How do you keep sitters from flaking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in a LCOL area. My neighbor pays $25 an hour for three kids. I am paying $20 an hour for one. sweet. preschool. boy. Sitter flaked. WTH?! I have experimented with scheduling ahead so they can plan. I’ve tried scheduling last minute to reduce FOMO. Neighbor won’t share her sitters’ names. We’ve tried Care.com. SitterCity. Facebook. Backup care. These women have never met us. I’m asking them to drive to our house, play with the child, and feed him. What else could we be doing?

Everybody thinks their kid is sweet and easy. Don't poach neighbor's babysitter! Pay more.

[Anonymous]

$20 is plenty, IMO. My daughter makes that much (or less -- we don't live in a major metro area) and she never flakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in a LCOL area. My neighbor pays $25 an hour for three kids. I am paying $20 an hour for one. sweet. preschool. boy. Sitter flaked. WTH?! I have experimented with scheduling ahead so they can plan. I’ve tried scheduling last minute to reduce FOMO. Neighbor won’t share her sitters’ names. We’ve tried Care.com. SitterCity. Facebook. Backup care. These women have never met us. I’m asking them to drive to our house, play with the child, and feed him. What else could we be doing?

Is your kid fully potty trained and no accidents while the sitter is there?

Is your kid attention-seeking or whiny?

Having to actually play with the kid, rather than watch the kid playing with other kids, is a more tiring job. That's probably the reason.

+1

Its much easier it is to take care of three kids versus one. Three kids play with each other. One child demands exclusive attention from the sitter which ends up being a lot more work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in a LCOL area. My neighbor pays $25 an hour for three kids. I am paying $20 an hour for one. sweet. preschool. boy. Sitter flaked. WTH?! I have experimented with scheduling ahead so they can plan. I’ve tried scheduling last minute to reduce FOMO. Neighbor won’t share her sitters’ names. We’ve tried Care.com. SitterCity. Facebook. Backup care. These women have never met us. I’m asking them to drive to our house, play with the child, and feed him. What else could we be doing?

Is your kid fully potty trained and no accidents while the sitter is there?

Is your kid attention-seeking or whiny?

Having to actually play with the kid, rather than watch the kid playing with other kids, is a more tiring job. That's probably the reason.

+1

Its much easier it is to take care of three kids versus one. Three kids play with each other. One child demands exclusive attention from the sitter which ends up being a lot more work.

Correcting myself to say that it can be easier.

[Anonymous]

Pay more. That’s what you can do. No one wants $20/ hr.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in a LCOL area. My neighbor pays $25 an hour for three kids. I am paying $20 an hour for one. sweet. preschool. boy. Sitter flaked. WTH?! I have experimented with scheduling ahead so they can plan. I’ve tried scheduling last minute to reduce FOMO. Neighbor won’t share her sitters’ names. We’ve tried Care.com. SitterCity. Facebook. Backup care. These women have never met us. I’m asking them to drive to our house, play with the child, and feed him. What else could we be doing?

Is your kid fully potty trained and no accidents while the sitter is there?

Is your kid attention-seeking or whiny?

Having to actually play with the kid, rather than watch the kid playing with other kids, is a more tiring job. That's probably the reason.

+1

Its much easier it is to take care of three kids versus one. Three kids play with each other. One child demands exclusive attention from the sitter which ends up being a lot more work.

Correcting myself to say that it can be easier.

Two kids is easier. Three of different ages can be hard, especially if the youngest is a toddler.

[Anonymous]

I pay $25/hr. offer dinner. pay for the uber home if we are back late.

maybe stop trying to cheap out on your child care

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in a LCOL area. My neighbor pays $25 an hour for three kids. I am paying $20 an hour for one. sweet. preschool. boy. Sitter flaked. WTH?! I have experimented with scheduling ahead so they can plan. I’ve tried scheduling last minute to reduce FOMO. Neighbor won’t share her sitters’ names. We’ve tried Care.com. SitterCity. Facebook. Backup care. These women have never met us. I’m asking them to drive to our house, play with the child, and feed him. What else could we be doing?

Everybody thinks their kid is sweet and easy. Don't poach neighbor's babysitter! Pay more.

Yes, thank you! I always laugh a little when I see nanny or babysitting postings where the parents talks about what a sweet kid they have, as if the parent's opinion on her child somehow makes the job easier. Kids act differently around different caretakers/ their parents AND some parents are more likely to overlook obnoxious behavior. A new babysitter isn't going to take less money just because you describe your kid as "sweet"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can make $19 working in grocery store. Pay more and there will be less flaking.

$19 full time is s a lot better than once a week sitter gig for $30!

[Anonymous]

Maybe offer a guaranteed minimum number of hours or pay? If its just 2 hours I can see a lot of people bailing but a bigger job will be more motivating

Perhaps also offer regular work if you can. Like a standing every other sat afternoon job so you find someone really looking for work and they want to keep the stable work with you.

[Anonymous]

It might not be a problem with your rate. Flaky people are flaky people.

[Anonymous]

It’s NOT the money. Don’t go on care.com or whatever. Good sitters don’t need to advertise. You need to find someone through word of mouth. Look for a local teenager. Adults are flakier for jobs without a regular schedule, stick to teens in your immediate neighborhood. $20 is absolutely fine. My teens are happy to make that in Nova. The DC posters are crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s NOT the money. Don’t go on care.com or whatever. Good sitters don’t need to advertise. You need to find someone through word of mouth. Look for a local teenager. Adults are flakier for jobs without a regular schedule, stick to teens in your immediate neighborhood. $20 is absolutely fine. My teens are happy to make that in Nova. The DC posters are crazy.

I mean she is welcome to keep offering $20 because a random poster said that her teens will take $20 but it doesn't seem to be working so far. I live in DC and pay sitters minimum of $25/ hour, have three kids and have zero issue finding sitters. Call me crazy if you want but it certainly works for me.

Also, of course it is about the money! Sitters babysit for the money. You are going to get more candidates if you pay more. Basic supply and demand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s NOT the money. Don’t go on care.com or whatever. Good sitters don’t need to advertise. You need to find someone through word of mouth. Look for a local teenager. Adults are flakier for jobs without a regular schedule, stick to teens in your immediate neighborhood. $20 is absolutely fine. My teens are happy to make that in Nova. The DC posters are crazy.

I mean she is welcome to keep offering $20 because a random poster said that her teens will take $20 but it doesn't seem to be working so far. I live in DC and pay sitters minimum of $25/ hour, have three kids and have zero issue finding sitters. Call me crazy if you want but it certainly works for me.

Also, of course it is about the money! Sitters babysit for the money. You are going to get more candidates if you pay more. Basic supply and demand.

Of course more money is “better.” But that isn’t why people are accepting jobs and then canceling. The reason is that Op is only finding flakes to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s NOT the money. Don’t go on care.com or whatever. Good sitters don’t need to advertise. You need to find someone through word of mouth. Look for a local teenager. Adults are flakier for jobs without a regular schedule, stick to teens in your immediate neighborhood. $20 is absolutely fine. My teens are happy to make that in Nova. The DC posters are crazy.

DP and I keep thinking this too, but it depends on what we mean by "sitters." Is it actually a nanny, or an irregular sitter? I pay a rotating cast of teens to fill in random hours over the summer and they'll happily take $21 for my 3 (!) kids. Yes, they do occasionally flake in that they forget other commitments and we have to compromise, but it's good enough for what I need and my kids love hanging out with them.

But for a nanny? That's different. I'm not saying you go on care.com, but you need someone who is not a rotating cast of teenagers.