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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I always heard these jobs were unicorns in dc because no one wanted them. But we live in a major metro area in the south now, and tons of people hire hs and college kids for these jobs. $15 give or take, for 2-3 hours a day after school. My neighbor has kids in a private school that runs from k-12, and every year she finds a hs jr or sr with a car who is able to take her middle schoolers home, hang out while they do homework and even take them to activities as needed. And my friend only works m-w, so she finds someone who only wants this three days a week. So the kid makes like $150 for three easy days of work a week. [b]Why wouldn’t a 17 year old want this easy gig[/b]? And why wouldn’t my friend rather specify this posting than having to pay more for a professional nanny who won’t want the job anyway? People in dcum are bonkers sometimes. [/quote]

Most 17 year olds in the DC area are busy after school with sports, clubs, volunteer work etc. 
There are also some districts in the area (I know Loudoun county schools, specifically) where the elementary kids get out a couple hours before the high school kids.[/quote]

I think you are basing this on a narrow experience in one area. I live on the Hill and there are definitely high school and college students around who do this kind of work. Also see people on the listserve offering that their younger child (12-14) is available to be a “mother’s helper” fir a few hours in the afternoon, where they watch and play with little kids while the parents are in the house. We’ve never done it because we have FT childcare, but it makes perfect sense for people who WFH and need to cover that gap between when school gets out and when they finish work.

We have also hired college age sitters for occasional babysitting lots of times. We have two who we hire in the summer when they are home (for one this was her last summer since she’s graduating and will be getting a job). And another one who is a student at Catholic and rents an apartment from friends of ours. We like that we had a built in reference. We pay these sitters 18-22 (start at 18 when we first hire and they are freshmen/sophomores, then bump up pay as they gain experience). I don’t get the impression this is a bad gig for them.

Also know some SAHMs who became PT nanny shares— they were already home with their own kids, so they’d provide 10-20 hours on in home care to a family looking for PT childcare for a similar age child. It’s a win for everyone — PT care can be hard to come by otherwise, having a playmate fir your kid can alleviate concerns about peer exposure for a SAHM, and since it’s all in the neighborhood it’s really convenient.[/quote]

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