yesu39470

Hi y'all,

I was wondering what type of experiences good or bad you Fodorites have had with a babysitting service either through a hotel or a local service. I have only used once, a local service that supplied me with a sitter who was licensed, bonded and insured. It worked out OK, but my 9 yr old niece was there to report to me if there was any funny business. Forgive me if I sound a bit paranoid, but I just don't completely trust someone I don't know with my kids. Any ideas/comments/ suggestions are appreicated!!

Mary2Go

I thought about using a hotel service but I would never be able to trust anyone like that with my kids, so you can call me paranoid too. I did use the kids club type of services at several resorts and never had a problem. I would feel really wierd about having a complete stranger come into my hotel room and stay with my child. I also knew my kids would feel really uncomfortable.

OO

We had only positive experiences (2), but our experience was in a different era too.

One we had in Miami was a truly elegant Cuban woman. Talking with her we learned she and her husband, a physician, had fled Cuba, but he could not practice medicine here until he fulfilled whatever the requirements are, and they were doing what they could to make ends meet in the interim.

Our other experience was a delightful older lady in Dallas when we first moved there. The kids loved her...they wanted Mary to come back anytime we had a hotel function and needed a sitter there...and she did, time and again. There were always little gifts for the kids, cards at their birthdays, a party for all children she baby sat and their parents at one of the nicer old established restaurants in Dallas, and lots of fond memories still. We ended up using her again when we had a trip to HI...we were that comfortable with her.

In both cases these were hotel supplied sitters. The Dallas sitter was supplied by the Hyatt, Miami sitter by Sonesta. Sitters supplied by my husbands hotel must be accredited (by whom I don't know), bonded and insured. The guests are supplied with a list of sitters and select their own after interviewing them. I know on occasion one of our concierges babysits for guests when she's off-duty too. It's a ticklish topic...and certainly a far different era than the one in which we raised our kids.

LoveItaly

Yesu, I from time to time, when our daughter was little, thought about hiring a hotel babysitter but I never did. The thought of a stranger in a hotel room with my little girl just really worried me. I am glad I never did, especially with all the newsreports that we have been hearing the past years.
I think a parent has to listen to what their "sixth sense" tells them. And I think since you have posted this question you do not feel alright about doing this. I may be wrong, but that is what I am reading. The one time you did when your 9 year old niece was there probably made you feel alright about everything.
I don't think you sound paranoid at all.
I think you sound like a very loving and carrying parent.
Personally I would not leave my child in a hotel room with a stranger. I am sure there are very good babysitters that do this job to make the money they need to support their family. But I just wouldn't take the chance.
Listen to your heart.

yesu39470

Thanks everyone,

I saw a link for the Nanny Connection on this site and checked it out. Looks very reputable and our hotel frequently recommends it. I will probably get a nanny first during the day for a couple of hours, while I am present, (like a mommy's helper) by the pool, etc... so I can watch her interact with the kids. Then if it works out, maybe for dinner after kids are already in bed asleep. DH and I are just so protective... and these days you can't be too careful!

yesu39470

Thanks, loveitaly,

I guess what we really need is just a third "helper" during the day when we are around so we can just veg a bit on a chair or something. I don't want to have the kids alone in a room or anything, DH and I just want to be able to relax a bit on vacation, not have to change every diaper or fill every sippy cup... you get my drift. I am a stay at home mom and even though I have help during the day here, I am usually at home with them most of the time. I know that these years are so precious and will not last forever. I think that if we just had a bit of relief for a few hours a day (while present) it would really make a difference!

Patrick

If you stay in a really good hotel in a nice suite, you might be able to get Michael Jackson to come sit with the kids.

yesu39470

Are you kidding Patrick???//

LoveItaly

yesu, we will ignore Patrick!!!
If you are thinking of someone to be like a nanny, to take care of your child while you are there, I should think that would be wonderful. You would have nothing to worry about, but you would not have to be jumping up every few minutes to tend to your child.
I think any mother would consider that a vacation in itself.

Scarlett

We took our mothers helper with us when we traveled, or when we stayed out at the beach for the summer, I would hire a teenager to be a mothers helper. I was never able to leave my children with a stranger in a strange land/country/state .. I always had this fear that they would be gone when I got back.

yesu39470

You are very kind, loveitaly, and yes...we will ignore Patrick, although I do get his meaning and am sure he meant well

Has anyone else used Nanny Connection?

yesu39470

Scarlett,

We would have to get another room if we brought a helper. I think it looks like we will only use "rent a nanny" service during the day and early evening while we are present- I agree the risk is too great.

Scarlett

I am sure this will work out well for you. After all, as you say, you will be there too.
I hope you can post back after your trip and tell everyone how well it worked, there have been quite a few questions about babysitters on here.
Have fun!

Sabrina

I found that it worked better for us to take a baby sitter from home with us when we had family vacations at the beach.

gail

We never did because I figured I would use the same criteria for hiring a sitter on vacation as I did at home. That is, at home I would never hire someone I knew nothing about, had never seen before, did not come with any references from people I knew or could check out.

Ryan

We've used hotel sitters in about a dozen different cities in Europe and North America over the last three years. We've never once felt uncomfortable with whom the hotel used or with their answers regarding how they choose their sitters and their requirements for someone they send.

If you feel uncomfotable its a personal choice so by all means the suggestion to bring someone with you from home makes sense.

Both my wife and I are fairly good at reading people and I think you can tell fairly quickly someone's demeanor and attitude towards children. I can't recall hearing of one incident of a hotel babysitter violating a parent's trust. I can think of several prominent incidences where it has been a "trusted" relative or family member.

Loki

You people who leave your kids with strangers while on vacation are absolutely sick in the head and extremely selfish. This is why I have no sympathy for parents of kids who get molested while at resorts, like that guy in the Carribbean last year (bear in mind, I have the utmost sympathy for the children, just not the parents). Do you actually think that being "bonded" ensures that one is not a pedifile? If you don't have trusted friends or family to take care of your kids, and just can't do without a fancy meal alone with your spouse while vacationing, maybe you shouldn't have born children to begin with.

Ryan

How dare you toss out your self-rightous, holier than thou comments Loki.

My wife and I are sick in the head? You know what's sick in the head, that you are so self-rightous as to be unable to have sympathy for a parent of a child who was molested. Guess that's what happens when you belive that you're morally superior to others, one becomes incapable of being sympathetic.

Given the literally hundreds of thousands of hours that parents spend at resorts and have their kids in kids clubs, you found one incident. The guy who was arrested was the hotels activities director, not a babysitter.

Of couse, given that a young child was killed just recently at his "trusted" daycare center in NY, and that numerous cases abound of "trusted" clergy and teachers have molested students, I guess, if I'm free to use your myopic view, that those parents who send their kids to church and school are "sick in the head."

soccr

The only kind of person who would question the idea of a sitter on a vacation is a nutjob, possibly with abandonment issues -- and either they have no kids or are raising some small, paranoid, center-of-the-universe nutlets.

Fact of life: adults stay up later than kids. Being at a resort or hotel doesn't require an adult to sit in the room every evening after 8 pm, and it would be a waste of the time and money to do that. Loki, are you suggesting the alternative is not to bring children at all on such trips and leave them home with a sitter instead? Or are you suggesting that adults stay in with the children every night until they're 18?

Be glad that yesu and others ask these kinds of questions -- sounds highly responsible to me.

jersey

Dare I step into the fray? I have five children and have traveled with them many times. As my youngest is now fifteen, we have dealt with some of these issues. My two cents... I never used babysitting services at hotels/resorts. Not because I wouldn't have enjoyed a dinner out alone with my husband. But rather because on vacation is a special time with the kids as well as for us. So we let them stay up later and do late fun things together. If you are concerned about who you are leaving your children with you won't enjoy your time alone anyway. You'll spend the whole time wondering how you child(ren) are. We tried to take time at home to do "alone" activities where we could leave the kids with trusted sitters. I am a bit overprotective with my family, I'm the first to admit it. And I know that the services of a hotel sitter are most likely just fine. The other thing my DH and I did when our youngest was a baby was to start taking a mini-vacation by ourselves. This has since expanded to a week away every winter without the kids.

For me, you have to go with your comfort zone and trust your gut.