After-school babysitter -- what's your system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a high school sitter pick our kids up from the bus 3 days a week and stay with them no longer than an hour. She gives them a snack, gets school work started and plays with them a bit if there is time. We pay $12 an hour but rarely is she needed a full hour. I still pay for an hour. Activities are rarely before dinner so the sitter doesn't need to drive.

You only give her $12? Damn, you're cheap as hell. You should really be paying her $20.

Sorry, but I am snickering at this too. Wouldn't it just be easier to give her a $20 and send her on her way?

She's in high school and it's less than an hour. She probably lives on the same block and walks over. I think it's totally fair. My high school kid would do it for that amount for sure.

For ease of payment for me, I'd probably pay her forty dollars for the week rather than $36 so it would work out to be $13 and change per hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a high school sitter pick our kids up from the bus 3 days a week and stay with them no longer than an hour. She gives them a snack, gets school work started and plays with them a bit if there is time. We pay $12 an hour but rarely is she needed a full hour. I still pay for an hour. Activities are rarely before dinner so the sitter doesn't need to drive.

You only give her $12? Damn, you're cheap as hell. You should really be paying her $20.

Sorry, but I am snickering at this too. Wouldn't it just be easier to give her a $20 and send her on her way?

She's in high school and it's less than an hour. She probably lives on the same block and walks over. I think it's totally fair. My high school kid would do it for that amount for sure.

For ease of payment for me, I'd probably pay her forty dollars for the week rather than $36 so it would work out to be $13 and change per hour.

She agreed to the payment. No one forced her to take the job. Where are all these people who claims to overpay babysitters?

[Anonymous]

Can the sitter use public transportation?

[Anonymous]

I think our sitter left a carseat installed in the car most of the time, but she did take it out from time to time. You have to accept that if she is using her own car, she's going to need to sometimes remove the seat and reinstall. If you're uncomfortable with that, you should consider if she can use a car you provide.

I was OK with it. It does get easier once you move the kids to boosters. If you want someone who cooks dinner, a young grad student might or might not work for you. Our sitters didn't usually deal with dinner, although once or twice they made cookies or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think our sitter left a carseat installed in the car most of the time, but she did take it out from time to time. You have to accept that if she is using her own car, she's going to need to sometimes remove the seat and reinstall. If you're uncomfortable with that, you should consider if she can use a car you provide.

I was OK with it. It does get easier once you move the kids to boosters. If you want someone who cooks dinner, a young grad student might or might not work for you. Our sitters didn't usually deal with dinner, although once or twice they made cookies or something.

PP again. I didn't pay mileage, I built some extra gas/car money into my hourly rate and made that clear up front. (Easier, and I didn't want to incentivize my sitter to drive the kids around more than necessary.) If you want someone to cook (as opposed to just heating up kid food), I think you will pay closer to $20/hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have an after school sitter for my 3 and 5 yo and I have extra car seats that I keep in my garage that my sitter has access to. She swings by our house and puts them in her car before picking the kids up and then puts them back in the garage when shes done for the day. The hardest part is finding someone reliable that will commit to such few hours. GL!

Sounds like a pain. Buy her her own seats.

It sounds like the seats are "her own seats" but this way she doesn't have to keep them in her car all of the time.

It's not a pain. She's welcome to keep them in her car if she likes, but she prefers not to, and I imagine many people would feel the same. The seats are lightweight, harness seats I got from Target, so it's not like she's switching out heavy, cumbersome Diono or Britax seats.

OP here. My hesitation with doing something like this is that, at least for my youngest who still uses the harness, the seat really needs to be installed correctly and tightly to be safe. I would worry about the sitter putting it in and out on a regular basis rather than, say, DH installing it once, tightly, and it just staying in. I'm hoping someone will be willing to leave the seat in.

You will need to provide a car for the nanny/sitter then. Its clearly an anxiety point for you and the only way to completely cover it.

[Anonymous]

The hardest part about this will be finding someone responsible who wants these hours. The people I know who have this exact arrangement are paying $20+ per hour for a responsible adult and typically have them start early afternoon ( hours are 2ish to 7ish). It is hard to find college and highschool students who can commit to this schedule

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been lucky so far. DD is not in school yet ( she is 4) but we need childcare 10 days a month from 2.30-6.30.
During the summer last year when this schedule started we found a HS neighbor willing to do those hours. We paid her $10 an hour to come to our house. She was only 15 so wasnt driving, it was an issue maybe twice but we worked it out. Her Mom actually took our DD somewhere once in their car and used a spare booster we have.
During the school year a SAHM friend of mine who has a 5yo watches her. She picks her up from our house because its on the way to her older childs school and then I pick DD up from her house at 6.30. DD has dinner at their house. She only has to drive DD to an activity twice a month and she takes her 5yo with her. We bought her her own booster to keep in her car for this.
The HS sitter is going to do it again next summer then my friend will take over again for the school year and pick up both our kids from K.
I pay my friend $10 an hour as well, I realize this seems low but she has her own child with her so I feel like its more like a share. Anytime they go anywhere that costs money we always pay for that and even if she doesnt have DD some of the pre-arranged days we still pay her.

Ridiculous. She is not benefitting from this "share", she is doing a job for you and you should pay her properly for that as you would any other adult sitter.

[Anonymous]

Do you really need this person to drive? If she could just wait at the bus stop and stay with them at your house that would make it a lot easier to find someone since their driving record insurance etc. wouldn't need to factor.

[Anonymous]

Op, if I was the sitter, the issue of legal liability re: driving your kids makes it not worth the small amount of money I'll get paid. Even less likely if you expect me to drive my own car, liability and then expenses. I might not find the car seats an inconvenience - - I can remove them, take them in-and-out, right?

[Anonymous]

Op, the older one doesn't need activities at 7
You have to make sacrifices, that is, if that is what it takes to make your family schedule work.

[Anonymous]

Btw, just offering perspective - I'm a young retiree and I'd do it in a heartbeat for $20 20/hrs a week but there would be weeks when I wouldn't be available. The job wouldn't be worth it if I got a guilt trip for taking a week off here or there, with advanced notice of course.

[Anonymous]

A couple of parents at our elementary school use classroom aides as after school babysitters. Many of them are young and happy for the extra babysitting money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, if I was the sitter, the issue of legal liability re: driving your kids makes it not worth the small amount of money I'll get paid. Even less likely if you expect me to drive my own car, liability and then expenses. I might not find the car seats an inconvenience - - I can remove them, take them in-and-out, right?

I'm one of the PPs. For what it's worth I've had no trouble hiring for positions like this, and I pay under $20/hr. It sounds not right for you, but there are many 20-somethings in grad school, under-employed, trying to make it as artists, etc. It's not bad pay for a PT job and it's relatively pleasant if you like kids.

[Anonymous]

We have a college student who picks up DD at school and takes her to soccer/basketball or straight home via public transportation. Sorry, I know this doesn't address your transportation issue. For what it is worth, we pay her $22 an hour. Any less and we found the sitters were not dependable/left for a better paying job.