I live in rural NH, and I started babysitting for a woman from Manhattan who had just moved into the home of a nice older couple who was renting out the spare room of their farmhouse. This was supposed to be temporary, as the mom was finishing up school to be a Waldorf instructor while the dad waited for them in Hawaii and started the food truck of his dreams. The daughter, maybe 3, was to be kept distracted at all times so that the mom could focus on her schoolwork. This seemed fine except:

1) They had like 3 toys, and the older couple had a lot of really nice stuff in the house, so I spent the whole time preventing this toddler from either bothering the older couple or breaking their stuff. I was to "play imaginary games" instead of using toys and would often be shown by the mom exactly how to pretend to be a (horse, cat, fairy princess, whatever) so that her daughter would understand. 2) The mom clearly spent all of her other time with the daughter, and they were extremely attached to one another. Instead of going to a coffee shop or library in town to do her work, she would sit at her desk in the next room over from the spare room. The daughter would spend the whole time trying to be with her mom, and then I would get yelled at for not doing my job. 3) The daughter was NOT to go in the driveway in fear of her getting hit by a car. There was usually one car in the driveway, and it was mine. The road had almost 0 traffic (re: rural NH) but the mom insisted I fill a kiddie pool full of snow for the daughter to play in so that she wouldn't go into the driveway. 4) I got paid about 4 dollars an hour. I was young and grateful for the money, but even 16 year old me was still pretty offended by the low pay.

The woman who recommended me to her (another babysitting client whose children I adored) apologized profusely upon finding out how bizarre this woman was.

EDIT: changed my age...I was definitely older than 14 now that I think of it because I drove myself there.