“I am in need of someone to pick up my 11 year old son from school and drop him off at home, preferably someone at least 17 years of age and has at least 1 year of driving history. Will need someone with their own vehicle, and be able to provide a driving record (which can be picked up at the MVD - it does not cost anything), registration, insurance, and drivers license. This would be a good job for a college student who is just trying to make a little bit of extra cash. My son’s school is only about a mile and a half away from my home. I have a family friend who will be watching my son once he is dropped off at my house. Unfortunately I will only need someone to do this 3 days of the school week, and I will pay this person $5.00 per pickup, so $15.00 per week. I am in need of someone to more than likely start next week. If interested please call or text me so we can have a short conversation over the phone and if still interested then we would meet at Starbucks to do a face to face meeting, at which time you will need to provide all documentation for driving.”
This strikes me as insane! I feel like replying to the poster in a nice way explaining this is not advisable.
This isn’t a local mommyboard, etc it’s Craigslist.
Is this a joke, a cop sting or what? I am not paranoid about stranger danger and am for free range parenting. But WTF! Am I overreacting?
If she’s willing to entrust and pay a stranger (albeit with a driving record and license in hand, so maybe she thinks that reduces the risk) to drive her 11 year old, why doesn’t she trust him to walk a mile and a half? Then again, I’m sure that’d be hugely risky in some neighborhoods, so I’m trying to withhold judgment on that aspect.
In England it does happen. It is one of the things child minders can do. Schools sometimes end earlier than people’s working hours, and so if the school is over at 3pm, parents that need to work until 5pm are going to hire child minders to pick the children up and take care of them until their return.
It happens. Unfortunately not everyone has grandparents around. I have no family members closer than thousands of kilometers. In a few days my daughter is starting primary school and we’re going to need someone to pick her up if my wife finds a job.
Child minders need to be trained and registered, so it’s not like any maniac off the street could pick up Princess Precious and disappear.
Apart from the creepiness of trying to find a stranger to drive a kid home, I don’t see $5 as much incentive to a reliable driver. In fact, unless the person lives between the school and the house, they could easily spend half that on gas getting to and from the “job.” I can see one rainy day with the kid left at school because the driver said “I’m not going out in this mess for $5!”
As a former working parent, I know what a challenge it can be dealing with school age kids, especially when they get days off and Mom or Dad can’t stay home with them. But this ad gives me all kinds of worries.
It occurs to me that a far better place to put the ad would be on the school’s own website–or just a note posted on a bulletin board at the school itself.
If you find a parent who’s already got his own kid in the car, it seems pretty safe, and probably reasonably convenient. But offer more than 5 bucks.
Or even better—since it’s only for 3 days a week, then on the other 2 days, offer to switch with the parent , and transport the other kid in your own car.
This is what used to be known as “carpooling”.
It’s unusual but not insane. How else is she going to reach many people? I think any worries are because of doubts in how well she can vet the prospective chauffeurs, and she might be wanting another parent to answer and be able to drop the kid off en route to their own home.
A reply could be along the lines of ‘Why not ask the school to help out? Could the school find another parent who passes near the house when driving their own kids back, or older kids who walk the same route?’
Five bucks per drive may be cheap, but at least the sex is free. Oops…
But seriously – a mile and a half? Let the damn kid walk home! I mean FFS, back in my day I had to walk five miles to school, in the rain, uphill, both ways…
She’s planning to meet the person, check ID, check driving record, etc. When she is done with these things, the person will no longer be a “stranger.”
What strikes you as worrisome about this? Do you normally check even this much for a parent you carpool with? Or does having physical custody of a kid automatically turn a dangerous person safe?
And when I was in elementary school, >50 years ago now, they built schools where you could walk between them and the nearby neighborhoods. They don’t always do that any more.
My son’s elementary school is on a busy 2-lane road with no sidewalks, and no traffic light (or even a stop sign) on that road anywhere near the entrance to the school. And no crossing guards, no nothing.
If I lived right across the street, I’d be a bit scared of letting my kid walk to his school.
The person will be someone with a safe driving record who she’s talked with for half an hour. That’s slightly better than a stranger, but not much in this case.
Persons answering the ad can self-select on the basis of their sexual interest in children, thereby creating a likelihood that molesters are overrepresented in the pool of persons who answer the ad, relative to their presence in the general population. Parents of my son’s friends, not so much.
There would be a similar likelihood that anyone working at a school, after-school program, youth group volunteer, scout troop leader, etc. would be dangerous, as these people are self-selected too.
She hasn’t agreed to take the first person that shows up, regardless of age, gender, appearance, etc. While obviously a molester could fall into any demographic, if she picks a grandma-type, her odds are pretty good, plus, she will have confirmed the person’s identity at least as well as an employer would, so this is much better than a stranger.
Finding childcare on Craigslist seems pretty normal to me. In fact, they have a “childcare” section on their website. I found someone great to watch my kids from an ad on Craigslist. I interviewed four people, ran background checks, got references, and was very happy with the results.
I think what’s odd about this ad is that she thinks anyone will want to do that for $15.00 a week. Not worth it, unless you are already picking a kid up there.
Eleven is probably old enough for most kids to be trusted to this degree, but maybe he is immature, unaware of his surroundings, untrustworthy, etc. There are plenty of kids this age who do need supervision.
As a new mom who now reads a fair number of mom boards … honestly, I might prefer advertising myself over getting a referral from another mom who I only have a tenuous connection to (kids in same school, we are on same neighborhood group, etc). Some mom I barely know might recommend their sister who can’t find any other work. A person who answers an ad at least has to be able to respond in clear English to get my attention. And I can ask for whatever background check I want, plus references. They’re strangers, nothing personal.
I’m also sure there are plenty of sexual predators who have their friends and family telling everyone “Uncle Jonny loves kids, you should totally hire him.” Just sticking to your personal network doesn’t mean that you’re not going to get a criminal.
I would say $5 ride is really low though, that’s the only part I thought was weird.
