Have Your Ever Hired a Babysitter So You Could Hunting?

[Ucsdryder]

Never hired a babysitter but left today to go elk hunting with my wife sick with pink eye to watch our 10 month old.

Man…that was a bad decision…I’ll be paying the consequences for a while.

 

[KenLee]

Kids turned my dreams of being a mountain man in all my spare time to only those trips that they could do with me together. That meant an elk hunt became a grouse hunt. Forget about a sheep hunt. And when they were really, really young, the closest I got to a hunt was a “fishing from a dock” hunt. Which was fishing, not hunting. But that was all we could handle. But with time, a grouse hunt became a deer hunt. Next year, the youngest will go elk hunting. Like someone else said, it’s not forever, but hunting is a tradition that I have to offer them. And isn’t that what it’s all about…THEM.

I rigged crappy ground box stands on every decent knoll on the 280 acres brother and I had leased. Toted pack, rifle, kid and sleeping bag all over that place for years.

 

[Hnthrdr]

Oops wrong forum

 

[KurtR]

Remember to tell the wolves that are ripping your dog, child, family member to shreds that you are their friend and voted for them to be back in Co. they will see that you are an ally and stop the attack immediately

Is he having wolves babysit his kid?

 

[Meshnasty]

This is one of the main reasons I only wanted two kids. We can manage almost anything with two, but we have a third coming this summer so my wife will have to miss another fall.

If I want to take a longer trip I just work it out with my wife. Sometimes she will use that time to go back and visit family. If she wants to come with we have the in-laws fly in and watch them.

Our oldest is four now and comes with on a lot of morning hunts close to home. I adjust my hunting plan for the day accordingly and we typically end it with some berry picking or something of that sort. Other than being a bit heavy to carry around she has a pretty good understanding of how it all works and when to be quiet. We just need to get her walking a bit more, but who wouldn’t want to be carried all over.

 

[Scoot]

Never hired a babysitter but left today to go elk hunting with my wife sick with pink eye to watch our 10 month old.

Man…that was a bad decision…I’ll be paying the consequences for a while.

Yes... yes you will!

You mean you feel for the ol' "Go ahead, it's fine" load of BS we guys fall for? I've been victim to it a million times. Short term gain, long term loss!

 

[BrentVA]

Heck yes I have. Both my wife and I hunt! It’s nice to take a break occasionally and be in the woods together instead of taking turns hunting.

 

[Collin68]

I just had my kid a few weeks ago and this is something I have been thinking about. Thank you all for the insight

 

[cnelk]

Believe me, kids are resilient to a little change in the day to day life’s activities.

Wives… not so much.

If I think back about 25+ years I could probably remember having a sitter for the kids while I went hunting.

Tell ya what, having the kids come running up to you after you’ve been gone makes it all right.

 

[mjh]

I was a stay at home dad for 7.5 years. Those were the best years of my life. They were also my best hunting years. Grandma lived down the road from my most hunted property along the river. I got a lot of good hunting in. The landowner was friends with my in laws and very generous to me. I could not hunt gun season. For Turkey's there was another family that had 1st call on hunting dates. In my state turkey hunting with a bow is the whole season so I only really couldn't hunt about 5 days or so of a 30 days season. Even took a wildness hunting trip or two. Grandma watched the little one every chance I/she got. Good times.......

The old man is now in a nursing home and I haven't gotten permission to hunt the that land from his kids. Grandma now needs help as well these days. Lots of work on her property and chauffeuring to appointments.
Comes around goes around this life we live. Hunting not as much these days, but that too will cycle.....

 

[Ucsdryder]

Yes... yes you will!

You mean you feel for the ol' "Go ahead, it's fine" load of BS we guys fall for? I've been victim to it a million times. Short term gain, long term loss!

At 3 am when I woke up I asked her and she said “just go”. So I went!!!

 

[wapitibob]

Naw. They're pretty durable.

View attachment 636613

That's a fine picture!

 

[4090Sharps]

I've hired a babysitter so I could go hunt when we lived over a thousand miles from family and would do it again. If you can afford it and your kids are totally disinterested or don't have the cognitive or physical ability/maturity to come along safely for whatever reason, I would recommend spending that money to give yourself a little break and enjoy a nice little hunt.

 

[tkhuntsman]

So I have 2 kids under the age of 5 and a wife that often works long hours, weekends and is on 24/7 call a week per month. A lot of the childcare falls to me, I cook dinner and do most of the daycare pickup/drop off while also having a career of my own. We live a few hours from family help so it’s available with some planning but it’s not just down the street either.

Since I’ve had kids I’ve managed to keep a week long hunting trip every year but the 1/2 day and full day hunts have been given up. As a result I hunt around 1/3rd the number of days I did before kids.

Over the weekend I had the kids while my wife was working and I wondered if many hunters have hired a babysitter so they could go hunting?

Have any of you hired a babysitter so you could go hunting? If so how did it go?

Unashamedly yes I have and it turned out fine. Now they are all old enough to go so I'm out a lot more but I don't get to do much hunting just guiding them. Which I'm totally ok with just a different trade off.

 

[Hnthrdr]

At 3 am when I woke up I asked her and she said “just go”. So I went!!!

In the words of admiral akbar…. it’s a trap!

 

[Scoot]

At 3 am when I woke up I asked her and she said “just go”. So I went!!!

Sucker! I've been there and made the same mistake. That comes with being a guy. Have fun and try not to think of the many ways you'll pay for it or how many times she'll bring it up in the future!

 

[mjspeers]

3 kids. 7, 4, 2. When I didn’t have them I spent every free moment hunting during season. I don’t go as much now, but have to get out. We don’t hire a babysitter. Just parents if my wife wants to go. Or we take turns. But if I trusted a babysitter I would do it. Ultimately if it makes you happy you should go or you could resent your family. It’s about balance.

 

[TaperPin]

The hardest part is making sure to find a reliable sitter before you need them, and then always pay a little extra and buy them gifts, stock the fridge with stuff they like, and leave money for takeout/delivery. You want them to treat you like their first choice - the absolute worst thing that can possibly go wrong is having an unreliable person cancel last minute. If you don’t have an alarm with cameras, or at least a ring doorbell, it’s worth it’s weight in gold - them knowing you can tell who is coming and going will prevent their friends from visiting.

 

[Tobe_B]

I carried my daughter in my metcalf bag. If you’ve got a good babysitter and your wife is good with it then go hunting and enjoy. If it’s not mutually agreed upon then don’t. My daughter is old enough to go now and doesn’t like being left at home when I go out. It’s a small window of sacrifice, but here soon your kids will be old enough to want to go. It may look different than it used to when you went solo, but it’s still glorious.


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[feanor]

Yeah I’ve hired a babysitter to go hunt an elk for me.