Now that is a darn good piece of advice! I have to say that I now agree 100% with duckear's thoughts.

After replying earlier, I had some second thoughts. Whistles, info cards, cellphones, etc. are all tools that help them get OUT of a bad situation AFTER they've gotten in to it. Your job should be to keep the kids far from any bad situations in the first place. Frankly, at their age, they will not be all that great at getting themselves out of trouble - no matter how well you equip them.

I would be very nervous if "the babysitter" asked to take my kids for three days. That would just be too weird for me. You trust this babysitter 100%, right? Not 99.999%, but 100%?