20 something to watch teens while away on a trip?

[Anonymous]

My husband and I are celebrating our 20th anniversary later this year and plan to take a trip for about 4 nights just the two of us. My kids are 14 and 16 and very responsible, but I still think having someone in the house is a good idea. If you've hired someone to be with your kids in a situation like this - about how much did you pay / day? My kids don't really have activities they need to be shuttled to and they don't need rides to school. It's basically just dinner / over night. Thanks in advance for your advice!

[Anonymous]

Whoever is watching them needs to make sure they don't skip school, and don't throw parties or get into shenanigans with staying out late while you're gone. This is more work than you think it is.

You should pay at least $100 per day.

[Anonymous]

Will the kids be in school or camp? I haven’t done this but I think at least minimum wage times the number of hours that she will be required to be in the house (including sleeping hours).

[Anonymous]

This seems so strange to me. My kids are the same age and no way would they want a random 20-something in the house with them for four days. Where do you even find such a person? Do they have a friend they could stay with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whoever is watching them needs to make sure they don't skip school, and don't throw parties or get into shenanigans with staying out late while you're gone. This is more work than you think it is.

You should pay at least $100 per day.

$100 a day? Are you from 1995? I think you are looking at at least $500 a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoever is watching them needs to make sure they don't skip school, and don't throw parties or get into shenanigans with staying out late while you're gone. This is more work than you think it is.

You should pay at least $100 per day.

$100 a day? Are you from 1995? I think you are looking at at least $500 a day.

DP. This idea sounds crazier and crazier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoever is watching them needs to make sure they don't skip school, and don't throw parties or get into shenanigans with staying out late while you're gone. This is more work than you think it is.

You should pay at least $100 per day.

$100 a day? Are you from 1995? I think you are looking at at least $500 a day.

I don’t know about $500. But I pay more than $100 a night just for a house sitter with virtually no expectations.

[Anonymous]

Are you expecting them to stay at your house the entire time?

We’ve done something similar but the person wasn’t at our house all day. They mainly came in the evening or if the kids needed to be driven somewhere. I forget what we paid but it was their hourly rate for any hours they hung out at the house plus $100 per night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoever is watching them needs to make sure they don't skip school, and don't throw parties or get into shenanigans with staying out late while you're gone. This is more work than you think it is.

You should pay at least $100 per day.

$100 a day? Are you from 1995? I think you are looking at at least $500 a day.

I don’t know about $500. But I pay more than $100 a night just for a house sitter with virtually no expectations.

You’re being ripped off.

[Anonymous]

I would ask a neighbor or friends if they can stay with them at either house - it seems like a worse idea to have a strange person in your house with access to your things and children for a whole week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would ask a neighbor or friends if they can stay with them at either house - it seems like a worse idea to have a strange person in your house with access to your things and children for a whole week.

This. That's just crazy to have some rando staying there, snooping while the kids are at school, etc.

Although it sounds like the plot to the beginning of a raunchy 1990s teen movie.

[Anonymous]

No way. My parents did this to me twice. Both ended badly. Without going into details, one of the minor incidents was picking up a hitchhiker (“it’ll be fun” she says”) who happened to just be released from state prison and was a violent offender.
Another completely separate 20 something (no connection or relation to the first) took me to a meeting where they were building explosives to use at a protest and somebody had fat fingers and that ended badly.
These were white upper middle class college and graduate degree educated women.
The best babysitters (as a teen) I had were retired women who had been highschool teachers. They knew what was up.

[Anonymous]

We've done this and hired a teacher who knew my kids from elementary school. I paid her $150/night for communicating with the kids throughout the day and then spending the night.

[Anonymous]

I have kids the exact same age. If I were in this situation, I would ask our old nanny to sleep over and I would probably offer 300 per night. She may ask for more.

7-8 years ago, we paid our nanny $200 for the overnight and regular rate when kids were awake. My teens don’t require care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've done this and hired a teacher who knew my kids from elementary school. I paid her $150/night for communicating with the kids throughout the day and then spending the night.

How long ago was this? I just wrote I paid our nanny $200 to do this before when my kids were younger like 7-8 years ago. I guess if someone was doing you a favor, that seems ok.