Reply to Turning down neighborhood babysitting proposal?

Forum Index » Childcare other than Daycare and Preschool

Reply to "Turning down neighborhood babysitting proposal? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Since the school year began two weeks ago, I’ve been allowing a neighborhood classmate/friend sort of land at our house about twice a week. It’s sort of complicated, the parents aren’t ready for him to stay home alone (11) but twice a week, neither parent can be home on time to let him in.

The first time it was presented as sort of an emergency, the next time as something they were working to fix, but then this last time, the mom subtly made it clear without actually saying the words that she was hoping this could be a permanent solution. So now I’m expecting the “official” proposal soon. She told me how much her son loves coming over and how helpful this is.

The thing is, while I don’t mind helping in a true emergency, this isn’t something I want to do permanently, even if she offers money. It doesn’t really even matter why, but for the sake of this post, here are the reasons:

It strangely disrupts our evenings. The boy is here from just before 4 until 6:30-7. I feed him a small snack when he gets here, and have been including him in our dinner, which has always been at 6 and we haven’t altered that because his pickup has been unpredictable. So it’s not exactly an added cost, but it is.

Our own younger kid’s after dinner schedule is disrupted because it feels like we can’t properly settle down until the boy inevitably gets picked up, everyone is hyped up, and then we are rushing around to do bedtime routine once he leaves.

It also just feels like I also can’t wind down after my day because I have to be “on” while this boy is in my charge.

At the same time, I know the family is currently going through some transitions that aren’t ideal, and I would be viewed as a privileged heel who *could* help but chooses not to, like I’m sitting on my butt eating bonbons instead of helping her son. YKWIM?

So how would you turn this down when/if she asks without appearing completely inconsiderate? [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics