The typical age of hire in Washington state is 16 years old, but as soon as kids hit middle school they are looking for opportunities to make money. Unofficial employment, such as babysitting, is a common choice for preteen and young teenagers. 

Little kids can be a nightmare. From destroying the house to bodily fluids, nothing is off the table when working with children. 

Riley Vail is currently doing Running Start through Central Kitsap High School, and has been babysitting since a young age. 

She told her story of babysitting some troublesome twins. 

“These twins are little schemers and mischievous kids,” Vail said. “They’re not supposed to go in their parents room but they have one of them distract you by doing something they’re not supposed to, so the other one can sneak around and go into their parents room without you noticing.”

One night while babysitting these twins, Vail was casually playing with one of the kids in the living room. 

“The other one went into the fridge and grabbed an egg and started walking over to the carpet,” Vail said. “I don’t even remember which one it was because I can’t tell them apart. But I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, whatever one you are do not move.’”

Vail tried to convince the little boy to put the egg back to prevent a mess, but she had no luck. 

“He dropped it and it exploded everywhere on their carpet,” Vail said. “And then I had to banish them to the living room to clean it up.”

Vail’s bad experiences didn’t stop there. She continued to tell another story of a completely different set of twins with just as bad, if not worse, behavior. 

“They were potty trained and I was supposed to be checking every half an hour like, ‘do you need to go to the bathroom’ because they were still in the process of potty training, but they were both in underwear,” Vail said.

Potty training and changing diapers is one of the most difficult parts of having or watching children. 

“I was in the living room on the carpet, reading them a story,” Vail said. “The other one was just like sitting there. Squatting. I didn’t question it.” 

Squatting children are never a good sign. 

“Then I looked over at him,” Vail said. “And he had a very focused look on his face, and I just ignored it.”

Vail went back to reading the book to the other twin, unaware of what was coming. 

“I was showing his brother a picture, and I turned around and he stood up and there was poop leaking out of his underwear and onto the carpet,” Vail said.

The other twin looked over and yelled “Poop!” Vail immediately got up to address the situation. 

“We started walking over to the bathroom and poop just kept coming out of his underwear on the way to the bathroom,” Vail said. “I had him sit on the toilet and by then he was already done.” 

Vail still babysits on occasion, but it’s doubtful that she will babysit twins ever again. 

Rose Wilkerson is a part time Central Kitsap High School student, who babysits her mother’s work friend’s kids. 

“I babysat this little girl and she’s five, and she’s an angel,” Rose Wilkerson said. “Absolutely perfect, right? And she would just sit in my lap and watch Bubble Guppies and she was perfectly fine.”

The lady that Wilkerson babysat for told a friend that she was good with kids, and set up a day for both children to be babysat at the same time to play together. 

“Oh my god, this kid was horrible,” Wilkerson said. “He was so so bad. He was terrible. I think I’m just better with girls or something. He was just so bad. Like little boys are a nightmare.”

The little boy proceeded to run around the house and make a huge mess, which stressed Wilkerson out.

“He got into this art area in this girl’s apartment, she’s a very artsy person,” Wilkerson said. “He gets into oil paints. He grabs all the oil paints out and they start melting in his hand. Oil is just everywhere. He got it all in their brand new carpeting and I couldn’t get it out. It was absolutely terrible and went everywhere all over the floors.” 

“I sat there and I cried, and then he cried because little boys don’t really know what they did,” Wilkerson said. “So I got upset. He cried. I cried.” 

Meanwhile, the little girl was happily watching bubble guppies in the living room. 

“It was like white really nice carpeting,” Wilkerson said. “They had to cut out a section of it. I did not get paid for it and I had to pay off some of the work that they had to do to fix it and I cried.” 

“So that was the last time I babysat, I don’t anymore,” Wilkerson said. 

Nevada Story is a full time student at CKHS and they’ve been babysitting for about five years. 

One day in South Dakota, Story and their brother were babysitting some of their younger cousins. 

“I was sitting in a corner just watching them, I think it was reading,” Story said. “I wasn’t actively playing with them, but my brother was because he has more energy than me.” 

As the day continued nothing abnormal seemed to be happening, until her brother decided to change things. 

“He went into a corner and talked to them for a little bit,” Story said. 

Story’s brother was only about 13, but he had the more malicious intentions for that day. 

“He came back and he had duct tape,” Story said. “He had my little sister and my cousin grab onto me and they put duct tape all over my face. And they attached me together at the arms and legs, all taped together so I couldn’t move.”

“I physically couldn’t talk, usually with a couple of strips of duct tape you can talk a little bit,” Story said. “Nope, couldn’t talk and couldn’t move. I was screaming telling him to get off and I was thrashing, but they held me down pretty good because you know children have that really, really tight grip.” 

Story was stuck in a very horror movie-esque scene, with no control over what would happen. 

“I don’t even remember how I got them to stop,” Story said. “I think I just kicked one of them and they stopped.”