Need advice on babysitter hours/pay

[Anonymous]

SAHM mom of a preschooler here. I made an agreement with a very sweet and capable college student to have her babysit for 4 hours each Wednesday this semester so I could have the time to go to appointments and do things without my little one in tow. We agreed upon a pay rate for those 4 hours and it seems like a great situation for us both. One week in, she tells me that her schedule changed and she’ll have to arrive 30-45 minutes later than we’d agreed on going forward. No problem, but it cuts into the 4 hours of babysitting because at the end of her shift my child heads to his afternoon preschool program. So she can’t stay any later to make up for the 45 minutes. I (perhaps mistakenly) continued to pay her the agreed upon rate even though she’s working closer to 3 hours instead of the agreed upon 4.

This morning she texts me and apologetically says something came up and she’ll be an hour + 15 minutes later than our originally agreed upon start time. I get it - life happens - and it’s not a huge deal. My question is, do I now do the math and pay her less for today’s shift? I’m torn - do t want to feel like a grinch for docking her pay but I’m also not running a jobs program for college students.

How would you handle this?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I would pay her less immediately. She is taking advantage of you. I would also start looking for someone more reliable. But in the meantime, pay her according to the hours she can work. She shouldn’t expect to receive the same pay for working fewer hours than what you agreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I would pay her less immediately. She is taking advantage of you. I would also start looking for someone more reliable. But in the meantime, pay her according to the hours she can work. She shouldn’t expect to receive the same pay for working fewer hours than what you agreed.

Agree. My sitter has a 4hr minimum for all sitting dates so when there are times I need her for 1-3 hours, of course I pay for 4 but if she is ever not available for 4, I'm not paying the minimum. And yeah, seems a bit unreliable.

[Anonymous]

Of course you pay her less. It’s an hourly rate.

Unfortunately this kind of flakiness is pretty common with college student sitters. The upside should be that she is also flexible to come at different times/days on short notice. But if she is routinely failing to be able to do the job, you should look elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I would pay her less immediately. She is taking advantage of you. I would also start looking for someone more reliable. But in the meantime, pay her according to the hours she can work. She shouldn’t expect to receive the same pay for working fewer hours than what you agreed.

Agree. My sitter has a 4hr minimum for all sitting dates so when there are times I need her for 1-3 hours, of course I pay for 4 but if she is ever not available for 4, I'm not paying the minimum. And yeah, seems a bit unreliable.

Agree as well. If you don't need her for the full time, but she's there and available, then pay her for the full time. If she's not available, then you pay her for the time she was actually able to work. Because OP agreed to pay the full rate for the reduced 3-3.5 hours, she should recalculate the hourly wage based on that, and pay her for the number of actual hours she works today. Maybe she'll realize it's not worth the money if she keeps coming late and getting paid less.

[Anonymous]

Find a different sitter. This is not worth it. Also, I predict she’ll quit soon.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, she’s flaky and you aren’t a priority. Find someone else. Were you paying her $100 for the four hours? Now it would be $100 for 2.75 hours?

[Anonymous]

You pay her for the time she babysits, nothing more. But find a backup, because the one day you have an important doctor's appointment to find out if you have cancer or something, she'll be like "Oh, I'll be two hours late, sorry!"

[Anonymous]

There’s the flakey part and the pay for hours worked part.

If I tell a babysitter a set time, like 5-9, I pay her for 4 hours even if I arrive home by 8:15.

If a babysitter agrees to be there from 5-9 but shows up at 5:30, I pay her for 3.5 hours, not 4.

The flakey part is separate from this.

[Anonymous]

Is she’s late I would pay her accordingly.
My regular sitter prefers to book for 4 hour blocks. Sometimes my child will fall asleep with time to spare. In this case I pay the full 4 hours.

[Anonymous]

She IS taking full advantage of you OP which is very clear.

I would look for someone else - preferably someone not in school.

It may take awhile because I have heard that not very many Nannies are looking for part-time gigs.

But there ARE Nannies that do not like watching children on a full-time regular basis too.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you should pay a reduced rate. Your mistake was letting it go the first time, but now you need to bring it up and let her know you’ll stick with the xx/hr rate you initially discussed and pay her for however many hours she actually works. I personally wouldn’t deduct anything if she’s like 15 mins late, but if she’s more than 30 mins late, I’d pay 1/2 he less.

I once had a college age sitter for pretty much exactly the same thing - I was a SAHM and wanted 1 morning a week to go to appointments and run errands etc. The only sitter I could find was super unreliable. It started off with being a little late or asking to leave a little early and then switching days last minute…not great. I think because I was a SAHM, she figured whatever, I was not that important and who cares if I had to rearrange plans. She needed to make a certain amount every month to pay her cell phone bill or something and always wanted to try to make up the hours another time, but it hardly ever worked out to be worth it to me. I eventually had much better luck using a neighbor’s full time nanny when her usual charge was in preschool or K, but the family wanted to keep her on for afternoons. She was very professional, always on time!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SAHM mom of a preschooler here. I made an agreement with a very sweet and capable college student to have her babysit for 4 hours each Wednesday this semester so I could have the time to go to appointments and do things without my little one in tow. We agreed upon a pay rate for those 4 hours and it seems like a great situation for us both. One week in, she tells me that her schedule changed and she’ll have to arrive 30-45 minutes later than we’d agreed on going forward. No problem, but it cuts into the 4 hours of babysitting because at the end of her shift my child heads to his afternoon preschool program. So she can’t stay any later to make up for the 45 minutes. I (perhaps mistakenly) continued to pay her the agreed upon rate even though she’s working closer to 3 hours instead of the agreed upon 4.

This morning she texts me and apologetically says something came up and she’ll be an hour + 15 minutes later than our originally agreed upon start time. I get it - life happens - and it’s not a huge deal. My question is, do I now do the math and pay her less for today’s shift? I’m torn - do t want to feel like a grinch for docking her pay but I’m also not running a jobs program for college students.

How would you handle this?

I would start finding someone else. She isn't reliable

[Anonymous]

I’d start looking for another nanny