WWYD - childcare option for child free wedding?

[Catingle]

Close family member is having a child free wedding this year. All of our family who might conceivably babysit our two children (6 and 9) will be at the wedding. Wedding is on a Saturday about 4 hours drive from our house. 6yo has never spent a night away from both DH and I and isn’t a great sleeper (nearly always ends up coming into our bed at night).

Which of these would you do?

1. Only one of us attends the the wedding (it’s DH’s side of family so that would be me)

2. Ask one of our friends with kids same age to have our children from breakfast time on Saturday until lunchtime Sunday. Feels like a big ask, esp as our youngest is an unreliable sleeper. Our local friends all have local family so unlikely they’d ever take us up on offer to reciprocate.

3. Our ex-nanny might do an overnight for us, but it’ll cost us £££ for her to have them all weekend, and she’s never had them overnight.

4. Bring children with us and hire a local babysitter to have them for roughly 12 hours (midday to midnight) on day of wedding. But we’d never have met the babysitter before, and we’d probably need to rent an apartment for 2 nights rather than a hotel room for 1 so all in all £££.

Or something else I’ve not thought of?

Nursery or school means multiple adults caring for multiple children. There is more oversight. There are often rules about adults not being alone with children in potentially compromising situations like while clothing is being changed. It doesn’t prevent all abuse, but it makes it much more difficult than leaving your child with a random person.

Over the years we have left our DC in the sole care of a number of nannies, childminders and babysitters. It’s not everyone’s preference but it’s always worked for us. Statistically you’re more likely to suffer abuse at the hands of a friend or family member than a trained and vetted professional childcarer.