Thank you to the people who responded to my attempted humour with good humour. To those who choose to scold: of course Child could, and did, find other arrangements in her home town, with friends, for the one night. And of course we are educating them in THS expectations. As I said, we are newbies, and the whole family is on a learning curve!
Your post made me realize that THS is missing a golden opportunity for a reality show! 
I think the rule is there for a reason and should remain intact. I would never put a sitter through tha! It might be good at times, but for the most part its a bit awkward and uncomfortable for the sitter. If you have grown children or relatives that want to stay in your home while you are gone. They should take care of your animals. They should not be in the household while a sitter is there. Its for the sitters safety, peace of mind & ability to do their commitment without the imput from others, that should not be in the home in the first place.. I am vehemently against the rule being changed.
Show me one comment on this post that suggests the rule should be changed. Nobody is suggesting it. It was a humorous post, met mostly with humour!
Have a nice day 
I’m 54 and still try and avoid pet care for four labradors at my family home when I drop in unannounced 
it takes years of training @CatherineMAB #kidsarealwayskids
Honestly I think it depends on the home and the person!
If it’s a large enough space with multiple bedrooms, maybe multiple stories or a big outdoor space, then I wouldn’t mind if there are visitors for a day or two. Some homes make it easy to cohabitate.
Additionally, if your kids are well-behaved, considerate and easygoing. The only issue is that kids, and people, are sometimes on their worst behavior at home and not their best 
. And kids sometimes don’t have that extra empathic sense developed yet, you know, so they do things like blast movies on full volume or leave food out everywhere, or have a bunch of friends over without telling Mom. Kids will be kids!
I think it’s great that you told us your perspective, and especially great that you’ve done it with humour! I don’t have kids, so it is helpful to hear from someone who does and gives me insights.
As for the term “adults”, or being a true adult, what does it even mean? I am 46 and don’t feel like a fully grown adult. From observing the world as keenly as I do, lots of people feel similarly to me no matter what age. Loads of people of advanced ages act like teenagers, so when someone says “they are adults, they have do do or think X”, I just internally roll my eyes.
I think this can be difficult. Frequently owners do not know the movements or plans of their grown up children. Sometimes it has been fine when explained to me sudh as one son who needed accommodatrion for a couple of days. He came in late at night and gone early mormning each time as commuting to London. I hardly saw him and very pleasant. I have also had a lodger in a separate building come in to use washing machine etc. And then there have been children coming to collect things and then go. Annoying if told a time and then they come a couple of hours later. I have also had to put uip with builders in the house installing new bathrooms etc. which had been unexpected. The worst however was when suddenly being told when on the sit that a Uni son was coming back to prepare for a camping trip. Times were extremely vague and had no idea when turning up. He however arrived with at least half a dozen uni friends who stayed two nights prior to departing on trip. My last two nights. They were in and out and I was not informed of their movements, so didn’t actually know if they had left or coming back or if one noight or two nights. Unfortunately it always seemd they were repeatedly coming back. Also going to the fridge and helping themselves to my food. Seemed to think everything there, was for their taking. Then going back and forth taking tents, clothes, equipment etc. out to pack. It was a nightmare, as I felt I was kind of treated as if invisible and they acted as if I was not there.
I also had the lodger oposite the driveway coming in to check if any ;post wrongly delivered all the time and a cleaner a couple of times a week. She actually arrived the morning of my departure. to clean prior to owners returing. And to top it all this was the only sit where I was only given four stars for cleanliness. But this was the place I was actually expected to go around squashing all the caterpillars on her cabbages etc. despite the fact they had a gardener several days of the week. This could easily have been a full time job, as so many, hence some cabbages did not quite stay bite free. On nhindsite I should have said this was the gardeners job and n ot mine, especially as had multiple pets to look after. Dog, who required extra trip to vets for extra medication, chickens, goats, geese etc.
Not even teenagers stand a chance against Labs, they’ll eat you out of house and home if you let them. Can’t imagine four of them, must be like feeding a dinosaur 
Whatever sympathies I might have for parents, they don’t extend to sharing homes with their kids during sits.
I had one host tell me months after we’d agreed on a sit that her grown son was unexpectedly moving back in, so we’d overlap. I kept things friendly, but let her know that I could do the sit solo, as agreed on, or we could cancel. We ended up canceling and she offered to share costs with rearranging my travel.
I also had a potential pair of hosts tell me that their grown son had house keys and would want to visit their dog during the sit. I withdrew.
Since then, I’ve included in my sitter profile a friendly heads up for hosts who are unfamiliar with THS dealbreakers, including no third parties. I’ve had no such issues since.
And tangentially I’ve done sits where grown kids scheduled appointments to come over to mow grass and to visit so they could search the home for old clothes to give the dog, who had been recently rescued and turned out to have high separation anxiety. The clothes (with the humans’ scent) were meant to calm. I had no issues with such limited and respectful visits.
Sorry Catherine there are people saying they would care if the rule was disbanded. I did not find anything humorous about it. There are far too many what ifs in our world today. Many people slide under background checks and other types of vetting. You never know who you might encounter out there. I don’t see anyone laughing!
@Visit That nightmare sit with the son & his camping buddies-
I hope you mentioned all that in your review- such disrespect-. I would have been furious!! And if your onward comments about the lodger, the dropped Star for cleaning etc etx were for the same host I hope you wrote a strong response to their review too!!
Our son who lives with his wife in Perth Australia announced this week that he’s coming ‘home for Xmas’ well that was a surprise to us as we’d already agreed a 2 week Xmas sit in Jersey nearby to an elderly uncle his 1st time being alone at Xmas, my aunt died in February. We offered that our son and DiL could stay at our place whilst we were away but apparently nope that wasn’t ok… I don’t know why but adult children (he’s 38) think that parents sit around waiting for them on the off chance that they might come home…he was also amazed that we wouldn’t change our THS plans for him.
Anyway the update is we’re meeting them in Innsbruk in mid January….and they’re spending Xmas with the DiL’s family (so they get to do all the work haha!)
Hi Lockstar, yes it was the same sit. Unfortunately it was not blind reviews then so was afraid I would get a bad review back. I was however upset aboiut five months later in December when receiving a random text to say had looked everywhere and could not find a couple of items and where had I put them and that was it. I wrote a polite reply back that I had not used and could not remember seeing them but would have been in cuttlery drawer if I had. Recieved no reply to this. But homestly with all the people coming and going it could have been taken on camping trip to serve up camping stove stew, or something. Or the cleaner could have taken or the lodger opposite etc. Or maybe forgot since previous Christmas. They actually spent an hour looking for a mobile phone before departing, so always forgetting where they put things. Did eventually find the phone.
Well, you could always put your animal’s in a paid shelter and ask your children to front the money. Sorry no sympathy here for either side. You joined TH to save money (please don’t pretend it was solely to keep your animals at home) so there are trade offs too. A paid homesitter might allow your children in as they are probably bonded.
I think you’re missing the real reason TH doesn’t want cohabitation. There could be serious events like theft on either side, property damage , sexual harrassment or attack, verbal violence and all kinds of other serious scenarios. Yes, people are people and TH doesn’t want to be liable I’m sure.
Thanks for reminding me why when my term end in 10 days I’m not renewing. Similar experiences! And to think we pay to do this!
@Visit I understand that fear! I think that was pretty common along sitters in the old days. We too, sometimes, avoided giving reviews for that exact reason. But as you mentioned getting 4* for cleaning they obviously did review you so you could have responded to that review, or written your own. You’d actually have had nothing to lose and would have been able to share your side of the story. But I know from experience that sometimes- at the time- its all too much and you just want to move on!!
Hi Lokstar, I was given 5 stars for everythig else just cleaning and the Uni mob had only just left. My room was left tidy and I ensured no doirty dishes anywhere etc.and wiped all kitchen surfaces. I didn’t do the things the cleaner would be doing such as washing the floors and hoovering everywhere downstairs. It was a very large old farmhouse. The place should have been spotless after the cleaning lady there buy maybe they asked her how she found it. I just let it go as have had glowing 5 star revies on how clean I have left other places. I did haver ythe perks of free use of a bicycle and a canoe abpout a mile away kept by the river so not all bad. But contacting me five months after a sit with a text that I felt was accusing me of theft was not nice. LIkely not seen since the previous Christmas, so could have even gone missing way before I sat for them. This was a few years ago now and I may not have even been entirely aware that adult children could not come back home. This was before any forums here, which I have certainly gleaned more information from. I was only given a day or twos notice whilst on the sit that the uni son was coming back with a few friends to preapare for a camping trip. Then had no idea of times. And when leaving they did not say if or when coming back. They simply kept coming and going for a couple of days. An absolute nightmare.
@Visit I’m glad that nightmare sit is way behind you now! We’ve had the odd horror sit too, as have many other sitters. You are certainly not alone!
Re- the cleaners- we too had a sit once where the cleaning Lady came 4 times during our 8 day stay!! Way too much. She also came especially on the last day to help with the final clean up and we left the place immaculate! Even so they gave us 4* on cleaning! We were shocked and questioned them- they said our bedroom and kitchen had needed a ‘thorough deep clean’!!! And that we had spilled water in the ice compartment and had not defrosted the freezer!!! Re- the cleaning we immediately thought the HO had questioned the cleaner about how we had been keeping the place before the end clean- which is totally unfair as we were living there! With 2 dogs and a cat! If there had been no cleaner spying on us she would have just returned to a pristine home! And then to drop a star because of ice!!!
We had another HO who dropped a star on clean & tidy because he got irritated and panicked that a special spoon he’d left out for us to use for the dog food was missing. He messaged us as soon as he got home demanding where it was!! (No- “thanks for sitting” etc!). We replied immediately, saying it was probably back in the cutlery drawer, & apologised for any inconvenience. He wrote next day that he’d found it ‘in the drawer hidden under the napkins’!! Very accusatory!