Caregiver asked for my WiFi password. Why would she ask if she is watching my parents and isn't this a security concern?

I had to read the other comments first. Caregivers, paid caregivers, are not supposed to clean your house. So cwillie's comment about vacuuming doesn't float.

Is she asking to use your computer or just your WiFi. There is a difference. I would have no qualms about giving my WiFi password (I've shared with visiting family) - but I don't allow anyone else to use my computer(s) or tablet(s).

Since I was a 24/7 caregiver for my DH - I needed the downtime with my computer/tablets or I would have gone bonkers. You can only watch them breathe just so much or go crazy.
While DH said I could watch TV while he slept, I preferred to keep the house dark & quiet for him. We both 'lived' in the living room when he was no longer able to sleep in our bed.

As long as your caregiver is ready to 'drop everything' when called, I see no problem with spending time online and unless you are extremely limited, it shouldn't affect you. If you are limited, just ask that she not download anything; say you're worried about infecting your network with viruses.

I hope my 2-cents worth helped.

I think this thread is ridiculous. People don't trust a person to use their wifi yet they trust them to care for their parents? I think people have their priorities mixed up.

I would have absolutely no problem giving a caregiver access to wifi. Yes, I would setup a guest network that isolates them from the primary network. But that's only because doing that takes about 5 seconds so why not? That way if they no need to come then I can change the password on the guest network without effecting the primary.

Why would they need internet access? Why not? I don't expect a caregiver to be eyeball to eyeball with the people they are caring for every second of the day. There's a lot of dead time between meeting needs. For the same reason, I wouldn't lock up the TV. As long as they are providing good care, I rather have happy caregiver instead of a bored one just watching the clock and waiting to leave.

Having Wifi password allows her to get internet access. I don't believe she can access any of your files on your computer unless she knows how to hacks into them. I doubt she does because if she's that tech savvy, she could be making a lot more money working in tech industry instead of care taking the elderly.

I think many of the responders to this don't understand that the password gives the holder access to the internet - NOT to the owner's files. It would give her access to HER email, and anything she has a subscription to.
(I subscribe to newspapers on-line - and find it is really irritating when I get stuck in a doctor's office for a long wait and can't access my email nor newspaper.)

Ah...... I guess you haven't worked in the last 20 years or so. Since people sit there and surf the web all the time at work. Companies can easily stop this if they wanted, they don't. Where I managed things, I could 't care less if people surfed the web. I didn't care if they went to see a movie in the middle of the day. The only thing I cared about is that they got their work done. If someone came to work for an hour and got their work done and went to the beach for the rest of the day, awesome. If they sat there at their desk all day but didn't get anything done, not awesome. The work is what matters, not controlling every moment of their day.

What is it you want her to do while your parents are napping or watching TV or anything else where she isn't really needed to actively help them? I know that when I had a caregiver for a 6 hour block of time she helped my mom shower, toileted her as needed and served her lunch, then mom napped the rest of the time. That left her with at least 4 hours, so she did a lot of vacuuming. I would have gone stir crazy.

Unless you expect the caregiver to be offline for the whole of the time she spends at your parents' house, she needs the WiFi password doesn't she? - like I'd know, I'm not going to be winning any techie of the year awards, that's for certain.

If you're concerned that she might spend time playing Angry Birds that she ought to be giving to care, maybe just clarify a few ground rules about what online activities are and are not acceptable while she's on duty.

I am with Ga in PA...... all of you who are so worried about wifi passwords with your caregiver need to come to the 21st Century and figure it out. Because the aides are NOT there to steal your info. They come to give care to YOUR LOVED ONES. If you do not trust them for that, then they shouldn't be there in the first place.

We currently have two sitters for Mom and they both have the WiFi passwords. Why? Because in this day and age, people need access to the Internet for a variety of reasons. Also, phone calls can be made and received by the sitters via WiFi and are not charged against their account minutes. Yes, this includes the calls and text I send to them! Also, there is only so much people can do while caregiving someone that sleeps most of the day. My ladies are actually still asking for things to do even though they have the WiFi access. As one person stated, we are hiring these caregivers to care for a precious person in our lives and trust them to be in our homes all day, but we are concerned about the WiFi password? I believe the priorities may be misaligned! I trust them to care for Mom and not abuse her, so why should I fear WiFi abuse?? If the concern is for using too much bandwidth or watching certain things, block them!

The caregiver we hire for Mom has the wifi password. She is more attentive and cares for mom better than I do, even. So when she wants to watch her telenovella or facetime with her sister while my mother sleeps, I gladly let her do that.
She will sometimes facetime her sister with Mom who acts like a zombie unless she has guests. I have seen how she perks up and gets excited chatting. I walked in unexpectedly more than once to find her letting Mom facetime with my brother who lives in another state.
So the question really is, do you trust the caregiver with your parents' care? Are your parents happy with their care? If yes, trusting her with a wifi password is a given.