To think it’s normal to take your kids to a house viewing?

[HouseMover2024]

Friend is trying to sell her house and has taken issue with people bringing their children. In her view, they should arrange childcare and it’s inappropriate for them to bring children. If they do bring their kids she thinks they should be left in the car with parents taking turns.

Friend doesn’t have children. She can’t relate to the fact that childcare outside of work time isn’t particularly easy to find.

Part of her reasoning is she has animals she says it’s not practical to remove and is worried a child might get bitten.

I have an opposing view and actually have taken my young children to viewings. I ensure they are respectful and take their shoes off/don’t touch anything. But it’s not always practical to arrange childcare especially at weekends. When my home has been on the market I remove my pets for viewings.

Interestingly we got house specifically because we have kids, they wanted it to remain a family home. They also left their elderly terrier at home when we viewed, which is probably what won my kids over 🤣

I can see how it might be annoying to have kids visit, as they might make a mess etc (although you would hope they’d be well supervised and not doing that). But this person’s argument for not wanting kids over is completely crazy - they have a dog with a bite history present in the property during viewings? WTAF?! 🤯

I don’t think without keeping a close eye on young kids you can guarantee that they aren’t going to get bored and touch peoples belongings or damage things. And I don’t see how if you are properly supervising the kids you are taking in what you need to see if the house

This was always my own view, and why I didn't take DS to viewings

That said, most were vendor-led ones so the timings could be more flexible than with EAs - who IME just stood around looking useless and knew next to nothing about the properties

Agree the bitey dog should be shut away though, whether kids are there or not

Really, when you are showing a house, you want to give the impression that you have no pets.

Obviously that’s not always possible, but ‘don’t bring your children because of my dog’ is off putting, even to people with no children.

On a parenting site too, I find it really bemusing. It’s the tone of a lot of the posts , disdain, dislike, intolerance. A couple of people even tried to attack me for taking my child , even though I’d pointed out she was perfectly well behaved, one even wrote she’d grow up entitled as we included her in viewings. Others saying they want to ban them, not allow kids in the house.

it just makes me wonder how happy these family homes really are.

I Brough my kids. They were 10 and 7. They helped me remember things and had their own thoughts. I wouldnt have got a babysitter so I could go on my own.