Finding childcare for others?

It's not your responsibility to find or even recommend child care for these people. It's nice that you want to try to help, but like you said, you don't have kids, and you don't live in the area of the wedding.

Suggest they try www.care.com. They can search child care providers in that specific area. And since you aren't all that comfortable recommending anyone (not that you have anyone to recommend), it's also kind of a slippery slope in terms of other folks' child care needs. If you make a recommendation to one family, are some other families going to expect you to help them too? You said you had a lot of guests who have kids, so they are all going to be looking for child care if they want to attend your wedding. You don't want to get yourself bogged down in a child care burden, when you don't even have kids!!!

You have set the parameters for your wedding, and your guests need to figure it out for themselves. It's still 3 months(ish) from your wedding, so they have plenty of time to figure it out.

I wouldn't get involved. Tell them politely that you're unsure of anyone in that area and recommend checking out care.com. You really don't need another thing on your plate.

There are several online companies that provide professional babysitting. Do a Google search for “babysitters” to find the ones that serve your area. The companies do background checks, interviews, and provide reviews from families who have hired each individual babysitter. Send links for a couple websites and let the parents take care of their kids. If there were only a few kids who needed watching, as the bride I would hire a babysitter to watch them. But 30 is way too many!

Overall if you don't have kids and weren't planning on providing childcare I would just tell them you don't know.
You can't expect someone without kids to pick that sort of thing out.
You could ask local churches? Sometimes they do low cost childcare.

If you don't know, then be honest with them and tell them that. It isn't your responsibility to provide childcare or even have recommendations for it.

I would recommend www.care.com on top of asking them why they can't leave them with someone their comfortable with from their hometown?

Why would you provide recommendations? Can't they search themselves? Or leave their kids with someone they know at home? I wouldn't go beyond telling them generic websites honestly. Not your job and you are right to be hesitant about this

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Thank you! I will recommend Care.com for her to try to find someone.

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We thought about doing childcare on site, but there are far too many kiddos and most of them are so little!

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I know that neither of them have family in the town where they live, and they are also planning a trip to Europe after my wedding so want to bring their daughter. I just don't want them to decide that one of them can't come to the wedding if childcare isn't recommended.

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It makes me feel better to hear someone else say that this isn't my responsibility!

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Thank you! I think they assume that we "know" the area since we are getting married there... unfortunately, we can recommend restaurants, but not babysitters!

View Quoted Comment Lol wow.. I wouldn't dare to burden a couple with something that is my responsibility. Good luck with this!

We had a location not where anyone lived, but center of a triangle where all but guests from other countries could drive in 2-3 hours for a long weekend. The Innkeepers had a list of 2, as it was only their 2nd year. So joking with people I went to nursing school with, we all have found every hospital and day care center has a way to post short term jobs for their staff, bulletin board, newsletter, or in rural areas, a local paper. So in this strange rural place, I walked in to the community hospital, and a day care center they recommended. Within 2 weeks we had calls, and the one trip I took 6 weeks before our wedding, I met each if the 6 who did our nursery at the Inn (1 teacher, 2RN). And 3 who took sitting jobs for the evening for FI relatives, all at a family resort motel nearby. The adult guest who came had 157 children 2-15, not invited, and 13 under 15 months, plus 2 toddlers with special needs. They were in our nursery. Some older teens babysat for yougere family members, or cousins, so few needed an actual sitter. A rec therapist and PT aide organized things in a rec room till 9 pm, in your rooms time, for about 15 kids, then did checking in rooms, going room to room with a master key to check rooms on their corridor. Few people, it worked well.All nice, professional.

Honestly, it’s their responsibility. Their kid and their decision to make regarding childcare. We had a no kid ceremony and some with kids rsvp’d no.

You have a lot going on. I’m surprised people even asked you about this.

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I'm glad! And (not that this makes my opinion "better" than others) I say this as a mom - I would NEVER expect the host of any event to help me with childcare. My kids, my responsibility.

The most you can do is provide a link to a search website, but it sounds pretty stupid of the parents to ask someone who doesn't even have children and additionally doesn't live in the area the wedding is. That's their responsibility as they decided to have children. Hell I know nothing about childcare in the area where I live because I don't have kids! Zero part of that is on my radar at all.