TAMPA, Fla. — Emotions escalated quickly as a Ring security camera captured a babysitter hired to take care of two young kids scream and yell in the nursery.
“I have an interview in 20 minutes and he won’t shut up!” she yells. “Bro, I don’t know what you want. You’re not f*** hungry, you don’t want to f*** lay down, what do you want bro, what?”
Parents Scott and Tanesha Marsden say they had to watch the screaming ordeal unfold on their phones over the Ring app. At one point, the sitter puts the baby down on the couch by himself.
Scott rushed home as soon as he saw what was happening.
“I was just as confused as anyone else, I almost had to check and see if there was anybody else in the room,” said Scott Marsden.
“Exactly, nothing, you just want me to stand up!” the sitter said, in the video.
“I mean I was angry, I was hurt,” said Tanesha Marsden.
The Marsdens say they found this babysitter on the popular Caregiving site called SitterCity.
“The most disturbing part is that it seemed like it was on the verge of getting physical,” said Scott Marsden. “You know, just seeing that she could get that upset over a baby that was just fussy.”
The company says it does thorough background checks which include running the caregiver's motor vehicle records and references. In this case, a company representative says everything came back clean.
Tanesha says for the first four weeks, she was still at home on maternity leave so the babysitter was only alone with the kids for about two weeks.
“She seemed to interact well with the kids while we were around and everything seemed fine at first,” Scott said.
SitterCity says the babysitter had only been on the site since November 2020, and that the Marsdens were the only family she had connected with.
The babysitter has since been removed from their platform.
Scott and Tanesha are thankful they had cameras.
“Unfortunately the kids had to go through a little bit of a hard time but it could’ve been so much worse and I think the cameras helped prevent a disaster,” they said.
For now, they are done with babysitters but say if someone is having a hard time taking care of a child they should call the parents right away and let them know instead of letting a situation like this escalate.
“It could’ve gone so differently if she would have maybe put the baby in the crib and had to step away for a moment or called one of us we would’ve been home in a second,” they said. “It would’ve been no hard feelings, no issue at all.”
Here is the full statement from Sittercity:
“Sittercity is a company of moms and dads who are passionate about making childcare work and where trust and safety are paramount. Our hearts are with this family at this time. As soon as we were informed of this incident, we immediately removed the caregiver from our platform. Since the caregiver joined Sittercity in November 2020, this was the first and the only family the caregiver had connected with through our platform. Sittercity provides tools and resources to assist families and caregivers in making their connection and hiring decisions, including background checks, motor vehicle records checks, and references, among others. In this case, background checks were conducted on the caregiver on Nov. 21, 2020, and Dec. 5, 2020. In both cases, no criminal records were found. We know that nothing is more important for parents than how their families are cared for, and we remain ready and available to assist this family as they navigate this difficult time.”
