No families?

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
21

Hi @TheBrandons0819

I sit with my 2 sons who are now 15 and 13, but were 10 and 8 when we first joined TrustedHousesitters. We have done over 30 sits, and we only sit in school holidays and weekends.

TrustedHousesitters is just a matching service, connecting pet owners and sitters so that both can find a match that they are comfortable with. The website isn’t hostile to any type of sitter, or pet owner, but it is true that it probably takes more applications for families to find sits, especially in popular areas, and especially if they have no or few reviews. It is just a case of keeping on trying.

Don’t focus on the rejections. If a homeowner isn’t comfortable with the idea of hosting a family, or maybe had not even considered the possibility that a family might apply, that is OK. You only want to sit for hosts who are comfortable with you as their sitters. I think that if a home owner agrees for a family to sit for them when they aren’t truly comfortable hosting a family, it is likely to be an uneasy match. The homeowner’s discomfort may come across in messages, or they may end up trying to micromanaging the sitter in some areas for example.

So how do you find good matches?

  • Look for households with children of similar ages to yours.
  • Look for sits in areas where there are many sits and perhaps not enough sitters to go around - the UK is an example, especially in school holidays
  • Look for last minute sits
  • Short sits are less popular, and help you build up reviews quicker
  • Be as flexible as possible about where and when you sit

If you are looking for a specific area and dates, it is much more challenging to find sits. London sits are popular and there is a lot of competition. We have done a couple of London sits and it took many more applications to secure them.

Consider linking your sitter profile to your forum profile so forum members can take a look and perhaps give you some ideas of how to improve it.

Tell homeowners a bit about your children in your profile and in your application. Sometimes similar hobbies and interests can make homeowners feel more of a connection to you. Definitely show photos of your children interacting with animals.

My listing is linked to my forum profile, so if you click on my name you will be able to have a look at it. My boys are much older now, but I do still have a couple of younger photos, mainly because I can’t bear to remove all the photos of the dog who brought us to THS!

One other thought. I know you say that you can all sleep in one bed, and maybe that is your preferred arrangement. However I would not necessarily emphasize this in your applications. Most homeowners who are open to sitter families would expect to offer you 2 beds. Some might find it unusual or feel that you are compromising too much by saying you will all sleep in one bed and infer that you are desperate for accommodation, which may make them uncomfortable.

Also look out for different bed sizes with the same name in different countries! There was a thread about this some time ago I think. You don’t want to end up all agreeing to sleep in a bed that turns out to be smaller than you expected!

I think it is just a case of keeping trying, being flexible and not dwelling on the rejections. They weren’t meant to be. Ideally get some feedback on your profile to see if there is anything that can be done to make it more attractive. Fresh sets of eyes may spot something that you haven’t.

And please do come back here and let us know when you secure another sit. We all love to hear when members who were struggling a little have success finding sits. Many members on the forum have been there when they were new! Good luck!

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22

More than a few items make my house not set up for children.
For example:
-Two sets of dangerous stairs with no ability to put up a gate
-Dangerous cleaning products not locked up and within easy reach. It would take a lot to move all of it to locked storage, not something I’d do myself or allow a sitter to do.
-Fragile items within reach
-Outlets not covered
-Medications not locked up
-Window blind cords on practically every window
-Knives and other sharp objects within reach

So to set up my home for children would take a lot of work. While you may be willing to allow your kids in my home as is, I’ve too much experience with serious injuries (or worse) in seemingly safe environments to allow a sitter with children to stay.

But most important is my dog. He would not be comfortable with one child in his space 24/7 let alone three kids.

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23

As owners with two young cats we would not consider sitters with children. Our cats have not been exposed to children and we have no idea how they would react to loud noises or sudden movements and high levels of activity. We do not want to have one of them scratch a child that was just feeling curious or playful. There is also the fact that having travelled a lot we have lots of souvenirs and a lot of them are fragile. The amount of work securing those before any trip would be too much. Our apartment just isn’t child proof. Finally as we are on the second floor in our building we wouldn’t want our downstairs neighbour to experience a lot more activity than usual for the 9 weeks we usually go away. We have nothing against families with children but we are only considering people that we feel will live in our apartment just as we do. Most of these concerns would not have come in to play when we had our three story house with lots of space outside and few neighbours. With all the space inside our cats (3 older ones at the time) had lots of places to go to feel safe and secure and kids would have been outside a lot. I hope you do find nice places and pets to sit.

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24

Hi, I think you may haver a problem as many owners will think that all your time will be taken up looking after a five year old, a two year old and an infant and it would be very difficult for you to take a couple of dogs on walks, a couple of times a day, for an hour. Also young children especially an infant will wake frequently in the night, wanting attention, feeding etc. and this could disturb there pets, as well as making you too tired to give pets full attention. And are you home schooling your five year old because at this age they are normally in school. Many young children also see animals as simple cuddlyu toys and will just pull at tails and ears etc, Some pets may react badly to this. And I am afraid that home owners who have a choice, will most likely always go for a couple or single person, rather than a family with very young children. Your best option, is to always apply for any sits that have been on for a while and say nil applicants. Good luck.

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25

The site isn’t hostile to families, but you are at a disadvantage with 3 young children. If a homeowner has other qualified applicants who are single or travelling in pairs, they are more likely to choose them for all the reasons mentioned by others.

As a homeowner, I would choose the childfree sitter over the sitters who have young kids who might fall down my stairs, write on my walls, scare my cat into biting, wet the bed, etc, etc. I am not saying that your kids do any of these things. However, if I can reduce the risks by choosing someone else, of course I will do that.

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26

For sure understand, but it’s not like I mentioned that in the messages unless they ask. Lol.
Just think people have this weird misconception on how much space small children need lol

27

Thank you for the realistic advice sharing, and for understanding what I was attempting to say. I apologize if my words came off as harsh or rude towards the pet parents. Our priorities with both of our sits have been to prioritize the animals, well-being, and I feel as if we’ve did a pretty good job. Just trying to rethink if this approach is Viable for us as a family.

28

And please don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m super aware that pet parents need to take the consideration of their home and pets first. I mostly was just looking to see if there were any families that successfully did this and if they have any advice for a new family getting started. I understand that the point is not to get a free holiday, but I also do think that that is a selling point for house sitters to join the world because literally the first headline on the website Mentions free Travel. Dismissing that point as a house sitter is kind of silly. Of course, our first priority is the animals, but our second priority is of course to enjoy ourselves, and I don’t think that that should be discounted. If they’re already families that do this even part-time instead of just one or two houses per year, I’d love to hear from you.

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29

With three small children, there’s a significantly higher liability for the homeowner (HO). While your kids may be well-behaved, HOs have no way of knowing that beyond your word. Children are energetic, and there’s always a risk of damage—things breaking, spills, vomiting, or even chocolate handprints on the walls.

I once stayed at my cousin’s house when my son was young, and he threw up on her white rug. Many homes aren’t childproof: bleach might be under an unsecured kitchen sink, there could be a “floating staircase” without a railing, sharp objects in drawers, swimming pools, alcohol and glassware in the bar, or fragile items like vases and vintage furniture.

The HO can’t be expected to create a child-safe environment, nor do they know you well enough to trust that you’ll supervise them 24/7. Additional concerns include:

  • Children can be noisy, which may lead to complaints from neighbors.
  • Some communities, like 55+ neighborhoods, don’t allow children.
  • Children are accident-prone, creating legal liabilities for the HO.

This is before considering compatibility between the children and the pets, the level of care the HO expects for their pets, and the concern that you might not have the time or energy to meet those expectations.

As for your family sharing a bed, bear in mind that in many Western cultures, this is considered unusual. While there’s no reason it should matter to others, it still might, and disclosing this could work against you.

In short, people typically don’t want the added worry or responsibility of having young children in their home.

There are websites that do not focus on pet care (I don’t know if I’m allowed to name them here) that might be more suitable for your family structure.

I wish you good luck!

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30

“Extremely hostile” seems a rather harsh word in this context.
People - owners and sitters - have their preferences and that is simply the way of the world.

I can’t speak to why your applications for sits accepting families are denied.

That said, the more defined and limited your details are , the more limited your opportunities. Again, this is simply the “odds” of having specific needs/requirements - not a judgement by any means. Just reality which applies to ALL sitters.

Regards, “consistent sitting arrangements,” I’d venture to guess that this consistency of which you speak is more UNcommon than not regardless of preferences, requirements, etc. Most of us (happy to be corrected if I’m wrong) do not have any consistency in our sitting gigs.
Again, just because owners have preferences does not in any way embody “hostility”. We all have our needs, desires, etc…for myriad reasons and “hostility” is rarely one of them. Good luck in your searches.

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31

@TheBrandons0819 Add your profile link to your forum profile, so we can all try to help you by spotting if there’s anything putting HO’s off, other than what has been said already. Because this forum is excellent at improving profiles. But don’t start a fresh post, keep it as this post, it’s fine for owners to start a post and ask for feedback on their profile, whereas for sitters it’s like spam.

32

Most of the sits I have done here in the UK wouldn’t be suitable for children. Very steep stairs, cream carpets, antiques, and precious ornaments, to name a few. People wouldn’t expect you to be in one bed and you would need some kind of travel cot. As people have said owners are not hostile, competition is very fierce. Some sits are gone in minutes. People’s main priority is if their pets will be happy and relaxed, so I expect in many cases it will be a no. Look at the practicality and ask yourself what you would need for long-distance travel with 3 young children. It’s not an easy task to achieve

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33

At the same time there are sits here that might suit a young family. I have seen several sits that I would consider when the kids were younger, that have low applications and seem to have an environment that could work. The sits I think of have been a little bit rural, smallholdings with some chickens, a couple of sheep, an outdoor cat… . Animals that need to be looked after, but tasks that can be managable and also easy to share or to include a five-yearold, at least. And in such sits the kids and the animals won’t be together during the day normally, so I would think a host wouldn’t think that that was a problem. The thing is such sits usually require a car.

I’m not a fulltime sitter, but I can imagine getting sits full time - which is probably quite a puzzle even for «attractive» sitters - could be really hard work if one try to do it with limitations on availability. But I do think you will be able to get some nice sits. I also think it will be better as you get more reviews, that goes for all of us.

If one would like to live that lifestyle with children I would think for instance woof-ing could be an option. There is limitations on availability for children, but there seems to be many idealists among eco-and permaculture-farmers that welcome similar minded families. The difference is tasks but also that one would live and work with the host. There is also home exchange, but I get the impression that you would like to try out to be nomads and not have a permanent home for a while. And therefore not being able to swap homes.

In general, but especially travelling with children - be sure to check out what you need in the form if insurances, keeping health benefits or whatever applies in your country. Unfortunately many people end up more or less doomed because they didn’t check up. I know people that have been stranded in another country with no funds to go home, being seriously ill on a foreign hospital and the hospital refuse to
discharge the patient because they are not able to pay the bill, in reality keeping them hostage etc. Take care and safe travels!

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34

We usually sit as a couple but during the school holidays my grandchildren love to come along. Their ages range between 6 weeks and 22 years old. I only have 2 children at a time.
Our holiday sits have been fantastic success so far. The hosts always ask the ages of the children coming with us which makes perfect sense to me. Some homes/properties are not set up for children and some pets have never been exposed to children of any age. My grandchildren are used to dogs, having their own at home, are very respectful of others property and know never ever to go into closets or drawers of the room they are staying in.
I would hesitate taking any of the under fives with me to a sit. Children are naturally inquisitive, that’s how they learn, and how do you explain that they cannot touch things that interest them in their bedrooms?
I don’t think this site is hostile to anyone. Everyone is very open minded and accepting or the people I have interacted and met with are. Maybe approach your applications in a way that lets the host know you understand the negatives but here are the positives. Good luck and I hope you get more sits.

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35

I think @TheBrandons0819 with respect 2 hopefully 5* star reviews against sitters with many more for a place like London is your issue, not wanting to sit as a family. You need to get a few more 5* star reviews before you’ll stand a chance of getting a sit in competitive places like London. I’m a single sitter and struggled to get sits when I started (23 local applications to get my first one) so you’ve done better than me when I started.

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36

Slightly off topic, what age does school start for children in the USA?

37

Usually 5 years old for kindergarten.

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38

Thanks, I wasn’t sure if maybe it varies by state perhaps too, with it being such a vast country.
Obviously home schooling then, I admire anyone with the patience and knowledge to do that, incredible!

39

School districts will have different rules about which month someone is born in, related to how soon they can start kindergarten, but 5 is typical. With birth month, you might start a bit younger if you happen to be born within X months of the typical month when school reopens, which varies by district. Like I was always the youngest in every class, because they let me start earlier.

In exceptions some parents ask for a delayed start if their kid isn’t mature enough to start kindergarten. That’s to avoid them falling behind the class or creating disruption.

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40

@TheBrandons0819
I think occasionally a homeowner aaying they do not have enough space for a family can be a polite way of declining when they aren’t comfortable / weren’t expecting a family to apply.

We once received a reply to an application saying a family of 4 was “too many people for our little house”. Their little house had 4 bedrooms! Ours only has 3! I actually appreciated that they had taken the time to reply - so many just hit decline. I figured that they had an idea of the sort of people they saw sitting for them, and it wasn’t us, so we weren’t a good match. I thanked them for taking the time to reply and moved on.

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