Babysitter etiquette -- do you pay for an uber?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here -- she got an uber & paid for it herself. If she had said she was taking the bus/train, I might have pushed more.

I'm not driving her home because (a) I don't own a car and (b) I'd had a couple of cocktails.

Maybe next time I'll chip in a few bucks more to cover her uber. That way I'm not putting her address in my phone. I was actually also thinking about it as a way to make sure she got home safely, but that might be overdoing it. She's a freshman in college, which seems very young to me but clearly it ... isn't.

College freshman have so much money that they only babysit because of their altruism. You should have give her $20. I hope she never sits for you again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use a babysitter when my dh is gone. I can’t drive her or pay. I pay $15 an hour which is a lot and she’s only a block away. Time for a bike?

My daughter made $15.00/hr babysitting before she got her driver's license and I would pick her up. $15/hr is cheap. By the time she pays for Uber, she's getting nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I use a babysitter when my dh is gone. I can’t drive her or pay. I pay $15 an hour which is a lot and she’s only a block away. Time for a bike?

My daughter made $15.00/hr babysitting before she got her driver's license and I would pick her up. $15/hr is cheap. By the time she pays for Uber, she's getting nothing.

$15 for unskilled labor of a minor is not cheap. Thats absurd.

OP, I would have paid or driven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I use a babysitter when my dh is gone. I can’t drive her or pay. I pay $15 an hour which is a lot and she’s only a block away. Time for a bike?

My daughter made $15.00/hr babysitting before she got her driver's license and I would pick her up. $15/hr is cheap. By the time she pays for Uber, she's getting nothing.

$15 for unskilled labor of a minor is not cheap. Thats absurd.

OP, I would have paid or driven.

High school girl babysits $15/hour, 8pm to 12am, nets $60. Uber to the house is likely to be $5-10, plus tip, then home is likely to be $15-20, plus tip. Asking her to spend half her fee on travel is absurd!

[Anonymous]

We actually look for babysitters in our neighborhood for this reason- not because we are too cheap to pay for Uber (we will pay for an Uber for nighttime sitters for their ride home) but because adding transportation is jsut an additional wrinkle and we find babysitters who live close by are more likely to reliably be available to sit because they can get there and back easily.

[Anonymous]

So I recently offered to pick up and drop off from the closest metro to me (we’re 15 minutes from the metro) and the babysitter then asked me to pick up and drop off from her apartment instead. I thought I was being generous? I’m not sure whether to look for another babysitter or provide full round trip transportation. She’s in her 20s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I recently offered to pick up and drop off from the closest metro to me (we’re 15 minutes from the metro) and the babysitter then asked me to pick up and drop off from her apartment instead. I thought I was being generous? I’m not sure whether to look for another babysitter or provide full round trip transportation. She’s in her 20s.

The original thread is 4 years old…..
Anyway. No you shouldn’t need to pick a sitter up or drop off.
I might consider taking a young teen home but that’s it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I use a babysitter when my dh is gone. I can’t drive her or pay. I pay $15 an hour which is a lot and she’s only a block away. Time for a bike?

My daughter made $15.00/hr babysitting before she got her driver's license and I would pick her up. $15/hr is cheap. By the time she pays for Uber, she's getting nothing.

$15 for unskilled labor of a minor is not cheap. Thats absurd.

OP, I would have paid or driven.

Wow. Presumably your child is your most precious thing in the world. And you speak of your babysitter with such contempt—an “unskilled minor.” She’s responsible for your kid’s life while you’re gone. Funny how parents moan about childcare costs but not about how much their expensive car or highlights cost. Shows their true priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you generally take care of your sitter's transportation home? We have a new college-age sitter and I was torn between letting her take care of it herself and invading her privacy by plugging her address into my phone (although I assume she lives in dorms). Trip was at 11pm on Saturday night.

What say ye, DCUM?

I would but I would think of how safe I would want my daughter to be.

[Anonymous]

We had a college-age sitter and paid for late night Ubers. Absolutely.

[Anonymous]

the thing about not wanting to know a sitter's address is so weird to me.

She's watching your most prized possession, and knows your address. You have no idea where she lives? Where do you find your sitters? What if you came home and she and your kids were gone. "Well officer, she told me her name was sally, here's the number, that's all i know?"

[Anonymous]

Very common if you’re in dc and it’s late night babysitting. OP sounds cheap. Pay to get her to the metro.

[Anonymous]

She's not making much money on the job, so I'd make sure she gets home safe. She could be your niece or daughter, you just want her to be safe

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use a babysitter when my dh is gone. I can’t drive her or pay. I pay $15 an hour which is a lot and she’s only a block away. Time for a bike?

LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I use a babysitter when my dh is gone. I can’t drive her or pay. I pay $15 an hour which is a lot and she’s only a block away. Time for a bike?

My daughter made $15.00/hr babysitting before she got her driver's license and I would pick her up. $15/hr is cheap. By the time she pays for Uber, she's getting nothing.

$15 for unskilled labor of a minor is not cheap. Thats absurd.

OP, I would have paid or driven.

Oh, you live in 1995. Got it.