My sister is a single mom and lives quite far away from the rest of our family, so we are often not the best option for ad hoc child minding. Saying that our parents are now retired and more flexible to travel to her if they get a bit of notice. My sister is a great mom, and my niece is also a very happy little girl. Because we are quite far away from her she has a pretty good network of friends who step in if she needs someone to mind her daughter.
I spoke to my sister yesterday and she mentioned that she has for travel for work for a few days which she has never done since she was born. This time her friends are already tied up in arrangements so she has asked another friend who agreed to look after DN.
And this is where I feel a bit uncomfortable now: it’s a male friend, who does not have any children himself and therefore little experience with children in general. I know that she has been friends with him for years and DN likes him too, but it just doesn’t sit right with me. Our parents have offered to travel down but DS insists that it will be too expensive at such short notice and that he had agreed and didn’t mind moving into her house for the days when she is away. I just don’t really understand it because I would definitely not be leaving my own DD with a childless man who, by his own admission, didn’t like children (DN proudly told me that he doesn’t like children apart from her). My sister says that he is great with DN and that she’ll just have to give him a more detailed breakdown of the routine etc. He has looked after her before for a day at a time, but never over night or several days in a row.
Admittedly I don’t know the person and only met him once briefly so I am probably being prejudiced and maybe paranoid here, but I feel uneasy about the thought of leaving a child with someone with very limited experience like this.