Babysitting on the North Shore, Oahu
 

My family is visiting Oahu at the end of this month, and the one thing my husband and I really want to do is go shark cage diving. We have a 3.5 year old daughter who obviously cannot go with, so we are looking at babysitting options.

We originally were going to have a babysitter come to our hotel in Waikiki, but that means being about an hour away from her, while being watched by a stranger, for 6 hours.

My next great idea was have the sitter come to the North Shore, then our daughter will be much closer to us, and will only have to be with the sitter for half the time. But, where does the sitter take her? I've done some searching but I cannot find anything that jumps out at me, for the sitter to take my daughter that could entertain her for 3-ish hours, or at least some of that time. Any suggestions?

Or any ideas for an alternate plan?

A beach? A playground? Rent a day room at a hotel? The shark cage diving office? 3.5 year olds are not hard to entertain.

Where are you getting the babysitter from? I've heard of babysitters that will come to hotels but I think it may be more difficult to find someone who would come to the north shore with you. Are you okay with the babysitter driving the kid around, presumably in their car? I think I'd be more comfortable with someone watching a kid in a hotel room than taking the kid around town, but maybe not.

Can you consider doimg the shark cage some other time when she is older? I would not trust my child to a complete stranger and I certainly wouldn't allow her to be driven around or out all day with someone you don't know for such a long time.

We did it 30 years ago, when we were in Honolulu for a bar mitzvah, but our hotel was across the street from the zoo. Anyway, fast forward 30 years - There’s no way I would do it today.

The ONLY way I would do it is to arrange a sitter through your hotel front desk and <u>have them stay on site</u>.

I would not drag a sitter around the island and I certainly would not have a sitter driving my child around while I dove w/ the sharks/

Thus is very simple. You and your husband schedule the dive for two different times or different days so you can take turns caring for your daughter. One goes diving. One babysits. Then trade off.

Sassafras has the right idea!

There should be drop-in daycares around. Just research them ahead of time. We've never used one in Hawaii, but have used one elsewhere on vacation.