Dear Queenie,
My husband and I are good friends with some neighbors who have 2 small children. We like the parents a lot, except that they keep asking us if we will babysit their children for an afternoon or an evening.
They know we would be good at it because they have met our children who are all grown up now and have turned out very well and occasionally they see us taking care of our grandchildren, but we don’t do that often because we are getting older and we are glad to be done with all that.
Queenie, how do we get the neighbors to stop asking us to babysit without being rude?—Happy empty nester
Dear Empty Nester,
You just keep saying “no” when they ask you. You do not have to give them any reason or excuse, just keep saying “no” as politely as you can manage, as often as you have to. Eventually they will get the message – hopefully.
