fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3680 ]

[ SECRET POST #3680 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3680 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Versailles]

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[Mad Max: Fury Road]

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[Star Trek: The Next Generation]

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[Shannara]

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07.

[A Series of Unfortunate Events]

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[Spyro]

Notes:

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I keep hearing that no one can afford babysitters anymore. When I was growing up, your parents dumped you with your fourteen year old neighbor and gave her maybe 10 bucks when they got home. Now people make it out like fourteen year old babysitters are charging $40/hr plus commission. Is it that people are using adult babysitters now (since people are more cautious than they used to be)? Is it that fourteen year olds are asking for more?

And I DON'T mean for long-term sitters while you go to work. (Because that I can understand.) I mean people who claim they couldn't get a sitter on one occasion for four hours.

Babysitting rates have gone up, I'm not sure the exact rate but I think it's like $10-15/hr, depending on the age of children, how long you're babysitting, and how many kids.

I'm in my late 20s and babysit often for a friend of mine. Because it's for a good family friend, I get paid $20 a night. Yes, I'm WAY underpaid, but I do it because I love the kids and it's better than me just sitting at home.

Wtf? I babysat a toddler in fucking midtown Manhatten last weekend for $15/hr and I'm 23, very experienced, and trying to make some money for like...rent. Wtf is $40/hr plus commission???

AYRT - That was a hyperbole. :)

Oh Jesus I'm tired and took you seriously.

AYRT - I partly blame tone on the internet, so not to worry!

I think it depends on the age of the kids, but people nowadays are a lot more skittish about finding a babysitter who's not negligent, abusive, inclined to steal your stuff, or who knows what to do in an emergency. Screening potential candidates is difficult, unless you already know someone like a family member or neighbor.

I think you may have heard someone making an excuse for not wanting to go to something, someone who encountered a very odd babysitter, or someone who waited till the very last minute to try and find a sitter. Alternatively, the $40/hr thing sounds like someone yapping about "entitled kids these days."

AYRT - The $40/hr thing was an exaggeration. I forgot without tone on the internet, that wasn't clear!

The thing is that I hear it quite a bit, so while I'm sure sometimes it IS just people using it as an excuse, it seems like sitters are legitimately expensive. However, a few people commenting have also stated that they're adults, and I think maybe that's one difference? When I was young, 14-17 year olds babysat. So people say "sitter" and I picture a fifteen year old girl, not a forty year old woman.

Well, if you're not dealing with a good friend or family member, i'd pay more to make sure the person watching my child wasn't some kind of jackass or meth head or something.

One of my cousins is 18 but she's been babysitting since she was 14. She's made bank doing it because once she has a good family who pays well, they recommend her to all of their friends.

I think it may just who you're hearing it from too. The family friend I babysit for complains about not having money to go out and hire a babysitter, but that's because their night out includes dinner, appetizers and loads of rounds of drinks and then a regular babysitter charges way more than I would.

Depending on the sitter's hourly fee, a mere four hours can run you $50+, added onto all your other costs. If you're not already well off financially, I can see why people are tempted to just stay home.

I am a preschool teacher, and I babysit regularly for my old kids. I generally get $15 an hour. One family has me one night a month for 6 hours, so they are paying me $90 a month for one night out. To them it is worth it, because their kid literally counts down the time until I show up, I bring things for us to do, I'm constantly engaging him, and I'm an adult who is more responsible than a teen. However, that $90 is definitely expensive, especially on top of the cost of the actual going out.

Is it hard to get into babysitting?

I've been thinking about how I could make some extra money (I'm moving this year and my income is lower than last year as well, so it would be nice to earn extra money).

My schedule is flexible but I've never done any babysitting for pay (just siblings, church volunteer stuff, etc--and it's been a while).

Is babysitting really hard to get into? You need an "in" with a family or a background check / certification, etc?

I've also been considering dog walking. Not sure how hard it is to find clients. Lots of people seem to have dogs, but they walk them themselves for the most part.

I'm not a kid or dog expert; I tend to get along with both, but that's about it.

Eh, depends. If you have no experience at all, it might be tough getting a gig. It might help if you get some certification in basic first aid, CPR, stuff like that. But honestly, you're either going to have to hit up family members, church, etc. for your first gigs, and you won't be able to charge a whole lot until you get more experience and actually have decent references.

thanks (:

As a former babysitter... why SHOULDN'T babysitters be expensive? Looking after kids is a heck of a lot of work. The entire reason parents want babysitters is because they want a break from their kids, so why do they expect to get someone else to do it for next to nothing?

When I was 14 I charged $10/hr and thought that was perfectly fair, since I was usually expected to feed the kids dinner (and sometimes make the dinner myself), help them with their homework, and then get them ready for bed. You're basically being the kids' parent for however long they're gone, with the added bonus of them not wanting to listen to you because you AREN'T actually their mom or dad.

THIS!!!

You have to consider inflation. $10 in 1980 is about $30 now, so it's not unreasonable that babysitters would cost more than $10 a night.

It's also possible that there are fewer teenagers out there who know how to care for babies or toddlers, as people have fewer kids and the eldest kid may have been too young when the youngest was born to be taught how to do things like change diapers. Thus, teens who know what they are doing are in short supply and can demand more, and at the same time, more people turn to adult sitters, who aren't going to work for peanuts.

Labor has value. If the babysitting job involves an infant or toddler, then that is real work and $10 for several hours of real work that you wouldn't be doing if you weren't getting paid is total bullshit, even for 14 year-olds.

My brother and I were kids in the 80s and our parents' hardly ever got babysitters, citing the cost. I'm not sure where all the cheap babysitters were in the days of yore. I suspect mostly they were teens who were relatives, children of the parents' friends, or neighbors, and who were sort of doing the babysitting as a favor or an obligation as much as a job. My parents didn't have local family, friends with teen kids, or any strong connections in their neighborhood, so they had to pay real money for a sitter.

Back in the day, no one gave much of a shit if you didn't know CPR or speak 3 different languages. Now they do. Plus, kids can be brats. The cost of living has gone way up! If you expect me to watch your children for a few hours (or be your PT or FT nanny), be certified in CPR and know some First Aid stuff, possibly do your laundry, cook meals, take your kids to after-school activities then you'd better be willing to pay more than $9.00 an hour! You can't get something for nothing!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3680 ]

Why are babysitters so expensive?

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