Hi everyone, I’m doing a sit (Sunday eve until Saturday eve), and my father had a medical event that requires extra care (my parents live about an hour from the sit) and I’d like to be there to help them, as my dad is dealing with resulting mobility and cognitive issues. However, it’s not a life and death ‘emergency’, per se. He is quite old, so it’s worrisome to me.
HOs reached out to past sitters, friends, but nobody available to take over sit for the last few days. They did not re-post the sit.
I understand that i committed to this sit, so…the last thing I’d ask is that they return home early. I am just sad that there is no backup for even the last couple of days of the sit.
Advice is welcome. If i need to buck up and accept this commitment, then I shall.
You’ll probably be advised to contact member services if you can’t work out an agreement with the HOs?
Are you sitting a pet that can be left for half a day? If the parents are only an hour away, at worst perhaps you could take off for a few hours to give your mom a bit of a rest. Or is it a pet you could take with you for the same length of time, if the HOs give permission?
As @ABGM says - is it possible to go there for a few hours? If my parents needed help (they live not far from my home) that would be how we would have approached it in most cases.
Apart from that, THS is just a matching site. I do take seriously the agreements I make, but surely a «life and death»-situation is not needed to leave a sit. If a parent needs your help because of a serious medical issue that should be enough to leave a sit. I don’t think you need to publish more medical info online (a host wouldn’t need it either) so only you can decide when it is appropriate to give notice and leave it to the host and their emergency contact.
@Jcat33
The sit cancellation T&Cs says sits can be cancelled if “there are extraordinary circumstances” it doesn’t say life and death .
An unexpected health crisis of a close family member could fall into this category , only you can decide that based on the severity of the situation - ( e.g if a family member has a cold that’s not an extraordinary circumstance, something serious and unforeseen might be )
You could ask yourself , if I was away on a paid for holiday would I end my holiday early to get back to my parents in this situation or continue with my holiday ?
We have had a sit curtailed because the host broke their leg - it wasn’t life and death but it did mean that they couldn’t continue with their planned trip . We understood that this was an extraordinary circumstance - although not life and death .
All hosts and sitters should have a back up plan in place. If you do need to leave , you must give them at least 24 hours notice so that they can arrange to get back themselves or arrange for someone else to care for their pets . They may be covered by the sit cancellation plan if the sit has to be curtailed .
So sorry this has happened to you, and your dad, it’s a really difficult situation to be in, good for you for being such a committed housesitter, obviously I don’t know the details and demands of the situation - but I think that it sounds like it is important to you to be with your dad, and that you shouldn’t put pressure on yourself to “buck up”, if you don’t feel like you can curtail the situation - is there a neighbour that can drop in during the day, then you can head back in the evenings after being with your dad? Or maybe someone on rover etc?
Really really hoping that your dad is okay, and that you are compassionate to yourself.
It sounds like the HOs understand that you would prefer to end the sit. As there’s nobody available in their circle, I would suggest they repost the sit.
Hopefully someone will be able to step in for a few days.
Your parents are only an hour away, so why don’t you just go and see them and return again? If it’s a cat, you could go during the day to see them because they can usually be left for longer, and if it’s a dog, a dog sitter could potentially come to walk the dog, especially if there’s a one they’ve used before that they trust, but personally I’d offer to pay for that as it’s you that needs to go. Or alternatively if you have a car, is it viable to take the dog with you, or is that not possible?
Unless we’re sitting overseas, we typically sit within 1.5hrs drive of our home town, so we can simply return if need be for that very reason, ill health in the family.
Who’s their emergency contact on their Welcome Guide? Are they an option, or are they busy with with it being Easter weekend?
Great idea. I did recommend that the HO try to repost, or post in last-minute sits, or try Rover (I’ve had good experiences with them (the experienced ones, at least!))…Thanks.
First, in NYC the homeowner has a very good chance of reposting and finding someone. It is possible unfortunately that some local sitters on THS might try to take advantage and ask for pay, so they should be prepared to deal with that if it happens.
In order to repost, they would need to cancel the current sit. So you should ask them to do that. The other option which you suggested is they arrange a Rover sitter or use another app. If they did that, they wouldn’t need to repost and could end the sit when you leave. They could also reach out to some local NYC sitters by posting a date that doesn’t interfere with your current sit since that will open up the THS email system. Some of those sitters might ask to do the sit offsite for compensation since it is local and last minute and how they feel about that is up to them. If it’s an NYC sit there are probably a lot of local sitters who favorited the listing.
Update: Hosts said they’re not comfortable having me hand off pup to a ‘stranger’, as they are typically the ones to do it for sitters. They offered to return a day earlier which i should have accepted (though they didn’t sound happy and they told me how much that would cost them --not much, but i think they expected me to pay)…I told them it’s fine, just stay, and we’ll all manage. Amazing to me that they don’t have anyone (even their ‘emergency contact’ who is in the building) who can take/look after the pup (who is very, very easy) for a day or so. I may be slammed in review, I don’t know. TBH i’m so afraid of that that i just told them we’d be fine. My father is not dying, I made a commitment to these people and their dog, but I wish there were more backups in place.
I’m sorry the home owners haven’t been more compassionate. They could have made an exception and reposted with a handover.
Is there an option for you to take the pet with you to your parents, and care for it there. Your parents are only an away - hopefully you can organize yourself to bounce back and forth, maybe take the pet there overnight once or twice. Or leave it at home during the day while you visit.
@Jcat33 You have a very valid reason for ending the sit early. There are many situations that come up in life that are not ‘life or death’ but would still be an emergency situation that would necessitate ending a sit. This should be a friendly exchange. The commitment should be taken seriously, but it should not involve a personal sacrifice to keep the commitment. Not being able to attend to an ill family member is a sacrifice and I’m sure is extremely stressful for you. Personally, I think it would have been better if you had just told them of the situation and given them 24 hours to make other arrangements. You tried to be nice and continue the sit and the hosts didn’t work with you to enable you to leave despite the fact that you needed to. I think good hosts would have expressed their sympathy and made arrangements so that you could leave. Given that the sit is in NYC, they would probably have 5 applications within an hour if they had relisted.
Hosts should always have an emergency backup plan. What if a sitter had an emergency medical situation and needed to be hospitalized? Are sitters expected to delay medical care? A host should be able to have someone fill in at least temporarily while they make other arrangements.
I wonder, were this they other way around, if they needed to end the sit early, would they have made any arrangements for you or even considered how it affected you?
Not sure if the sit has already ended, but the host should really appreciate that you stayed when you had a perfectly valid reason to leave. You might want to mention the situation in your review just in case they decide to ding you for inconveniencing them during their trip.
Sorry to hear about your dad, I hope he is improving.
First off they shouldn’t slam you in a review. Emergencies happen and you could have just called THS and told them you had to leave. You went out of your way to work with them. You aren’t responsible for their coming home early. That was a choice. There were several options available to them.
