Villas inside and out

A DMR Service

19 May 2012 |

News & Articles Comments  
Text . larger . smaller

Baby sitting

Checking out the help.

Jasper Kelly Jasper Kelly
Tuesday 5 July 2011

We received an email from a villas.co.uk reader asking about the rules governing local babysitters in Portugal.  Actually, the question is applicable to most of the southern European countries.

babysitter3.jpgSome villa owners and many villa rental agencies offer or recommend local baby-sitting services. These recommendations are very useful and usually appreciated by renters, until something goes wrong.

The southern Europeans have a much more relaxed attitude to child care than we have in Britain. Child abuse is significantly less of an issue and children seem to be much more a part of the family life there than they are in over-crowed and over-regulated Britain.

It is quite likely that the sitter will be a local girl from the local village.  The villa owners may have known her f or a number of years and are completely happy to recommend her. It is unlikely that she will have any formal qualifications.  Rental agencies may go one step further and try to locate someone with a qualification but there is unlikely to be much uniformity between local and British qualifications.

We cannot really give much advice here other than to highlight the differences in culture.

Comments Post a comment
Mary James
Mary James
6 July 2011, 12:42PM

We have always had good experiences taking the advice of the owners. Generally, it is a girl from the local village who speaks a little bit of English. They all tend to have sisters and come from large families and so are well experienced.
We have been back to the same villa in portugal two years running and were able to use the same girl which was nice.

  Rating (0)
Brenda Pemberton
Brenda Pemberton
7 July 2011, 12:59PM

I cannot speak highly enough about the local village girls that we have used over the years.
Countries like Portugal and Italy do not need organisations like the NSPCC or massive (and hopeless) social services departments that we seem to have here. They take care of their children within the families and the local communities. My son is now 14 and still has contact with the family of the 'babysitter' that we used four and two years ago.

We got more than just a sitter because her whole family took him under their wing. They had a son of the same age and they took both boys to the local restaurants, where children seem to be out with their families until very late.
Can you image that happening here? they would need police checks and clearances.
These Portugese and Italian villages where we have stayed are just so wonderfully simple, probably like England used to be before it all went wrong.

  Rating (0)
Petra Cunningham
Petra Cunningham
8 July 2011, 01:02PM

I cannot but praise the help and support that my family has received from local sitters. We have had villa holidays in France, Italy and Portugal and, without exception, locally recommended sitters and been perfect.
Next year, one of them who is my younger daughter's age, is going to come to England to stay with us for a week. I do not know how we are going to cope with the language problems but the two girls seem to manage ok !

  Rating (0)
Name *
Location
E-mail
Comment *
 
 

Managing heating costs
Managing heating costs How should villa owners handle heating and air-conditioning costs?
CatrionaWells Catriona Wells 04/07/2011

On villas.co.uk

Heating and air conditioning in villas