“Babysitting job perfect for a college student”- dog whistle?

[Anonymous]

NP. Maybe I need to start using this language. Thr last two sitters we have tried have been teenagers. One sweet but far too inexperienced, and the other played on her phone the entire time. My 6yo would be ok with either, but my toddler needs someone a bit more attentive.
From my perspective, I can see using phrasing like this to set a minimum age limit with which I might be comfortsble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As other races tend to say, 'I want someone who looks like me and reflects my culture.' So yes, I can ask that for my kids' babysitters. OP, you are way off.

It's different when you're marginalized. What a disgusting comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read that language as, they want to pay a modest hourly wage (“a little extra money”), not what a nanny would charge.

It’s this. It’s code for “we’re cheap and not willing to pay market value for childcare.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They're saying they don't want a tween or teen.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As other races tend to say, 'I want someone who looks like me and reflects my culture.' So yes, I can ask that for my kids' babysitters. OP, you are way off.

Yeah pretty sure you aren’t allowed to say that in an employment posting.

Which is probably why people use code words like “local SAHM” or “college student” (not for race , but to imply shared cultural values etc)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're saying they don't want a tween or teen.

+1

Then why not just say “over age 18”? Why “college student”? Because they don’t want a 19 year old high school grad who works at the mall they want a 19 year old college student studying to be a nurse or a teacher. Aka why not just say “we want someone educated and not lower class”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would assume they say that so applicants have no expectation of full time hours or health insurance. They’re specially calling out that they want someone who has another job/isn’t looking to work full time.

Yeah, this is what I think it means!

[Anonymous]

Or maybe they want people who can work evenings, willingly?

[Anonymous]

Does it surprise you that black women can also be college students?

[Anonymous]

Part-time is probably what the ad is looking for, and that's why college students are targeted, because that's usually who has the time.

If looking for full-time, the ad would be targeted to a different population.

Stop looking for offense, OP. It's really exhausting to go through life like this. As a mixed-race person, I can guarantee you that if I lived my life always looking for microaggressions, I would have literally no time left for anything!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read that language as, they want to pay a modest hourly wage (“a little extra money”), not what a nanny would charge.

It’s this. It’s code for “we’re cheap and not willing to pay market value for childcare.”

I don't think that specific language means this, but yeah, these types of posts are usually cringy and entitled for this reason.

The pay often doesn't compensate for a person's time adequately. They often post a small hourly wage and then expect someone to happily drive to their house five times a week for 10 hours of work. A college kid could instead get a weekend job and commute twice for the same pay. Obviously the details differ from posting to posting, but the trend exists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read that language as, they want to pay a modest hourly wage (“a little extra money”), not what a nanny would charge.

It’s this. It’s code for “we’re cheap and not willing to pay market value for childcare.”

I don't think that specific language means this, but yeah, these types of posts are usually cringy and entitled for this reason.

The pay often doesn't compensate for a person's time adequately. They often post a small hourly wage and then expect someone to happily drive to their house five times a week for 10 hours of work. A college kid could instead get a weekend job and commute twice for the same pay. Obviously the details differ from posting to posting, but the trend exists.

We used to live near a very large state school. We never had a problem getting sitters for $20/hr. My understanding is that these college girls prefer babysitting gigs / part time “nanny” gigs because they make a higher hourly wage than they would elsewhere (work study at the university, fast food restaurants, retail, etc.). Our last part time “nanny” subsequently took a job on campus at the golf shop making $13/hr. There aren’t that many part time gigs for college girls that have the same flexibility and a higher rate than babysitting. But I’d love to hear more about this high paying weekend job you mention… though most college girls like their weekends for themselves, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On our community FB page I’m frequently seeing people post looking for a part time nanny or date night sitter and then announcing it would be a perfect fit for a college student or a teacher looking for extra money on weekends or perhaps a local stay at home mom looking to make some extra money. It always rubs me the wrong way, as if they’re blatantly stating “I want an UMC type of white woman to babysit”. Is it just me? Like why not just state the job you’re offering without adding that you think it would be a great fit for an educated young woman who lives in your neighborhood. And by “great fit” meaning, “this is who I want”.

Congratulations! You win the most virtue signal-y post today.

[Anonymous]

I’ve said that, and I didn’t mean educated. I was just looking for a few hours per week but every week, and I was trying to help people think of folks who might have a schedule that would work with what I’m looking for, so they could connect us. A full time nanny wouldn’t want the job I posted. Fortunately a few people asked their Nannies (who wanted extra hours) and a couple of SAHMs responded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. We used this language (college student) once but meant the following:
- high school age was too young for our comfort
- being enrolled in college implies some level of judgement and intelligence that we absolutely did want for someone watching our (at the time) toddler

Ended up getting a black female nursing student at a community college (she was the best), a hispanic female business student at a local university (problematic judgement...so much for that), and a white female graduate student in some sort of policy (also a big hit, mostly because she was also a former athlete who had a car). Then as our kid got older we had a black male high school student whom we and our child absolutely adored.

So I do think "college student" can be proxy for high expectations but can't afford to pay full time or much. But SAHM and teacher are beyond the pale to me: those people don't really have bandwidth to babysit, in my opinion, so it's a weird ask.

SAHM and teachers lack the bandwidth to babysit?