If they’re good kids I would leave them alone unless you already know the person that you’re leaving them with. I was left for 3-4 days a lot as a teen and babysat my nephew overnight and was fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP don’t you have a relative that you can fly in to visit and help for those days? My kids are younger (oldest is 11), but when I had to travel for work, I flew my dad in… my husband was here, but he cannot handle our 3 kids with his work.

No not everyone has family who can help out.

Then they shouldn’t take a four day trip just for pleasure.

Anonymous wrote:OP don’t you have a relative that you can fly in to visit and help for those days? My kids are younger (oldest is 11), but when I had to travel for work, I flew my dad in… my husband was here, but he cannot handle our 3 kids with his work.

No not everyone has family who can help out.

Some people (including me) really don't have anyone they can ask for this kind of heavy lift. So posters trying to shame OP because they don't have a family friend, neighbor or family member is not helpful and so like DCUM.

4 nights is a long time to ask someone to keep your multiple kids. It just is.

I have helped people out (neighbors, friends of my kids, and teammates of my kids) keeping their kids for multiple nights so the parents could go on a vacation, so parents could go on work trips, and even once so a father could take his girlfriend to NYC and propose. I definitely have played it forward. But I have never been able to find anyone able and willing to keep my kids more than 1 night. Other people are just busy. My own extended family is not nice so I can't call in the grandparents.

I know other people in similar situations and they have hired other people's nannies, elementary school teachers and other people's college age kids to watch their children. OP, do you know anyone who can refer you to someone like that?

OP don’t you have a relative that you can fly in to visit and help for those days? My kids are younger (oldest is 11), but when I had to travel for work, I flew my dad in… my husband was here, but he cannot handle our 3 kids with his work.

I have done this and paid $125-150 to stay with older tmteens. The only expectation was that they be around from dinner time on and overnight and heat up dinner (that I had already prepared) or get takeout. I used kids just out of college who worked during the day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh. My kids are newly 13 and 15 and, assuming I could get rides for their activities, I think I'd let them stay alone for four days, letting the neighbors and the kids good friends' parents know they'd be home alone.

Ma’am you do realize you’re in DCUM. Prepare for the pitchforks. No kid short of 18 can be left alone. Ever.

This is so pathetically true.

I trust my young teens 10x more than some 20 something year old in my house

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haven’t any of you seen Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead? lol

This thread is totally wild. Some of you have a lot of money to burn. Mine are this age and I’d leave them and have a close friend or family check up on them. And arrange to have them go stay with friends over the weekend part of the week. Notify all of your neighbors so they can text you if there is a party.

I clearly need to start a new career “babysitting” teenagers (there is literally nothing to do, but ok $200-500 a night to sleep haha!!)

NP: I do the same (use family and friends for this sort of situation with my teens). But surely you understand that not everyone has that option? Many live far away from family or perhaps they recently relocated and don’t have close friends or neighbors to ask. Who knows. Lots of scenarios where a family may not have that type of support. And if you are hiring someone to help out- of course they will need to be paid for their time. Why else would they agree to even do it?

If I truly had no one, I would have my kids stay with their friend over that time (individual friends). I’m having trouble imagining a scenario where someone wouldn’t have a soul (neighbor, family, friend, coworker ) they know to do this? Like I guess if you just moved there and your kids had no friends, maybe delay the trip ?

Paying for active work is one thing, but straight regular hourly pay to go about your evening watching tv, maybe unloading the dishwasher, sleep, this is not work at the same pace. Not being in your own house is a bit inconvenient but if you have a nice house it may be nicer in that way.

Like I’m a grown adult with a career job and if I got $100 a night for that I’d consider it a great compensation for little effort.

Yes I have done this - paid $100 per night and I bought all the food

Anonymous wrote:Haven’t any of you seen Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead? lol

This thread is totally wild. Some of you have a lot of money to burn. Mine are this age and I’d leave them and have a close friend or family check up on them. And arrange to have them go stay with friends over the weekend part of the week. Notify all of your neighbors so they can text you if there is a party.

I clearly need to start a new career “babysitting” teenagers (there is literally nothing to do, but ok $200-500 a night to sleep haha!!)

NP: I do the same (use family and friends for this sort of situation with my teens). But surely you understand that not everyone has that option? Many live far away from family or perhaps they recently relocated and don’t have close friends or neighbors to ask. Who knows. Lots of scenarios where a family may not have that type of support. And if you are hiring someone to help out- of course they will need to be paid for their time. Why else would they agree to even do it?

We went on a weeklong trip and left our kids who were 13 and 15 at the time. Asked a family friend (college student) to arrive at our house at 9pm every night and sleep there. The friend made sure my kids woke up every morning so they didn't miss the bus to school. No expectations on meal preparation or anything. We ended up texting a lot which was useful. We preplanned driving to all activities by using our carpools (paid it forward and afterwards to make up for it)...with grandparents stepping in 2-3X to drop off dinners and provide rides where required. It was for a week...we originally agreed on $100 a night but we rounded up to $1000. Worked out perfectly. If my oldest had a license, I might not hire the college student for overnights...I might just ask grandparents to stop by more often.

Anonymous wrote:Gosh. My kids are newly 13 and 15 and, assuming I could get rides for their activities, I think I'd let them stay alone for four days, letting the neighbors and the kids good friends' parents know they'd be home alone.

Ma’am you do realize you’re in DCUM. Prepare for the pitchforks. No kid short of 18 can be left alone. Ever.

Gosh. My kids are newly 13 and 15 and, assuming I could get rides for their activities, I think I'd let them stay alone for four days, letting the neighbors and the kids good friends' parents know they'd be home alone.

Anonymous wrote:I am a professor and I have students that already know my kids. I had a student couple stay with my teens the spring we put the pool in My kids had developed a habit of doing some scary dives that could have resulted in an injury and I decided I didn't trust them to stay alone specifically for that reason. The student couple got paid well, got to watch a lot of netflix and barbecue and they let my kids swim but cracked down on the scary dives so nobody died while we were gone.

Your kids can get injured or die doing “scary dives” even when you’re right there with them.

I am a professor and I have students that already know my kids. I had a student couple stay with my teens the spring we put the pool in My kids had developed a habit of doing some scary dives that could have resulted in an injury and I decided I didn't trust them to stay alone specifically for that reason. The student couple got paid well, got to watch a lot of netflix and barbecue and they let my kids swim but cracked down on the scary dives so nobody died while we were gone.