I watch a little boy a few times a week. At this point I do it for $40/day during the week. Typically it's 6-7 hours a day, so I feel I'm giving the family a good rate. The mom requested this Saturday. She said she would pay me $40 as usual. I told her I'd think about it. I don't mind watching the boy on Saturday but that is usually our family day so I feel as though my time is worth more. In all honesty I don't want to come off as rude for asking for more than what we've agreed on for the daily rate but it isn't as if my time isn't valuable ya know? What would you moms/dads ask for? I know in my area even inexperienced sitters charge $10-$15/hr. ETA: Weekends have never been part of our agreement. I added in the part about Saturday being family day for us because when I agreed to watch her son she emphatically stated that her job(retail)must work around x day and x day because it's their family time. I feel that if she can demand that of a corporation that I can ask for a difference in pay to forgo our family day. Oh, and no I cannot transport my family plus this child for anything so I would be stuck at home. The best I can offer the kids is swimming at our apt pool.
Thanks for any advice. :)
Thank you all for your input & advice. I went and talked to the mom about it all and came to an agreement. I didn't realize this but I'm apparently her backup sitter. She told me that all her friends watch her son for free. However, we are not friends. It has been made clear that this is a business arrangement. I'm fine with that and she cannot expect me to charge(well, not charge)her the friend rate for a weekend day. Thank you all once again. :)
I'd charge her an hourly rate for a weekend or night. So decide what you want that to be per hour ($10, $15, whatever) and let her know you will do it, but your weekend rates are different.
I wouldn't give her a one time deal, my old sitter did that and it shot her in the foot really badly...so not worth it.
I think you need to make it known that you switch from a flat rate to an hourly rate on weekends because your time is precious to you and your family. Makes sense to me, and it will keep her from taking advantage.
If you don't want to do it for the usual rate then say no. Saturday is just another day of the week but if it is special to you then don't watch the child. If you plan on watching the child you can't say this is premium time and charge more.
I am not sure how I would react if when I needed sitters they have daily and premium rates. It would change my opinion of the sitter.
So say you can't and then if they say they are in a bind a will pay more go from there. At least that way it won't change her opinion of you.
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Oh now I do like Mom2KCK's idea of a daily rate and hourly rate. So then the daily rate applies to M-F business hours and beyond that this is the hourly add on.
I used to babysit a girl Mon-Fri from 7:30 a.m. til about 6:00 p.m. We had an agreed upon amount, due on Friday when she picked her daughter up. She was "forcefully asked" to work on Saturday, much to her dislike. She asked me to watch her daughter. Sat. was the only day my entire family would be home at the same time. She knew this. I felt bad for her situation, and told her I would, but for an additional $25 for the entire day. She agreed and I ended up babysitting for her another couple times on a Sat., and she never even balked at the additional rate.
I think that if you don't ask for more, it can begin a slippery slope into being taken advantage of in the future.
I have no idea what to say to Gamma G's post. $40 for 7 hours of child care is less than minimum wage. You are acting as a nanny, not a daycare center. I pay my teenage babysitter $11 an hour.
There is no way I would give up a family day for $40. I pay the 15 year old down the street $12 an hour when we go out. I would say that for a Saturday it would be at least that if not more. Is this an every Saturday deal or just this Saturday?
I agree with what other's have said that I would charge an hourly rate for weekends.
Wow, you are charging a very low rate!
I think a responsible grown woman can easily charge $15-$20/hour. (Take the "inexperienced teen sitter" rate and double it.)
Tell her your weekend rate is different. Like below posts said, tell her your "weekday daily" rate is different from "evening" and "weekend" rate.
From her perspective it will look like you don't really want to do it (which you don't) but for an additional $10 or so you'll suffer through.
No one wants to think of someone caring for their child whose heart really isn't in it. You're either willing to give up your Saturday to work for your agreed upon salary or your not.
I have been in this exact situation from the parent perspective. And while I pay a set rate for weekdays that is negotiated in advance, anything beyond that - including evenings or weekends, gets paid at $10 per hour.
She won't be able to pay a teenager less than $10 / hour and her child knows you. That is worth a lot in my opinion. Tell her you charge an hourly rate if $x on week nights and weekends. She can go else where if she doesn't like the price.
If my boss asked me to come in on a Saturday working overtime without overtime pay I would politely decline.
This is not a friend you are doing a favor for. I believe you are already selling yourself short, don't let this person walk all over you.
I too watch my friend's kids for free and vice versa, but I pay my babysitter $10 + tip (because I know that we are paying the minimum here).
I personally would not forgo my family day and just say no, but if you need the money asking for a weekend rate of an additional 50% sounds fair.
Good luck.
We pay a friend of ours $25 per hour for two LOs (age 5 & 2.5). She would do it for free but we feel better showing her our appreciation of giving up her time. We also provide dinner for her and the kids - typically something easy like a veggie pizza for her and cheese for the kids. The longest time we've been out is 3 hours.
I think I might give her this first Saturday at the regular rate, or maybe add on $10 or so... But if she requests again, then set up a specific pay scale for weekends... And let her know this. "I will watch little _____ this time for $___... But next time we will have to work out something different."
Wow, if you worked in child care you'd see that women who are putting their kids in full time child care don't pay as much as you are charging this woman, does she know she could get full time fully licensed child care for less?
Sorry, but you're already charging her a lot, I think you should give her the care for the same amount.
Here's a link to Oklahoma's scale of what they pay a child care provider for children of low income families. Since this is all the facility can charge a majority of the families that come to their facility since nearly everyone qualifies for at least a little bit of help they all charge pretty much these rates or at least close to them.
http://www.okdhs.org/NR/rdonlyres/2E81F###-###-####-487B-...
A 1 STAR is the bare minimum required to be able to watch children in your home. A 2 STAR requires at least 20 hours each year of continuing education, CPR/First Aid, classes in early childhood development, ethics, and other classes. They go to these classes on their own time and pay out of pocket for any fees. It's their career so they are responsible for their own credentials. A 3 STAR is a nationally certified child care facility, they have a nationally accredited curriculum, each staff person has a degree or is working on one, the owner/director has a minimum of a bachelors and is most likely working on their masters if they don't already have one. They also have national accreditation as a director/owner.
An enhanced area/county is one that has a higher ratio of urban/city towns. They get more per day because the cost of living is higher.
These fees include all meals, breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and sometimes an evening snack, (we can't go for more than 3 hours without offering food to a child), craft projects, everything they need during the day. Infants parents to provide their formula and baby food.
Most kids in child care are there for at least 10 hours too, mom goes to work at 8 and has to be in her office and ready to work by 8am. So they drop the kids off at 7:15. Then she works all day and gets off at 5, or tries to leave within a few minutes after. She gets to her car and tries to fight traffic to get her kids. By the time she gets there it's 5:45. 5:15 was 10 hours so this day was 10 1/2 hours.
It's not uncommon for it to run into 11 hours. And they pay, if they're paying cash out of pocket, they would pay between $15.50 per day up to $27.75 for an infant and $11.25 up to $18.25 for a school age child.
These prices are for full time, over 10 hours per day, for child care. What you are charging for babysitting is more than double what this parent would pay for child care. That's why I think you might want to reconsider how much you're charging and for how much you might be paying someone for babysitting for you.
I know of several families that put in an add for babysitting and the kids that responded have various charges. The most ludicrous wanted $20 per hour for 1 child. They asked why they should pick her and she said "because I took some classes and like kids".....they said no thank you.
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Nanny's do a lot more than watch a child in their home for a few hours. They go to the child's home, they cook that child food, they clean the kitchen after they cook, they might do a load of laundry, clean the playroom, clean his room, a nanny provides total care for a child in his own home and do other duties as needed.
A nanny should get more because they also do things for the parents and other family members.
All I'm saying is that this mom could probably find fully licensed child care for less than she is already paying this mom. That should could also find that child care on the weekend and not pay more for it being a Saturday.
I think it's too high what she's charging this mom already. And to add more to it. A full time teacher in child care has anywhere from 4 infants up to 20 school aged children in her care at one time. They work for just above minimum wage. They go to school, get extra training, do hours and hours of prep work before they go in to teach their class. Child care workers are professional care givers.
Fully licensed child care centers charge less per day than $40 per child. This mom is charging $40 per day for pretty much part time care. This child's mom can find other care if she'd just look.
This mom posting this question needs to understand that if she raises her price for this child she is going to make it impossible for anyone to pay her, they can find care for nearly half as much. That's all.
If you mom's truly pay your babysitters that much per hour then how do you pay your bills, pay for anything. Normal people don't make $15 per hour. We make minimum wage or maybe a little bit more.
