', [[spoiler:and even saves his life from another Cult member. She's still a villain.]]

* ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'': From what we hear of her, Gawain and Twyla's previous nanny was a mean and strict woman who tried to scare her charges straight with all sorts of bogeymen that would punish children for the slightest bit of disobedience. Thanks to [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve the power of belief]] some of these things turn out to be real. Susan takes to chasing these ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight off with a fireplace poker, but also expresses a desire to hunt this woman down and use the poker on her.

* A bloodcurdling example occurs on ''[[Series/{{CSI}} CSI: Crime Scene Investigation]]'' when the team finds a little boy's corpse in a garbage bag. They discover that the little boy was one of three brothers staying with a prostitute who happened to be their mother's cousin. The prostitute locked all three of them in the basement of the shed in her backyard, and when one of them died she simply got one of her johns to put the body into a garbage bag and hide it in someone else's trash. The hooker claims that her cousin simply dumped the boys on her without leaving any money to pay for feeding them. Brass later discovers that the boys' mother did in fact give her hooker cousin $300...and as Brass put it "that skanky bitch went out and bought a new TV!" The [=CSI=] team eventually find the two surviving boys in the basement of the hooker's shed, and they're both close to death. Brass quite bluntly threatens the prostitute with the warning that, if either of them dies, he's going to do everything in his power to make sure she gets the death penalty.

* Played with in ''Series/ThatsSoRaven''. In "Cake Fear," Raven and her brother are told their parents are hiring an old babysitter to look after them for the weekend. The babysitter, Ms. Patterson, was a complete pushover who let them do whatever they wanted, and they blamed her for eating a cake their dad made for their mom's birthday. Raven expects her to still be the same pushover she was before, until they find out she had a psychotic breakdown, spent time in prison... and escaped. And then Raven's friends start disappearing while staying at the house. [[spoiler: It turns out the whole thing's a reality TV show prank on Raven and Cory. Ms. Patterson wanted to get back at them for blaming her for the cake incident, and their dad was in on it the whole time.]]

* [[Music/{{Queen}} ""Left alone with big fat Fanny / She was such a naughty nanny . . ."]]

* Calvin of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' ''thinks'' his babysitter, Rosalyn, is this, but from her viewpoint, she's fending off becoming a BadlyBatteredBabysitter. [[spoiler:Then in her last appearance, a game of {{Calvinball}} brings them together, averting both tropes.]]

* Rat proved himself to be the absolute ''worst'' babysitter imaginable in the ''ComicStrip/BabyBlues''[=-=]''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' crossover strip: Here's a rundown of what happened: he agrees to doing everything Wanda and Darryl ask of him, and as soon as they leave, [[DrinkingOnDuty prepares to waste himself with shots of Tequila (and started wearing a beer hat)]]. He then has Zoe and Hammie go out to a package and liquor store to get more bottles of tequila (note: Zoe and Hammie, are incredibly too young to drive, never mind below the age limit of purchasing alcohol, so he's risking their being potentially arrested and doing time at a juvenile correction facility for driving below the age limit, underage purchasing of alcohol, ''and'' possession of alcohol while driving just to get himself drunk yet again, at the very least). Predictably, it goes as badly as possible, with Hammie apparently wrecking their parents' minivan, which also causes a gas station to explode, and apparently they accidentally ran over Jeremy from Zits, and his reaction was horror that their liquor run was delayed. Likewise, he left Wren unsupervised while he went to watch a movie, which nearly got Wren eaten by the crocodiles (only reason they didn't eat her is because she turned the tables on them and actually bludgeoned them to death [[BatterUp with a plastic bat]]). Honestly, at least [[WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents Vicky]] expressed some concern when Timmy disappeared under her charge.

* Syphile from ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' in the first chapter manages to hit points 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ''and'' 9, with 9 being a particularly brutal version of [[KillTheCutie Kill The Kitty]] in front of Ariel. It's little wonder that when asked what her greatest desire is, the 10 year old Ariel's response is "Kill Syphile."

** A more "literal" case, is one episode where Timmy in an act of revenge read her diary and sabotaged her love life. Since Vicky was too upset to babysit, Timmy's parents hired a replacement. A group of sitters who resemble ''THE FREAKING '''GRIM REAPER!!'''''

* There's a ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon in which the cat and mouse are on the same side, [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter protecting the baby from getting into danger]], but every time the teen girl hired as the actual babysitter pauses on the phone it's to beat them up for bothering the baby they just put back into the crib. In this case the babysitter is neglectful, but not mean to the baby, with Tom and Jerry being the target.
* The first season of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had the Babysitter Bandit, a criminal who tried to rob the place. Bart, Lisa and Maggie manage to defeat her and flee to a pay phone, [[spoiler:but Homer and Marge get home before the police arrive, untie her and let her leave. Homer even carried the bags of loot she'd stolen from them to her car]].

** Actually, while Mel is perfectly willing to go after Megan, Marc and Tony once they catch on to him, his target was Lee who he had already nabbed by TheReveal and was planning of disposing of (along with the rest of the agents he had kidnapped) via bombs!

* In ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'', twin geniuses Susan and Mary are head over heels in love with their dumbass next door neighbour Gil. But he never notices they exist despite them having been neighbours for seven years. In one episode, he starts a babysitting service, in which to get close to him, the two turn themselves into babies. In which his babysitting routine includes "bouncing on a pull out sofa" "watching horror movies" and "feeding them chili" (Not to mention he has no idea how to change a diaper). Their brother Johnny calls him out on each one, and questions why he even started a babysitting business.
* One episode, "Pet Sitter Pat", of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' shows Patrick in this light. First, he throws away the schedule [=SpongeBob=] gave him because he can't read it (he was holding it upside-down) and, two, he eats all the snail food Sponge left for Gary. Oh, when it's bathtime, he tries to bathe Gary with a ''flamethrower''. Though, this is played with, as, other than the pineapple getting wrecked, the episode flip-flops on whether or not Patrick is as bad or less as [=SpongeBob=] keeps imagining him to be.

** In the episode "Sitting Bull," Lori, Leni, Luna, and Luanne pride themselves as the best babysitters in town, and reluctantly allow Lynn Jr. into their business. They regret it almost immediately after a client calls to complain about how she forced her kids to perform rigorous exercises. When they threaten to kick her out of their group, she takes on their jobs, and gets them fired, citing rough treatment. They then decide to stick her with the worst kids they know, to get her to quit. It doesn't work, as Lynn Jr. proves to be the only babysitter that can actually put up with them, and gets hired by that couple to care for their kids whenever they want to go out.

* ''WesternAnimation/LesSisters'': Madame Georgette, who is well-intentioned but not a very good baby-sitter. When she has to babysit the Sisters for the weekend, she forces them to eat disgusting soup instead of ordering a pizza like they wanted, makes them go to sleep before it's even night time despite Wendy telling her she had to watch an important episode of her favorite show, and confiscates Wendy's tablet and Marine's snacks.