Friends of homeowner dropping in

I wouldn’t dream of having a friend drop in to check on our dogs with a sitter booked, I think it’s bang out of order I’m afraid. I have a single lady coming for our next sit, and I have a friend just around the corner who has said she would welcome the lady for a visit if she wants to pop round for a coffee, but it’s out of friendliness to a solo sitter, not as a means of checking up on the pets, and it will be entirely up to the sitter if she wishes to meet my friend.

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We have also done the same and enjoyed G&T’s, cake and a chin wag with the hosts parents who lived close by and even went out to dinner with another hosts two sets of neighbours in a fairly remote area whilst on a foreign sit and ended up discovering we had very much in common and they knew people we knew back home! As you say @Amparo the stories they share are priceless along with learning and hearing of peoples life experiences. Many new friendships have since been formed :slightly_smiling_face:

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What is apparent is that all sitters are unique with different needs. It is a completely different scenario when a friend or neighbour invites you into their home or chats over the fence. It is not acceptable for any friends or family to “pop in”
Although, like all sitters, I leave the house extremely clean and tidy when I leave; I do not keep my belongings tidy while sitting. Usually we have laptops and tablets, newspapers and books and kitchen dry goods around as there is nowhere to put them. If a friend popped in he/she may report back that the house looks untidy.
If someone knocks and if we are in, we would have a pleasant chat at the door but there is no way that I would invite them in.

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My first thought with this thread was the “no 3rd parties” clause, but you make a good point:

Oh my goodness yes. I bring my camera tripods & lights, specialized cooking equipment, and all the stuff I need for the video cooking classes. Once it’s set up, I don’t take it down every day. And everything is clean (I eat my own homework :laughing:) but it doesn’t look tidy again until the morning that I leave!

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I wouldn’t care at all if it looked untidy during the sit. All that matters to me is how it looks when I get back.
We had a sitter, just turned 18, and our cleaning lady (who knows her and her parents very well) told us, that she had to help her, on her last day, to tidy everything up. I can imagine, because I know what I was like at this age :rofl:

I wouldn’t send anybody to pop in without agreement of the sitter, but sitters should be aware that they are monitored, if only from afar.

Our last sitter couple arrived with a camper van and, because there’s no way to park something this big in our lane, our best friends offered them to park it in their yard. They live about 10 minutes walking distance away from us and our sitters got the keys for the yard door to be able to leave and come back anytime without ringing the doorbell.
Of course our friends would have let us know if the sitters had been away most of the time except of spending a reasonable time with our cats.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly alright to do some day trips, but one of our cats needs her medication every 12 hrs and if they had stayed away until late at night, we would have known that they didn’t care about this.
Everything went well, however, and they connected really well with our friends, who invited them to a bottle of wine :grin:

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After reading the initial question I was a definite no!

Now I have read through the thread and see all the different responses and outlooks and as usual I’ve stopped to mull over the different view points and ideas. Now I don’t think I’d mind as long as it was arranged beforehand and whoever did the “popping in” wasn’t intrusive and didn’t expect a detailed account of what I had been doing. Maybe a nice stroll in the park would be ideal way of your friend checking up on me.
It’s true, if could be helpful to both parties. Very interesting discussion as usual.

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I think if I knew it was the home owner’s first time leaving their pets and they were really nervous, I wouldn’t mind at all. But I’d prefer a scheduled visit as opposed to a “pop in”. I’d at least like to be able to comb my hair and put on a bra first. :rofl:

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Look at you being all fancy and wearing a bra. La. Di. Da! :wink:

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I was going to say something similar :laughing:

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Only for company. :slight_smile:

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honestly, i’ve given up on them in the van. Too annoying to deal with. I now wear a tight tank top as a base layer to control the girls and then a shirt over it. So much more comfortable and easy. lol

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I have a multi-purpose, travel, dining out with company and oh dang this is not going to work one. :disguised_face:

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I used to house/pet sit (my own business, not through THS). I had a month long sit and the owner’s friend dropped by, I was ok with that as I had a head’s up from the owner. I made the mistake of making an offhand remark about one of the dogs, something like “he doesn’t listen to me very well” and from there, the woman was dropping by almost daily and communicated out of context what I had said to the owner. This made for a very long and uncomfortable sit with both the owner emailing constantly to make sure things were ok and the friend dropping by all the time. I finally had to ask the owner via email to have her friend not come over so often as I found it intrusive and the animals were fine. I’d been emailing the owner on a very regular basis as it was, as I always did. I understand a one or two time very brief drop by but sending people over regularly to check on you? Um…no thanks, pass.

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I believe the benefit of this and all discussions on the forum and throughout our community endorses many things but one in particular, we each approach this lifestyle in our own unique way.

Just as every sit and every owner is different so is every sitter, we shouldn’t judge others because they may “do it differently” we can learn so much from one another’s experiences, even apply the things we learn to “Our Way”

We are all different personalities, some more private than others, some less tolerant, others open and responsive to everything that comes their way and as long as the end result brings happy pets and a great sit experience for everyone, that’s all that really matters.

Getting to know each one of you on the forum is a privilege, your styles and approaches are as varied as the conversations … thanks for another great one :slightly_smiling_face:

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I can understand this totally but when we have a sitter we have a rider that has to come to school the horses . They do not come in the house though and we had the keys left in a certain place for the rider to collect.

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What’s a bra? Let ‘em hang loose and be free……until they hit my knees……

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#No #bras #after #COVID.

I wore a mask for a solid 3 years, but I’m not wearing a bra anymore.

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And to bring it around full circle, more than the homeowner’s friends would be dropping in, so would Miss Lefty and Mrs Right.

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Yes we’ve had people pop by just to check all is ok and honestly dont have a problem with it.
Infact i find it quite reasuring that if anything had popped up we needed to check about we could ask.
Obviously a pop over should be just rhat, a friendly hello & ask if all is ok.
Personally dont see an issue but if youre the sort of person thats not conformable say with an unarranged call you could specify preferred times.

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As a solo traveler and new to the location, I would welcome and even look forward to pet owner´s friends dropping in for a friendly, social interaction. I would expect, however, to be told about it prior to my sit, or even better be introduced to the friends upon my arrival.

On a couple of occasions, I was told/shown which door to knock at should I need anything which I appreciated.

I am not sure I´d be as appreciative and welcoming about unannounced or unexpected visits for the sole purpose of checking up on me.

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