My mom is the oldest of 7. When we see large families and I comment on how the parents can possibly take care of so many kids, she says dryly, "They don't."

OP, I am 42 years old and I would say "no way" to such a request even if it came from family. There is a reason I chose to only have one kid. Your daughter has not chosen to have any kids yet. One week by herself with all of them is just...no

I wonder if OP has every parented 6 kids for a week without assistance from spouse, nanny, grandparent, or school.

Anonymous wrote:I am 40 and I would not want to care for 6 children by myself for a week.

+1. My husband just left me with two (well-behaved) teens and a dog for the week while he was away on a work trip. I couldn’t wait for him to get home!

I have a family member who ended up caring for a large number of younger siblings a lot. They chose to never marry and never have kids.

Watch 6 kids!! No way!!!!

I am 40 and I would not want to care for 6 children by myself for a week.

When your 19yo graduates and goes no contact, think back on this.

You have too many kids for a single nanny to handle let alone to leave with your daughter for that long. You will need to hire sitters so that the kids can do things and go places, right? Are you on public transit?

No, thi si snot a normal request. It's too many kids and too long a time period.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This may not even be legal in your jurisdiction, OP. I just googled what you are suggesting and it runs afoul of most care rules. Even licensed day cares can’t have one person supervise more than three under age 12 and you have four. Are you not aware of the local family of 12 kids whose infant died because the father thought the eldest daughter was taking care of it and vice versa? It was left in the car after church and died. Father went to
Prison. Mother was in Europe. I would call social services on this in my neighborhood and I’m not even a Karen.

Laws about how many children someone can watch don’t apply to nuclear families.

Of course they do. One call to social services is all it takes. Did you know in some jurisdictions you can’t leave a 12 year-old child alone? And, yes, that is care by the nuclear family.

A kid who is home alone is not being cared for by their nuclear family. Their nuclear family members are not there.

In home daycare, it's illegal to have a child under 6 weeks. Does that mean that we can call CPS because a mother is home with her own 3 week old? Obviously not, because the law distinguishes between parents and daycare providers.

In home daycare in Maryland, you are limited to 2 children under 2 for a single provider. But if a family has triplets, mom or dad or an older sibling or grandma can watch those triplets. Because home daycare laws don't apply to famlies.

Laws about when a child can be left alone by their family, or in the care of other children, do apply within nuclear families, but there are no states where the minimum age to watch your own siblings is over 18.

Ask your 19yo if she’s got a friend who’d be interested in helping out. Otherwise this seems like a huge lift, since the two youngest kids will need a ton of attention and the other teens won’t listen to the 19yo unless they have a close, cooperative relationship.

This is not something to figure out when you're travelling "soon"; you figure it out before you even book your plane tickets. I would not ask my 19-year-old to do this, and if I couldn't make arrangements for the kids, I would not take the trip.

Give us an update, when you get back!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This may not even be legal in your jurisdiction, OP. I just googled what you are suggesting and it runs afoul of most care rules. Even licensed day cares can’t have one person supervise more than three under age 12 and you have four. Are you not aware of the local family of 12 kids whose infant died because the father thought the eldest daughter was taking care of it and vice versa? It was left in the car after church and died. Father went to
Prison. Mother was in Europe. I would call social services on this in my neighborhood and I’m not even a Karen.

Laws about how many children someone can watch don’t apply to nuclear families.

Of course they do. One call to social services is all it takes. Did you know in some jurisdictions you can’t leave a 12 year-old child alone? And, yes, that is care by the nuclear family.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t most people fly through the Middle East to get to the Maldives?

Yep, through Dubai.

OP - what is your backup plan if Dubai airspace shuts down the week you are flying?