History Main / BadlyBatteredBabysitter

** The roles are reversed in the episode ''Married....without Children''. Al and Peggy decide to take a vacation at a motel in Wisconsin. Their next-door neighbors, Steve and Marcy Rhoade, offer to babysit Bud and Kelly. They quickly regret their decision as Bud and Kelly prove to be total chaos. (Marcy wanted to know what it would be like to raise a child.) The Rhoades are thrilled to hear that Al and Peggy are deciding to come home early. To avoid babysitting the Bundy's kids again, Marcy allows Kelly to throw a party, which was forbidden by Peggy. This turns out to be a bigger mistake. Not only are the Rhoades' home wrecked by the party, but Al and Peggy decide to stay at the motel.

** This was taken UpToEleven in a HalloweenEpisode where Buttons chased her into a zombie-infested graveyard (Mindy apparently knew what zombies were, but just didn't realize they were ''dangerous'') ending in a {{Homage}} to Music/MichaelJackson's "Thriller". (Sort of a [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome CMOA]] for Buttons.) At least this time, Buttons didn't get yelled at by Mindy's parents.

* An incredibly weird variation occurs in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''. The girls are given a random babysitter who, by chance, is their ArchNemesis Mojo Jojo, who believes that as their babysitter he can demand that they help him take over Townsville. The girls are deliberately the worst kids ever, eventually escalating to a direct NoHoldsBarredBeatdown, ultimately driving him completely insane.

** The roles are reversed in the episode ''Married....without Children''. Al and Peggy decide to take a vacation at a motel in Wisconsin. Their next-door neighbors, Steve and Marcy Rhoade, offer to babysit Bud and Kelly. They quickly regret their decision as Bud and Kelly prove to be total chaos. (Marcy wanted to know what it would be like to raise a child.) The Rhoades are thrilled to hear that Al and Peggy are deciding to come home early. To prove that they shouldn't babysit the kids again, Marcy allows Kelly to throw a party, which was forbidden by Peggy. This turns out to be a bigger mistake. Not only are the Rhoades' home wrecked by the party, but Al and Peggy decide to stay at the motel.

* Invoked in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/10667829 Shock the Monkey]]''. Since Hal Jordan ate leftovers that obviously weren't intended for him, Batman is gonna throw the hapless Lantern to the Batkids until he finally repents and swears to never touch the fridge again. It works.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' abused its titular character as he attempted to babysit Baby Herman in a film-short-within-a-film. This 'plot' was carried over to subsequent WesternAnimation/RogerRabbitShorts.

* In ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'' Tim's friend Ives gets so badly bruised after taking a job as a mascot at a SuckECheeses that Tim thinks he's being abused, it turns out the injuries are from the kids and his lack of mobility in his GoofySuit.

* Deconstructed in the horror film ''Film/BabysitterWanted''. A wholesome Christian girl is left in charge of a little boy out in the country when an intruder breaks in and tries to kill him. She manages to fight the intruder (a priest) off and save the little boy's life, only to find out later that [[spoiler:the parents who left her in charge are actually killers who butcher young virgins to feed them to the little boy, who is revealed to be the [[Main/EnfantTerrible spawn of Satan]]. At the end of the movie, the kid remains alive, and well, and truly ''is'' the reason why the babysitter goes through all sorts of torture and abuse.]]

* Happens to ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' in a filler episode, when Conan's stuck taking care of a two-year-old boy named Santa whose mother Shigeko is one of Kogoro's clients. [[spoiler: And then Shigeko is kidnapped...]] [[spoiler: And in the end, it turns out that Santa's real name is Haruka... [[GenderReveal and 'he' is really a little girl]].]]

-->''Turner'': Oh. I'm sorry. That must be hard.

BabysitterFromHell is the inversion of this trope, but this trope sometimes comes into play as a karmic punishment. It also works the other way around. See also BabysitterFriendship, where the child the babysitter looks after is one of their best friends.

When the parents -- who frankly should be locked up for negligence -- return home, they are either totally unaware that anything untoward has happened, or [[SelectiveEnforcement chastise the babysitter for something trivial]], like tracking mud on the carpet, not knowing that the sitter has suffered massive AmusingInjuries keeping their child safe.

* Alice Sakaguchi is this to Rin Kobayashi briefly in the beginning of ''Manga/PleaseSaveMyEarth'', but Rin turned out to be... well, a different kind of special from what Alice expected.

* Very averted in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', where Rosalyn comes close to a BabysitterFromHell at times, being one of the few people Calvin is truly afraid of. First, every time the parents hire Rosalyn to watch over Calvin, he's always the one to get lectured (at the very least) for the pranks he pulls on her. He once tried to run away and didn't get very far before she brought him back. Rosalyn can generally take what he dishes out and come down hard on him for it. Even during the times Calvin "won", it would always be a PyrrhicVictory at best, as he was the one to get in trouble for it. Second, she commands ''princely'' sums (even getting advances) as she's the only one who will put up with Calvin. Third, the parents are all too aware of Calvin's antics themselves, so Rosalyn never has to worry about [[CassandraTruth not being believed]]. Lastly, in Rosalyn's final appearance, she and Calvin make peace with each other after bonding over a game of {{Calvinball}}. Although one strip suggested that the reason Rosalyn is willing to babysit Calvin is that ''every other babysitter'' who his parents have hired have fallen victim to this trope.

* Invoked in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/10667829 Shock the Monkey]]''. Since Hal Jordan ate leftovers which obviously weren't intended for him, Batman is gonna throw the hapless Lantern to the Batkids until he finally repents and swears to never touch the fridge again. It works.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' is this in a nutshell: a mammoth, a sloth and a sabre-toothed tiger protect a Palaeolithic baby from ice storms, ice caves, icicles, and a lava field. Baby has fun. Caretakers? Not so much.

* ''Film/TheBoy'' is about a girl on the run from an abusive ex being hired to babysit a rich couples child in a mansion. The problem is he's just a doll, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane or is he]].

* Played ''very'' darkly during the Creator/KimNewman novella "Bloody Students." One subplot involves a woman named Abigail being asked to babysit the protagonist's eight-year-old son, Jason: the kid's a nuisance at the best of times, but he's recently been bitten by a rabbit carrying the [[TheCorruption mutagenic super-virus]] of the story, so things start to go downhill when Jason mutates... and then goes on to not only attack Abigail, but ''rape'' her as well.

** The roles are reversed in the episode ''Married....without Children''. Al and Peggy decide to take a vacation at a motel in Wisconsin. Their next door neighbors, Steve and Marcy Rhoade, offer to babysit Bud and Kelly. They quickly regret their decision as Bud and Kelly prove to be total chaos. (Marcy wanted to know what it would be like to raise a child.) The Rhoades are thrilled to hear that Al and Peggy are deciding to come home early. To prove that they shouldn't babysit the kids again, Marcy allows Kelly to throw a party, which was forbidden by Peggy. This turns out to be a bigger mistake. Not only are the Rhoades' home wrecked by the party, but Al and Peggy decide to stay at the motel.

* In the ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' episode "Two Idiots and a Baby", Drake and Josh must look after their father's boss's son. However, Drake leaves to play a gig with his band, leaving Josh to take care of the baby all by himself. On top of this, his step sister [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Megan]] decides to play a prank on him by hiding the baby. Fortunately, Drake comes home in time to help his stepbrother out.

* OlderThanPrint: In a [[Myth/CelticMythology Welsh]] folktale, Prince Llywelyn the Great returns from a day out to discover his baby son's cradle overturned, the baby missing, and the guard dog Gelert with blood around his mouth. Llywelyn drew his sword and killed Gelert, who let out a final dying yelp. Then he heard the baby's cries and found it under the cradle, unharmed, along with a dead wolf which had attacked the child. Gelert had killed it, and the blood had been the wolf's -- and his own, from wounds received in the child's defense.

* One variation of the "Caller Upstairs" urban legend involve the babysitter inviting a friend or even her boyfriend over. After several calls they alert the police, and the friend/boyfriend goes upstairs to investigate, the 911 dispatcher calls and says the caller is inside the house, the companion then comes tumbling into the living room, bleeding out, telling the original babysitter to make a run for it.

* ''Series/TheMuppetShow:'' Anyone who has to look after Bobby Benson's Baby Band is bound to become a badly battered babysitter. Fozzie got beaten up in less than two minutes (in fairness, he tried to tell them his jokes). Miss Piggy's room got ransacked. The babies don't even got along with each other, often picking fights mid-act, so anyone else is fair game. The only person who can keep them on a leash is Bobby himself. And Bobby's a crook.

* The "Mythic Babysitting" campaign outline in ''[[TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} GURPS All-Star Jam 2004]]'' takes this trope up to eleven. You play as a babysitter taking care of underage gods and/or demons, werewolf puppies, kid geniuses, boy wizards or little witches and the children of superheroes and villains. There's a reason the benefits package for the babysitters includes free resurrection for babysitters killed in action.

* This happens to Spot in the ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatiansTheSeries'' episode, "Wild Chick Chase", when she's forced to babysit Peeps, a baby chick.

** The title characters spent an episode taking care of a eagle chick named Baby Earl. Baby Earl's mama had decided to nest right on the edge of a cliff, and Baby Earl himself decided he wanted to try "flying the coop"...literally. This was not helped by the fact that the only reason Timon and Pumbaa were stuck looking after the kid was because [[MamaBear the mother]] caught them stealing food from her precious baby, and so forced them to watch him as punishment, with the condition that if [[PunctuatedForEmphasis "ONE. SINGLE. SCRATCH"]] was found on Baby Earl, that Timon would be crushed. [[HilarityEnsues And then there was the semi that randomly showed up...]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' did ''two'' of these. There is one episode where at the end Tom and Jerry are ''arrested for kidnapping''. Though it at least seems at the end that they might get off since the interrogating officer notices the baby wandering off ''again''. There was also another where it ends with the baby mischievously winking at the camera, suggesting he does it ''on purpose''. During both of those cartoons, the babysitter spends the entire time talking on the phone and sees the moment Tom puts the baby back on his crib. She then hits Tom or throws him out of the house, thinking he was harassing or harming the baby.

* The short film ''Jack-Jack Attack'' (special featured on the ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' DVD) features a slightly ditzy but responsible girl (Kari) babysitting Jack-Jack Parr. Jack-Jack proceeds to [[RandomTransportation teleport about the house]], [[PowerFloats defy gravity]], chew through a wooden "cage" (actually an inverted playpen), [[IntangibleMan phase through walls]], set the house on fire while '''[[WreathedInFlames being on fire]]''', and [[EyeBeams shoot Kari with lasers]] (which is the page image). [[MeanwhileBackAtThe This actually happened WITHIN the time-frame of the movie, off-screen]]. Her frantic calls to Mrs. Parr, and the ease/eagerness with which she handed the kid off to a [[BigBad complete stranger]] that belatedly identified himself as the replacement sitter, tied into the main plot as well. To her credit, she never tried to leave Jack-Jack before the "replacement sitter" showed up (and Helen had told her she'd be calling a replacement), and [[ExhaustionInducedIdiocy she was stressed out and sleep-deprived at that point]].

** A late-season has the Smurflings volunteer to look after Bigmouth's infant son, which they soon regret, as looking after a baby ogre (who clearly inherited his dad's huge appetite) is difficult and exhausting, even when the other Smurfs help, not to mention a drain on their supply of smurfberry juice. Bigmouth's warning that he'd be ''very'' angry if anything bad happens doesn't make it easier.

** In the episode "My Sister, My Sitter," Lisa starts a successful babysitting business, and when Marge and Homer decide to go out one night, they leave her in charge of Bart and Magie. Feeling humiliated at the fact that his younger sister is in charge of him, Bart decides to put Lisa through the same hell the other babysitters went through.

Compare NoSympathy, EscortMission (and StealthEscortMission when the babysitter must ensure their charge is unaware there was any danger in the first place), and DreadedKidsPartyEntertainerJob.

* [[DoubleSubversion Double subverted]] in the [[GenreAnthology horror anthology film]] ''The Mortuary Collection''. The final segment, "The Babysitter Murders" (originally released as a short film in its own right), opens with a familiar SlasherMovie storyline: Sam, a pretty blonde babysitter, finds herself under attack by the "Tooth Fairy" SerialKiller who broke out of a mental hospital, and fights to save both herself and the children under her watch. She also starts the film watching a cheesy slasher with a very similar plot. [[spoiler:It turns out, however, that ''she'' is the escaped serial killer -- her real name is Charlotte, and she took the name Sam from the [[GenderBlenderName (male)]] original babysitter, who is now fighting back against her and who we'd been led to believe was the bad guy for most of the segment. Given that we've been following "Sam"/Charlotte as the AudienceSurrogate during the FramingDevice connecting the segments, it goes without saying that TheBadGuyWins; when the segment starts, she's already killed one of the kids and is [[ImAHumanitarian putting him in the oven]] (which we only find out after TheReveal), she kills the real Sam and escapes as the kids' parents return home, and she was at the mortuary not to apply for a job but to collect a tooth from her victim's corpse (her [[CreepySouvenir trademark as a killer]]). The mortician Montgomery Dark, upon learning who "Sam" really is (and especially after she tries to kill him upon deciding that HeKnowsTooMuch), proceeds to inflict a dose of LaserGuidedKarma on her.]]

* For an adult-to-adult example, check out ''Film/HeartOfDragon'' starring Creator/JackieChan and Creator/SammoHung, where Chan plays the big brother to his mentally-retarded autistic sibling, Sammo, and spends much of the film getting dragged into Dodo's shenanigans and losing his job due to needing to take care of his retarded brother.

** The roles are reversed in the episode ''Married....without Children''. Al and Peggy decide to take a vacation at a motel in Wisconsin. Their next door neighbors, Steve and Marcy Rhoade, offer to babysit Bud and Kelly. They quickly regret their decision as Bud and Kelly prove to be total chaos. (Marcy wanted to know what it would be like to raise a child.) The Rhoades are thrilled to hear that Al and Peg decide to come home early. To prove that they shouldn't babysit the kids again, Marcy allows Kelly to throw a party, which was forbidden by Peggy. This turns out to be a bigger mistake. Not only are the Rhoades' home wrecked by the party, but Al and Peg decide to stay at the motel.

** In the episode "Adventures in Rufus-Sitting", Kim watches Rufus while Ron and his parents go on vacation. Rufus ends up swallowing a microchip that is wanted by everyone, and three different villains come after him for it. After Rufus is kidnapped, Kim tracks him to France, where, ironically, Ron is vacationing, and has to save him from the hands of the Shego, Duff Killigan, and Monkey Fist, without letting Ron know.

** The roles are reversed in the episode ''Married....without Children''. Al and Peg decide to take a vacation at a motel in Wisconsin. Their next door neighbors, Steve and Marcy Rhoade, offer to babysit Bud and Kelly. They quickly regret their decision as Bud and Kelly prove to be total chaos. (Marcy wanted to know what it would be like to raise a child.) The Rhoades are thrilled to hear that Al and Peg decide to come home early. To prove that they shouldn't babysit the kids again, Marcy allows Kelly to throw a party, which was forbidden by Peggy. This turns out to be a bigger mistake. Not only are the Rhoades' home wrecked by the party, but Al and Peg decide to stay at the motel.