Basic Trope: A bratty kid who drives away anyone their parents hire to babysit them.
- Straight: Bob torments his babysitter, Alice, by refusing to do his homework and go to bed on time.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob is so rambunctious that he sends several of his babysitters to the hospital.
- Bob takes photos of Alice as she showers, which he sells to Alice’s classmates.
- Downplayed: Bob is a mildly difficult child who Alice would rather not babysit unless she's being paid well.
- Justified: Bob's overly indulgent parents refuse to discipline him, so he's turned into a brat.
- Inverted: Bob is a sweet child who gets stuck with Alice the Babysitter from Hell.
- Subverted: After throwing his toys all over the floor, Bob apologizes to Alice and picks them up.
- Double Subverted: ...and then, when she gets up, throws a handful of Legos in front of her so she trips and falls, while laughing maniacally.
- Parodied:
- As she agrees to take the job, Alice gives a speech about the sweet, innocent nature of children and how Bob must be misunderstood. Gilligan Cut to Bob and a naked Alice standing in front of a concert crowd as Bob (and everyone else) points and laughs at her.
- The local babysitters' agency has a framed photo of Bob on their office wall listing him as "Public Enemy #1".
- Zig-Zagged: Bob refuses to get along with some of his babysitters, but behaves in front of others, depending on his mood and how they treat him.
- Averted: Bob doesn't misbehave in front of his babysitter.
- Enforced: The writers decide that having Bob be a good kid all the time would be too boring.
- Lampshaded: "Kids always turn into terrors when their parents aren't around."
- Invoked: Charlie, one of Bob's classmates, tells him to be on his worst behavior in front of a babysitter so she won't want to come over anymore.
- Exploited: Bob's parents are divorced and his father hears that his mother is leaving him with a babysitter. He tells Bob there are no rules and he can do whatever he wants for the night, so his ex-wife will look like a bad parent in front of the babysitter.
- Defied:
- Bob sees a bratty kid on a TV show and is determined not to be like that kid in any way.
- Bob is bratty, but Alice establishes in the first two seconds she is alone with him who is the bigger, meaner dog in this fight. Bob decides to wait for easier prey.
- Discussed: "Don't give in to everything the kid wants on the first night, or he'll walk all over you."
- Conversed: "Oh, that babysitter's not going to have a good time."
- Implied: When Alice tells her friend Dana that she's going to babysit Bob, Dana says, "I don't think that's such a good idea..."
- Deconstructed: Bob turns out to be a Lonely Rich Kid who acts out because his parents never pay any attention to him and leave him to be raised by nannies and babysitters. Misbehaving is the only way he can get any attention from his parents at all.
- Reconstructed: Alice tells Bob's parents why he's been misbehaving and helps them understand that they need to spend more time with him. They do, and he becomes much happier and better behaved.
- Played for Laughs:
- The second Alice enters the house, the door swings closed behind her, the lights turn off and six-year-old Bob stands at the top of the stairs, rubbing his hands together evilly and saying, "I've been waiting for you..."
- "The Babysitter's Nightmare" is a Show Within a Show film series featuring Bob, the ten-year-old Dennis the Menace rip-off who is otherwise treated like a slasher villain.
- Played for Drama:
- Alice hates taking care of Bob, but the high pay she gets from doing it is the only thing keeping her financially afloat. The job starts cutting into her personal life and relationships, causing her no small amount of stress. It's getting really hard for her to not take it out on Bob himself...
- Bob seriously injures Alice with a Deadly Prank, and she sues his parents over it.
- Bob accidentally kills Alice with a Deadly Prank, and his parents have to cover up the murder.
- Alice lashes out and beats Bob, accidentally killing him.
- Played for Horror:
- Several teenage girls in the neighborhood mysteriously vanish after being hired to babysit Bob. Turns out his parents are Serial Killers and are luring them into the house under pretenses of a babysitting job so he can practice on them in the basement.
- Bob is a murderous Enfante Terrible and his parents are accidentally giving him easy access to prey.
- The trope title is literal: Bob not only terrorizes babysitters, he hunts them down in their dreams Freddy Krueger-style to get rid of them.
- Bob's mayhem is the stressor that makes Alice decide the human race is better off dead and she quickly gets to work about that… maybe beginning with Bob.
The nanny is coming! Booby-trap the stairs at Babysitter's Nightmare here!
