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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

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Original poster

What are the expectations about the babysitter getting home these days?

42 replies

MsFogi · 07/10/2022 23:50

I'm interested to know if there is a consensus on expectations around babysitters getting home these days - when I was a student one of the parents would drop me home (or I would stay over if it was going to be a late one/so they could drink). Dd is a sixth former and has started babysitting and people seem to either expect her to walk home or that they will put her in an uber (which I don't really feel comfortable with given that she will be a young girl getting in a car with a random man late at night). I'd be interested to hear what mners do with their babysitters (we always dropped ours home when the dcs were younger).

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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theydontspeakforus · 08/10/2022 19:00

I remember being walked home as a teenage babysitter. It was horribly awkward and I'd have much rather been put in a cab!

Uber is fine.

AppleKatie · 08/10/2022 19:02

It definitely depends a) who the babysitter is (age/friend/relation/from an agency etc) b) how much you are paying them (above min wage?) c) where you live (town/city/rural)…

too many factors to generalise really.

Blondeshavemorefun · 10/10/2022 04:45

Surely it’s up to babysitter to work out how to get home

if 10m walk she should be ok

i would never expect a family I work for to take me home. Tho obv in older experienced
anD drive

assuming that the pay off. You hire a cheaper younger can’t drive person and take home

or pay an older experienced one more who can drive

pompomdaisy · 10/10/2022 04:53

My daughter babysat for someone in the street on Saturday and my husband waited up and walked her home.

FatKyle · 10/10/2022 04:59

If I'm paying for a babysitter then I would expect them to be able to get themselves there and back.

spiderontheceiling · 10/10/2022 06:14

I remember always being walked home by the father when I babysat and it being horribly awkward. By chance, we have mainly had female babysitters and, these days, there's no way I'd let DH walk or drive them home as I just don't think that that would be acceptable. So it either has to be me not drinking so I can drive them or be walking them back (and then walking them home by myself).
For those reasons, we tend to use people on our road. When there isn't a conveniently aged teenager, then we tend to pay more to get someone who can drive. The boy next door has just turned 15 so that will hopefully be the next couple of years sorted!

teezletangler · 10/10/2022 06:52

School aged babysitting has come with a duty of care for their return home since I was a baby sitter in the early '70s.

This. I'm really surprised that so many people on here don't think they have a duty of care to someone who is legally a child, who has been working for them possibly until the early hours of the morning. Nighttime babysitting isn't really a job like any other. The onus is on the employer to get them home safely.

AnnapurnaSanctuary · 10/10/2022 06:58

When my DC have babysat, they've either been given a lift home or I've gone to pick them up.

olympicsrock · 10/10/2022 06:58

We will usually have both had a drink . If not we offer to drive home. If they are very near DH offers to walk them home. If not within walking distance it’s their reponaibility to get home and we don’t get involved

Blondeshavemorefun · 10/10/2022 10:13

How much are you all paying your younger /under 17 can’t drive babysitters

FatKyle · 10/10/2022 10:17

I wouldn't employ a child to babysit anyway. I'd employ an adult who is able to get themselves to work and back, and pay them the going rate for that work.

Thethingswedoforlove · 10/10/2022 11:17

As the parent of someone babysitting we would go and collect her. But we always tried to choose babysitters who lived within walking distance and i or dh wokld walk them home

RedElephants · 23/10/2022 07:54

Back in the day...

The rural village I lived in growing up didn't and still hasn't got street lights!!

(think at least 7 miles from the nearest town, no taxi company's would pickup and drop off in the village and then go back to town!!
And no Uber's in those days!!)
The parent/s would drive me home..

If Dh and I fancied a night out when our children where small, which was once in a blue moon, our parents would come and babysit or have a sleepover at theirs.. we were very lucky.

Trainfromredhill · 23/10/2022 08:03

We always take them home. They usually live within walking distance (we even walk the one from next door back to make sure she has got safely inside), once we have sent an older teenager home in a taxi.
I remember babysitting for a family when I was 15. The mum arrived home by car, drunk, at 1.30am on a school night and then asked me how I was going to get home. It was pissing with rain and I lived 3 miles away. She seemed very put out when I told her she had to take me. Then she paid me £1.50/hr.

OperaStation · 23/10/2022 08:15

DaisyChristina · 07/10/2022 23:58

I don't drink so no problem dropping them at home.

If this was not the case, no to walking home alone/Uber. A well recognised local taxi firm only.

Why is a local taxi form safer than an Uber?

IsthatfreedomIsee · 23/10/2022 08:40

I'm a single parent so taking the babysitter home is impossible. I do generally use the teenager from across the road and I watch her until she gets into her house. When she's not available I've used other babysitters but always make sure they have their own transport to get home safely. I wouldn't employ someone who wouldn't be able to get home safely at the end of the night.

Tomorrowisalatterday · 24/10/2022 07:37

Until I started reading Mumsnet, I had no idea how many women wouldn't walk alone at night/in the dark. I have always done so and so do almost all of my friends. So I would by default assume someone who only lived 5 mins walk away would just walk home.

Now that I have realised how many women don't like to, I would check. But I do think they may just be trying to do what they think your DD would prefer - would she want awkward chit chat and to be walked home? If your roads are safe for this, could she cycle?

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