Op I’m a mom and also work as a nanny PT but I don’t have a child in daycare to. It’s weird to me you can afford that but need to work for $18 PT. That doesn’t really add up. I think your best bet would be to find a PT nanny job but you need to be paid more than $18 an hour!

It’s a numbers game. I nanny for a 1 year old on Sundays. Parents like older adults for younger children usually. Driving jobs suck by the way. You will find a family OP but I wouldn’t recommend working for one in your immediate neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:You probably don’t have references either. No one cares if you are raising kids, you need a portfolio to share perspective families. You should lower your rates until you have a professional book.

Do teens share a professional portfolio with perspective families??? This is kind of laughable imo
Op “probably” does have references.
Also raising kids does count as having experience with children.
To suggest that op lowers her rates based on “lack of a professional book” is extremely condescending.

I just read the first page of responses & it appears people prefer younger sitters because they can seemingly get away with more since teenagers are too young to know better.

Says a lot about you as people.

The downside to hiring an older sitter may be the families are afraid that you may sometimes have a sick child that you will need to stay home with.
When if your husband is working & you have no one to watch your child??

An older person with grown adult kids already out of the house may be a better option since these people already have experience raising kids plus they do not have any child-related responsibilities that could potentially interfere with their current job.

I would prefer someone who has personally experienced each + every stage of a child’s development vs. someone who just learned it from a book.

If I saw a sitter my own age, I would immediately assume that she was bringing her own kids. I know you said you aren't but they might not even be reading that far.

Create a profile on Sittercity. Respond to job postings that make sense for you - nearby and occasional etc. Get a few happy families to then provide word of mouth to others in the area.