My mom friends also just never go out unless their partner can stay home to watch the kids. For a weekend away, they fly their own parents in to babysit. They are exhausted and isolated, as you said!
I realized this when I had friends visiting from out of town and they asked me to find a babysitter for them. I figured it wouldn’t be a pro…
My mom friends also just never go out unless their partner can stay home to watch the kids. For a weekend away, they fly their own parents in to babysit. They are exhausted and isolated, as you said!
I realized this when I had friends visiting from out of town and they asked me to find a babysitter for them. I figured it wouldn’t be a problem with so many friends who are parents. Just ONE person got back to me with her babysitter’s name-and it was her daughter’s preschool teacher, not a teenager. No one else had EVER used a non-family babysitter.
I wonder if people are scared from a safety standpoint - both to hire a teenager or to be a teen babysitter - in our litigious society.
I repeatedly offer free babysitting to my friends so they can get a night out as a couple (the kids would be asleep anyway so who cares where I watch TV) and no one ever takes me up on it. My sense is they think it’s too burdensome or that they should handle things themselves.
As someone who doesn’t have kids myself, I love living vicariously through my friends’ parenting experiences and I truly would be happy to be helpful. It would make me feel like part of the community. I had nothing but wonderful experiences babysitting as a teen and being babysat as a kid by older girls who really cared about me.
My mom friends also just never go out unless their partner can stay home to watch the kids. For a weekend away, they fly their own parents in to babysit. They are exhausted and isolated, as you said!
I realized this when I had friends visiting from out of town and they asked me to find a babysitter for them. I figured it wouldn’t be a problem with so many friends who are parents. Just ONE person got back to me with her babysitter’s name-and it was her daughter’s preschool teacher, not a teenager. No one else had EVER used a non-family babysitter.
I wonder if people are scared from a safety standpoint - both to hire a teenager or to be a teen babysitter - in our litigious society.
I repeatedly offer free babysitting to my friends so they can get a night out as a couple (the kids would be asleep anyway so who cares where I watch TV) and no one ever takes me up on it. My sense is they think it’s too burdensome or that they should handle things themselves.
As someone who doesn’t have kids myself, I love living vicariously through my friends’ parenting experiences and I truly would be happy to be helpful. It would make me feel like part of the community. I had nothing but wonderful experiences babysitting as a teen and being babysat as a kid by older girls who really cared about me.