My Son Bitten at Sitter's Home, Am I Liable for Medical Bills?

Day care provider should pay the bills (if she doesn't have the money perhaps she can give you free day care for a week or two). This will give you some time to find a new provider. The stray dogs are a BIG NO NO and against the law for licensed providers. It will happen again and it could be worse next time. I am a home day care provider with a dog at home but she is kept away from the children at all times, I think Cheyenne prefers it that way anyway. She gets that whole upstairs to call her own.

She needs to reimburse you since the accident happened at her house with a dog she was responsible for. Either she can pay out of pocket or she can turn in a claim through her home insurance. If she refuses I'd file a formal complaint with who ever licenses day cares.

My reason is from a personal example: My then 4-year-old daughter broke her arm at my parents house by climbing/falling off the back of a couch. Their home insurance paid for everything, even my mileage to/from each doctor/xray visits - and I was out less pocket money than you.

So it really is HER responsibility!

Good luck,
J.

L.--

Your sitter should ABSOLUTELY pay for the bills! As a licensed daycare provider, you are required to carry additional insurance on your home owners policy, for just this reason! Especially when you take on the added risk of having a pet in your home while caring for other peoples children. Not to mention, to have strays present!
Good luck and stick to your guns!! It's probably time to start looking for another daycare provider!

I am a stay at home mom who babysits in my home. I guess with that said I might have a little different opinion. If you decided on her being your sitter with the knowledge that she had a dog then you had to know that there was a chance that your son could be bitten. However, if that was me I would have offered to pay the bill. On the flip side though....the children I babysit have broken many things in my house and I have never sent a bill to them to replace books with pages torn out or toys with peices broken. I had to replace a window that one babysitting child threw something at. I am so sorry if I sound bad....I am sorry your son was hurt. I am so glad that he is fine. I do not intend to sound un-sympathetic. If you are happy with the sitter on every other level and you feel safe that the dog only bit because it had had surgery and maybe your son hurt it when trying to pick it up then I would just eat the cost of the bills...pay the doctors small payments every month and know that you have a person watching your child that you trust. If not, I would look for someone else who doesn't have animals. Get a contract typed up. I have a contract with all the kids I watch and it says that if they child gets hurt in my home by an accident that I am not held responsible for doctors bills or time off work. Have it in writting so there will be no mis-understandings.

Have a great week. C.

it is the babysitters responsibility i would pay the bills and sue her for it too. first i happend while your son was in her care if she was watching him good it wouldn't of happedend. second she should have insurance it should pay it so there shouldn't be any problem if there is i would call and lawyer and never take my child back. She sounds very irresbonsible and should have never watch children to begin with dont trust anyone with your child anyone can get a license get referemces next time and never take your child to anyone you and them dont know. It could be worse next time take this as a lessoned learned.

I would remove my child from that facility and take him to another. then i would consult a lawyer and file a suit against that provider for the cost of the bills and pain and suffering and since you had to miss work i would also go with last wages as well. That is not your responsibilty unless she had a sign that said not responsible for accidents. Good Luck

It should be the sitters who pays. If she is having the children around the animals, it is her responsiblity if something happens to your child. She is putting your child at risk. I understand that some dogs are great around children but, dogs can be unpredictable, so its important to watch any young child around any animal. Your son didn't bit the dog the dog bit her and the animal is her responsiblity. Best of luck. She might of been offended but, its not your responsiblity. If you did sue, you would more than likely win. Not saying that you should. I babysit children in my home and I wouldn't ever allow them to be around pets just because pets are so unpredictable.

I dont know how you feel about the whole situation, but I do have a 3 year old daughter and if that had happened to my daughter I would be extremely upset. It is the babysitters fault. It seems that you want to excuse the babysitter of her liability and she is fully responsible. I would suggest that you start looking for another babysitter. If it happened to your son, it could happen to any other kid in the daycare and she is totally responsible. Your son and the other kids were under her supervision when this happend. Is your child even going to want to go back to that babysitter after what happened? He is probably traumatized and if he needs plastic surgery it is probably major. You wouldnt necessarily need to sue her but you need to let her know that you expect her to pay for the medical bills. There will be more bills when you are done with his surgery. In cases like this, if she has homeowners insurance, the insurance will cover all the costs for this. She needs to report this to her homeowners insurance and they need to contact you to pay for the damages. You would still need to pay for the daycare since you have a contract with her. Keep all the bills and log all the doctor fee visits, mileage etc, because all of it needs to be refunded to you. You seem to be a nice person and you are trying to be considerate of the babysitter, but what happened to your son can happen again to any other kid in the daycare, i think other parents need to know as well. You should also report it to the daycare association if she is a registered or licensed daycare.

I hope everything turns out ok.

Let us know how your son is doing :(

The sitter is most definately responsible for all of the medical bills in this situation. She has a licensed daycare and is responsible for the safety of all the children in her care. You should report the dog bite to Animal Control in your area ASAP so they will have record of it and they will contact her and check the dog out and make sure it is up to date with shots and you will have proof of the incident. Also contact the Dept of Children and Family Services if she does not cooperate. Good luck.

Hey L., tough situation! I agree with the other ladies that your sis should pay the bills(especially since they are so minor) because she is morally and legally responsible but you should have known that there was a possibility of that happening since she is your sister. If you are comfortable with the care she provides, you understand the risks involved and plan on having a relationship with her, I feel you should ask but if she refuses to pay just leave it at that. It's always risky when you combine family/friends and business. As a rule, I always try to stay away from such situations because I do care about my friends/family and know things like that can ruin relationships. If you plan on using her in the future you need to discuss and maybe write up a contract for future problems that could arise, so that peoples feelings won't get in the way later.

Not only is she liable, but if this is an in home daycare she broke a few laws. Her insurance should cover it though. Good luck!

Your sitter is liable for all of your medical bills. Her homeowners or business insurance should cover it. Having an animal that bites in the range of the children goes against her liscensing agreement. In fact all animals in the house have to be registered and a vets report on file with the liscensing agency. She should be more than happy to give you the money or to give you a couple weeks of free daycare. If...you were to report this incident, she would have to undergo and investigation and possibly not be able to watch any of her children during that time, and worse case scenario would be that she loses her liscense.
Unless you can get her to turn it into her insurance or give you a couple weeks of daycare, it will be an unfortunate situation. If you have to threaten her, you will damage your relationship and possibly lose your daycare provider. This is a difficult situation. Your provider should be honest enough to say that it was her fault and take care of the damages. Ask her how she would feel if your dog bit her child...she would expect you to cover all of the charges. Hope this helps...

It is definitely the sitter's responsibility. It is due to her negligence that your child was bitten in the first place. I would bring it up to her again, and in the meantime I would ask around for another sitter just in case things get a little ugly with your current one. I understand that she is a great sitter and believe me I know how hard it is to find someone to care for your most prized possessions, but she needs to take responsibility for this incident because that is her job. Let us know how things turn out.

As a former in home family daycare provider, I had to pay for extra insurance for these things and I even had one parent sue for the black eye her child sustained. When my insurance learned it was the fault of another child they sued the parent of the child. It was a whole big mess but in the end although I was morally liable for the incident financially the parents of the abuser had to pay. My insurance told me had it been an animal that I owned or took in to care for the financial burden would have been all mine.

I would suggest finding another daycare and soon. Check your contract with her and see if there's anything about medical bills in it. She may have covered her tail there.

I would bring it back up to the sitter. I would offer for her to pay you back you could take it out of her pay. She should have insuracne to cover these sort of things if she is running a business out of her home. Also even if she was just a friend watching your son for the night her home insurance should cover that as well. I know it is hard to find good care, but I would worry about the care if she is bringing wild animals in to her home without insurance. Also in city limits you are not allowed to have more 3 pets (fish are an exception). You may need to call city if she has too many animals.

The sitter my daughter went to in Edmond had a lot of cats. One of the cats was very old. I didnt know why my daughter always had a bit of an odd smell when she would come home. I just figured it was because there were so many kids. Well my husband picked her up one day in the middle of nap time and went in the room where they napped. He said it smelled like cat pee. She was sleeping on a mat on the floor in cat pee. Well that was the last day she went to that sitter. When you have too many animails it can get very hectic and dangrous for the kids.