will be at the dublin four seasons this summer and would like to go out to a nice restaurant with my wife but will not bring our 4 or 2 year old because it's inappropriate. the hotel has a babysitter service but i have never used one before, or even considered it. has anyone used a hotel's babysitter service? any good? am i nuts to consider it?

to me no - i would assume such a hotel would have thoroughly screened babysitters for liability reasons if nothing else.

It'll be interesting to see the various responses and takes on this!

While I haven't used the babysitting services in Europe, I have in many hotels in the USA and have always been pleased with the very high quality of sitters that the hotels use. I would have no problem using the hotel's babysitting service in Dublin.

thanks

We've used hotel babysitting services in several European countries. In most 5-star hotels, they would likely use someone with proper credentials. You should contact the hotel and make an inquiry, and see if it is possible to speak with the babysitter beforehand (esp if the person has experience looking after relevant-age children).

Dublin shouldn't be a problem, but in Portugal, we had to use someone with good experience but with limited English.

In two other cases in different countries (more 3.5-4 stars), we had rather uncomfortable expereinces: the babysitter turned out to be a younger sister of the receptionist (who had experience and was actually good). In another, I found the kids watching cartoons and eating chocolate bars from the minibar at 10pm!

And another thing, make sure you tell the babysitter that he/she is not allowed to use the phone in the room except in case of emergency, not using the minbar, and leave your contact number (eg restaurant).

You'll usually pay for the cab fares for these babysitters, so ask in advance.

thanks w9london

Hi bridonohue,

I'm 52 years old, and my parents used to use hotel babysitters regularly. I think it all came out all right!

As advised above, use good sense and take reasonable precautions --

s

thanks swandav2000

We've used hotel babysitting services in a number of U.S. cities without problems, and would do so again if necessary. Be specific about what you want; the only less-than-perfect sitter was an older woman who didn't play with the kids a lot (but did get them to bed on time and all that important stuff). On our next trip, when our kids were 11 and 7, we specified someone younger, who would be willing to take them to the hotel pool. She turned out to be a surfer, and entertained them hugely with her stories!

Don't send your husband to the lobby to meet the babysitter. I did in Paris, my husband met her(very beautiful young lady), paid her, and went up to the room with her. When he came down with me (his wife) he wondered why he got such frowns from the people in the lobby. Maybe the mother should meet the sitter.

Bringing a small child to a nice restaurant can be more or less "inappropriate" depending more on the country than on the restaurant. I've seen German restaurants that flinched at kids of any age, but smiled at a dog sitting on a chair at the table next to its owner!

On the other hand, we never considered NOT taking our daughter to restaurants in Italy from infancy on. And no one ever thought this was odd.

best regards,
Deirdré Straughan

living & travelling in Italy:
www.beginningwithi.com