My husband is a Stay At Home Dad - which totally works for my family but does cause some issues.
For example, I prefer that my daughters not have play dates when I am not home. I just worry that someone could accuse him of something inappropriate and ruin our lives.
NOT, of COURSE, that I think my husband would DO anything inappropriate - but you never know what a child might say.
And my husband refuses to call our 13 year old babysitter - even when he needs her to come babysit and even when I am thousands of miles away on a business trip. He will call me in Amsterdam and ask me to call her - 2 houses away - rather than be a 42 year old man calling a 13 year old girl.
And he won't walk her home after she babysits. I always do.
The other day I called our babysitter to come over today and she wasn't available so I called my cousin to see if she had someone. She gave me the name of her nanny's sister - a 23 year old who is currently unemployed.
So I called her up and booked her. Then I gave her number to my husband and said, "Going forward you can call her. She's legal."
My cousin called me back to see how it went and we talked about how nice it was to have a babysitter who wasn't a child. She told me that her husband also refused to have anything to do with the teenagers who sometimes babysat for them.
"Yeah," I agreed. "It's GREAT. I mean it would cost SO MUCH LESS to get divorced than to get sued."
Growing up, I would babysit an autistic child not too far from me when their parents went out on date night. All in all, it was a pretty easy gig, because they'd only plan to head out right after bedtime . . . and the kid always stayed asleep (they needed someone in the house if/when the boy ever woke up -- but I only had to pull out the checklist to help him get back to sleep once or twice).
When we went home, though, they'd wake up the boy, pack him into the car seat, and we'd all drive to drop me off . . . it seemed ultra weird, but, I guess, one can't be too careful.
Posted by: John | May 03, 2012 at 09:46 AM
At your very last line, I almost fell off my chain laughing. Now that's perspective!
Posted by: ~Kristina | May 03, 2012 at 10:35 AM
Yep, that's how it is in this house too. You can never be too careful. Sad isn't it? And yes it's true that getting a divorce would be cheaper than being sued.
Posted by: traci | May 03, 2012 at 12:16 PM
It is sad that you have to take precautions and honestly I've never thought of this, but it totally makes sense, unfortunately.
Posted by: alaina | May 03, 2012 at 08:24 PM
Yeah, divorce is common, but criminal charges can make the news and that would really screw up your kid! Good thing you can see the humor in what is not really funny at all.
Posted by: Margaret | May 03, 2012 at 11:37 PM
I have never heard of this. Growing up while yes the mother's always called me to babysit I was always driven home by the dads. And never ever thought anything of it. Nor did they try anything awkward. I can't believe I have to think of things like that. Sad. Its just sad.
Posted by: Marta | May 04, 2012 at 03:50 PM
It may be a pain, but better to be cautious in today's climate of promiscuous teens with way too much negative sex info at their fingertips and a law suit happy climate. Times have changed.
Good post.
Posted by: anon | May 07, 2012 at 08:32 AM
I'm late to this one, but it is indeed smart. I'll never forget having to deal with my then best friend accusing my dad of molesting her. It was completely and utterly false but there was lots of b.s. dealing with the accusations and my parents nearly lost custody of me when the courts were seriously considering this. It finally stopped being an issue when it was discovered her father was abusing her. It is sad but these things really do happen.
Posted by: Betty Boop | May 24, 2012 at 12:04 AM