In home care - what's reasonable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. We pay $25/hr plus income taxes for an in-home elder aide 4 hours a day for my mom. Private arrangement, not an agency. Aide prepares breakfast and lunch, assists with bathing and dressing, does mom’s laundry, cooks together in the kitchen with mom (when mom wants to), changes mom’s sheets, keeps room and bathroom clean, changes bandages on a healing wound, empties trash cans, and drives mom to doctor appointments (including assisting with wheelchair transfer). From reading this forum, it sounds like we might be very lucky? Mom is a pleasant person. Aide comes 6 days a week. I am already concerned about cost.

Yes, it sounds like your mom's caregiver is a gem!

[Anonymous]

Be realistic. There aren’t a lot of aides out there interested in 4 hours 3 days a week. There has to be other jobs for them to fill in the gaps. For MIL, we had to commit to 8 to 12 hour shifts.

[Anonymous]

I worked part time post college for a franchise called “Home Instead” the business model was something like I was paid $10/hr, the family paid $30 to the company. I assure you there was nothing the agency did…I received zero training and doubt a background check was performed. Maybe there was workers comp if I had been injured? (I wasn’t.)

I spent 4hrs a day, 3x a week with a woman. Contractually I was not allowed to do more then light housework, definitely not laundry or vacuuming. I would prepare light meals like grilled cheese sandwiches, heat up soup that was already made, and clean dishes from those meals only. Otherwise, we played cards, chatted, watched tv together. Once a week I drove her out to lunch at her request, I was not supposed to allow her to buy my lunch but her family and she, insisted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked part time post college for a franchise called “Home Instead” the business model was something like I was paid $10/hr, the family paid $30 to the company. I assure you there was nothing the agency did…I received zero training and doubt a background check was performed. Maybe there was workers comp if I had been injured? (I wasn’t.)

I spent 4hrs a day, 3x a week with a woman. Contractually I was not allowed to do more then light housework, definitely not laundry or vacuuming. I would prepare light meals like grilled cheese sandwiches, heat up soup that was already made, and clean dishes from those meals only. Otherwise, we played cards, chatted, watched tv together. Once a week I drove her out to lunch at her request, I was not supposed to allow her to buy my lunch but her family and she, insisted.

Wow I hope things have changed. The company paid $10 per hour and kept $20?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you need a housekeeper OP, not an aide.

for just asking the question? thanks for the input

Ask better questions if you want better answers- the tasks you listed are housekeeper duties.

So an aide hired to care after my mother shouldn't be expected to change sheets?

I wouln't hire an aide that didn't do the patient's laundry or meal making.

Reminds me of a nanny our neighbors had some years back. Nanny worked from 7-5, M-F with twin toddlers that still napped 2 hours a day. When we asked them what the nanny did during those two hours they said they didn't know. Others with nannys explained that theirs did all the kid laundry, cleaned the kid room, emptied diaper pale and prepped the next day's lunch they looked at us with huge eyes. Theirs did none of that and was getting $5000 a month cash.

She got fired about a month later after they found a replacement.

7-5 is ten hours! With twin toddlers! The nanny deserved a mid-day break to eat lunch and decompress

Meh, five grand in cash each month is equivalent to a salary of $90,000 a year. Unless the nanny was reporting the income (highly unlikley given most don't want to pay taxes and many are here illegally) she was getting a damn good deal. Plenty and plenty of legal citizens work 60 hours a week and come nowhere near making 90 grand.

Wow, caring for twin toddlers 50Hrs/wk is a ton of work.
The Nanny is 💯% entitled to a break during the day.
The children may not always nap for two hrs a day.
They may have days where they will not feel well or perhaps a loud noise or bad dream may awaken them.

Plus as everyone knows in time they will outgrow their need for a daily naptime.

Parents should not expect to stretch their dollar when it comes to expectations of the caregiver who is providing for their children.
Just because someone is “on-the-clock” does not mean they need to be actively working/moving the entire time.

Do Firefighters only get paid when there is a fire?
Or how about a security officer when someone robs a bank….?