Sitting with kids

[SaraJ]

Hi does anyone else travel with children? I originally joined to travel alone and if possible with my partner but it would be nice to bring the kids, is this something that HO have agreed to in your experience?
I can understand why HOs would be nervous, it’s their home and it would be great to hear if this is ever something that happens on the site.

[temba]

Welcome to the forum @SaraJ. There are certainly families who successfully pet sit. I’m tagging @Debbie who is one such member sitting with her sons.
If you use the spyglass in the top right you can find a number of links to your question.

[Silversitters]

Welcome @SaraJ - there are several sitters on this forum who sit as a family @IHeartAnimals is one of them. If you look at their posts .

[Silversitters]

Welcome @SaraJ - there are several sitters on this forum who sit as a family @IHeartAnimals is one of them. One of their posts with some lovely photos below

Thanks to THS I'm no longer afraid of bigger dogs

I raised two small dogs and have always been a little nervous around bigger dogs. My family just finished a 10 day sit with 2 bigger dogs and we fell in love with them. This was our 3rd completed sit but the homeowner was the first person to confirm a sit when I started applying so I will always be grateful that she took a chance on a family of 5 who had no previous reviews. Now we’re off to our first cat sit. [IMG_20230512_122629] [IMG_20230513_181301] [Screenshot_2023-05-18-12-40-25-367]

[Therese]

Hi @SaraJ

This is also a good thread to look at regarding family sitting.

Pet Sitting with the Family

Hi @IHeartAnimals , We are a family of 4 based in the UK and we housesit during every school holiday. There are definitely bigger houses out there that would be suitable for your family, but there are also lots of smaller properties, or homeowners who prefer singles or couples. Getting your first sit can be hard, and many sitters have to send large numbers of applications before securing their first sit. In order to get started, and get that all important first review, it helps to be flexible.…

[SaraJ]

Thanks for picking up my message it’s very reassuring as I wondered if it was just me.
I’ll take a look at Debbie’s profile too! My kids love animals and I mainly sit cats which they’re pros with and I take the trust very seriously but I think it’s hard to know who will accept families. Do HO usually say this in their profile?

[Twitcher]

Yes, many homeowners appear to welcome families and they can tick ‘family friendly’ in their profile.
Update your profile to include information about all family members and their ages and experience. School holidays would be a perfect time to secure such a sit as many families look to get away. Even if the homeowner hasn’t ticked family friendly it is still worth contacting them if you think it will be a good fit and they have the necessary sleeping arrangements available. Good Luck

[IHeartAnimals]

Hi Sara, we’re a family of 5. We started applying for sits around the end of Feb. this year. I wasn’t sure if HO’s would actually want a family this big but I applied to see what would happen. So far we have confirmed 14 sits but 2 had to cancel for personal reasons. We have completed 3 and on our 4th sit as I write this. The 3 that were done all asked us to come back which is a good feeling.

I will say this, I had to apply to alot of listings. In the beginning, I got several accepted so I was feeling confident. Then lots of declines. Then more accepted. I’m sure the lack of reviews and family of 5 was a drawback to some, but there are homeowners who took a chance on us. The first application was a little disheartening as she didn’t want a family this big. Then she came back and messaged me to see if I was still interested. No thank you. Anyways, good luck and keep applying. I’m sure you’ll find the right fits. By the way, this cat sit I’m on right now confirmed me right away and when I spoke with her, she said that she feels more comfortable with a family. So there are all sorts of HO’s and what they are looking for are different

[SaraJ]

Thanks so much for your effort and time in replying to me, I thought I was going abit mad and then just decided that the THS is mainly for singles or digital nomads.
We would LOVE to have some cats and kittens to look after and I know what you mean about feeling trusted I value people’s trust so deeply I would want people like us looking after our home and pets. In the least arrogant way but I suppose I’m saying we do care about things and being responsible. I will keep on trying:) thank you for the boost!

[Silversitters]

@SaraJ Maybe start with a more local sit with your kids. Then you can get a review as a family.

[Debbie]

Hi @SaraJ ,

When I first looked at TrustedHousesitters I too couldn’t quite believe that people would want a family with children to stay in their house and look after their pets. We have now done 18 sits since we started in summer 2019. My boys are now 14 and 12, but would have been 10 and 8 when we did our first sit. How old are your kids?

Pets in busy family households enjoy having a “replacement family” to care for them. It seems that often the home hosts feel a connection with sitters who are like them, so we often sit for families with children of similar ages, or where children or parents have similar hobbies or jobs. This weekend we start a weeks housesit on Cornwall. The home hosts responded to our application saying we sounded “just the family we hoped would apply to us”

Make sure you include information on all the family members in your profile, and photos of the kids with animals. There are definitely more photos of the boys than of me in our profile!

I hope that soon you’ll be reporting back with news of your first sit. Good luck!