A friend/neighbor treated my teenage daughter like a slave when she babysat for them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I read these posts, I just think about my grandmothers -- one who came over from Ireland at age 12 and worked in a cigarette factory and the other who came from Germany as a tween as an orphan and was essentially an indentured servant working in a household to earn her keep.

We are raising a seriously spoiled, out-of-touch generation.

Yes, of course, we should judge everything by the exploitative cruel conditions that our forbears were forced to endure. She's lucky she wasn't chained to that refrigerator and not given any food until it was clean! In my day!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's no way I would expect a 15 year old babysitter to do that! It wouldn't even cross my mind to ask. She was employed to babysit, not house keep!

Exactly -- I would never ask a babysitter to that without asking what she would charge to do those extra things. But OP, it is not slavery, calm down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with others who think "cleaning out the fridge" and "doing the laundry" are terms that can span a range of actual duties.

My guess:

Cleaning the fridge= "There's some lasagne in the fridge to reheat for dinner. And the kids didn't finish their lunch, so I put their plates in there too. They'll never eat it now -- could you just toss all that and put the plates in the dishwasher?"

Doing the laundry = "Crap -- I forgot the laundry. Would you mind doing a load after the kids are asleep?"

Agree!!!

Its still wrong. Teen babysitters are not housekeepers. Treat them like that and you will not have any teens agreeing to babysit for you. you will hear a big ... umm too busy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with others who think "cleaning out the fridge" and "doing the laundry" are terms that can span a range of actual duties.

My guess:

Cleaning the fridge= "There's some lasagne in the fridge to reheat for dinner. And the kids didn't finish their lunch, so I put their plates in there too. They'll never eat it now -- could you just toss all that and put the plates in the dishwasher?"

Doing the laundry = "Crap -- I forgot the laundry. Would you mind doing a load after the kids are asleep?"

Agree!!!

Its still wrong. Teen babysitters are not housekeepers. Treat them like that and you will not have any teens agreeing to babysit for you. you will hear a big ... umm too busy!

My daughter and her friends would LOVE to baby sit and do some light house work for $12 an hour! A fortune compared to retail jobs. I will send them your way!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with others who think "cleaning out the fridge" and "doing the laundry" are terms that can span a range of actual duties.

My guess:

Cleaning the fridge= "There's some lasagne in the fridge to reheat for dinner. And the kids didn't finish their lunch, so I put their plates in there too. They'll never eat it now -- could you just toss all that and put the plates in the dishwasher?"

Doing the laundry = "Crap -- I forgot the laundry. Would you mind doing a load after the kids are asleep?"

Agree!!!

Its still wrong. Teen babysitters are not housekeepers. Treat them like that and you will not have any teens agreeing to babysit for you. you will hear a big ... umm too busy!

My daughter and her friends would LOVE to baby sit and do some light house work for $12 an hour! A fortune compared to retail jobs. I will send them your way!

I don't have kids, but I'll pay for daughter $12 an hour for light housework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with others who think "cleaning out the fridge" and "doing the laundry" are terms that can span a range of actual duties.

My guess:

Cleaning the fridge= "There's some lasagne in the fridge to reheat for dinner. And the kids didn't finish their lunch, so I put their plates in there too. They'll never eat it now -- could you just toss all that and put the plates in the dishwasher?"

Doing the laundry = "Crap -- I forgot the laundry. Would you mind doing a load after the kids are asleep?"

Agree!!!

Its still wrong. Teen babysitters are not housekeepers. Treat them like that and you will not have any teens agreeing to babysit for you. you will hear a big ... umm too busy!

Are your teens that averse to any hard work? Sheesh. They are in for a surprise in the real world!

[Anonymous]

I don't understand the arguements that if you ask teens to do extra work (I agree that bait and switch is unfair) that you will never get any teen babysitters for less than $15-18 or more an hour. Once you get over $12, you will probably be able to find a grown woman willing to take that job! There is no shortage of women with childcare experience (many work in daycares during the day or are nannies for others) who need a good wage ($15/hr for low skills I consider good) in the evenings and will gladly fold a basket of clothes when the kids are in bed!

[Anonymous]

I'd love to have a teen come clean for me and do light housework.

I used to advertise my rates in my neighbor's mailboxes. Why don't teens do this anymore??

[Anonymous]

My just-turned-13 year old babysat for three children (9 months, 6, and 10) today and was asked to load the dishwasher and wash the remaining dishes by hand when the baby went down for his nap, and then to fold the laundry after doing the dishes. She made $8/hour and was thrilled to make this money - on top of the other $84 she had already made this week for other babysitting jobs.

I don't even ask those things of our au pair, but I thought it was a great lesson that will help my daughter better understand the value of a dollar. She now knows what it means to work and understands that children are hard work, housework is even harder, and both together are extremely hard. I told her I had no problem telling the family that it's too much to ask of her on top of watching three children, if she wanted me to, but she said she was fine with it and, again, was thrilled at the money. She agreed to go back next Thursday again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My just-turned-13 year old babysat for three children (9 months, 6, and 10) today and was asked to load the dishwasher and wash the remaining dishes by hand when the baby went down for his nap, and then to fold the laundry after doing the dishes. She made $8/hour and was thrilled to make this money - on top of the other $84 she had already made this week for other babysitting jobs.

I don't even ask those things of our au pair, but I thought it was a great lesson that will help my daughter better understand the value of a dollar. She now knows what it means to work and understands that children are hard work, housework is even harder, and both together are extremely hard. I told her I had no problem telling the family that it's too much to ask of her on top of watching three children, if she wanted me to, but she said she was fine with it and, again, was thrilled at the money. She agreed to go back next Thursday again.

It teachers how to be underpaid. I know professional baby sitters who will charge you $25+/hour for the same work.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I can't believe you posted here instead of discussing this with me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd love to have a teen come clean for me and do light housework.

I used to advertise my rates in my neighbor's mailboxes. Why don't teens do this anymore??

In our neighborhood in Bethesda teens and college kids post on the list serve all the time for babysitting, pet sitting, yard work, chores, etc. I haven't seen any offer housecleaning services specifically but many people already have house cleaners and probably aren't looking for someone who can only work in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My just-turned-13 year old babysat for three children (9 months, 6, and 10) today and was asked to load the dishwasher and wash the remaining dishes by hand when the baby went down for his nap, and then to fold the laundry after doing the dishes. She made $8/hour and was thrilled to make this money - on top of the other $84 she had already made this week for other babysitting jobs.

I don't even ask those things of our au pair, but I thought it was a great lesson that will help my daughter better understand the value of a dollar. She now knows what it means to work and understands that children are hard work, housework is even harder, and both together are extremely hard. I told her I had no problem telling the family that it's too much to ask of her on top of watching three children, if she wanted me to, but she said she was fine with it and, again, was thrilled at the money. She agreed to go back next Thursday again.

It teachers how to be underpaid. I know professional baby sitters who will charge you $25+/hour for the same work.

Right. And when my daughter is old enough to be a professional, she will ask for more if this is the career she chooses. But she is learning about work now, learning about the value of money, and learning about what kind of jobs (and job expectations) are out there. Frankly, I'd PAY for her to get this experience, so the fact that she is being PAID in return for doing a hard job like this is fabulous. She will never (not that she ever did) look at our au pair and think his job is easy and same with our house cleaner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I can't believe you posted here instead of discussing this with me.

I hope this is real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd love to have a teen come clean for me and do light housework.

I used to advertise my rates in my neighbor's mailboxes. Why don't teens do this anymore??

I think this has been overtaken by neighborhood listservs, but I often see teens or their parents posting about availability for babysitting, pet walking, yard work, etc.

I put a request for babysitting on the local list a few weeks ago and got 10 replies from high school girls (and one boy) looking for a few days of babysitting.