Would you let a delivery person bring a pizza while you had a babysitter? In an informal poll, several moms in one upper-middle-class neighborhood serve up a variety of opinions, including some you may not have thought about:

— “I try hard to have a delivery order come before we leave, even with my college sitters. I usually have a frozen pizza or chicken nuggets in the freezer for such occasions.”

— “I feel as responsible for my sitter as I do my own kids and try to limit outside forces. On occasion, the pizza has not arrived within the stated delivery time frame and we have had to leave. I always have the sitter call me to tell me when the pizza has arrived and to ensure the doors have been locked. We only do this if it is our seasoned sitter and not a newbie!”

— “We don’t do delivery unless the sitter is an adult. We just pick up frozen pizza and go out with a peaceful mind. To be quite honest, if the sitter is 16 with a 4-year-old, I would do mac and cheese in the microwave or sandwiches. A 16-year-old hasn’t had enough kitchen experience, and a 4-year-old is unpredictable.”

— “I don’t see myself as supercautious, but I probably am more than most. We never chose a 16-year-old sitter for our kids when they were under age 5 or 6 unless we were close and it did not involve a meal.”

— “Have the pizza delivered before the sitter arrives.”

— “I would have a pizza delivered with a sitter only if they were someone I have used before and at least 16. Try another option: Let the sitter help herself to what’s already in the fridge.”

— “I would hesitate to have a pizza delivered to my house while she was there sitting. I would not assume that the sitter would be comfortable answering the door for delivery with no other adults around, and her parents may not approve of it, either. I would not like having her answering the door to a stranger while watching my young child. Wouldn’t it be just as easy to have the pizza delivered prior to you leaving or have alternate plans for food available?”

— “It is a sign of the times that we have to be so careful about everything. Just give the kid frozen pizza! Of course, then you have to worry about the babysitter burning the house down.”

— “We always opt for frozen pizza, often cooked before the sitter even arrives, or microwaved frozen Kid Cuisine dinners for the children with other frozen, microwaveable options available for the sitter if she has not already eaten.”

— “We would have it delivered ahead of time, and then they can warm it up.”

— “I order from the same place and pay online, so I feel comfortable having it delivered while a babysitter is at our home.”

— And from a mother of three babysitters: “When my older two daughters were in middle school, I did not think it was appropriate, and until they were about 18, I was not comfortable with having a stranger come to the door. The age of the kids being cared for versus the age of sitter also factors in.”Can you help?

Q: “Should I buy my granddaughter a toy sheep that she would sleep with and it would make noise to help her sleep? It is a stuffed animal that contains a device that emits different gentle sounds to help lull the baby or child to sleep. The choices are: mother’s heartbeat, spring showers, ocean surf or whale songs. I wonder about the child becoming dependent on the sheep.”

— A grandmother in Hickory, N.C.

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