Cabs/taxis

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Taking a cab home may be a nanny's strategy, but it is her strategy to pay for.

As I said, it's fine to add a surcharge, but thinking parents should automatically have to pay a cab fare for the nanny is sort of foolish.

As long as the sitter is upfront about it, families can be upfront about deciding whether its worth it to provide the extra of cab fare home on top of the rate, free dinner, and tip the sitter already expects.

For me, I would not pay the extra $15 a PP says she charges (another hour of sitting) to cab her home. I'd rather hire a sitter who drives. YMMV.

I'm not disagreeing with you, as I think we are saying the same thing. I dont think cab fare is a given or at all standard, but i dont think there is anything wrong with building it in. I may not say its for cab fare, but i may charge you $18/hour rather than my usual $15 for example. For you it wouldn't be worth it, but for a parent who lives in an area where driving to your home/finding parking is near impossible or a big headache, its definitely something to consider. Some sitters may charge you an extra fee if you are home beyond the time busses are running, or they may simply say they are not available after X time. If you want the sitter that is willing to stay later, you might have to pay cab fare.

[Anonymous]

I only use public transit too, and I just tell people the latest I can leave and not have it take 2 hrs to get home by bus. I leave about 10-15 min wiggle room...last bus comes at 11:30, I tell them 11:15.

[Anonymous]

You're right, 17:28. We're basically saying the same thing.

Apologies if I missed that.

[Anonymous]

I absolutely believe that it is their responsibility to relieve you at a time when you can get home safely and at no additional cost to you BUT it is absolutely your responsibility to set those parameters when taking the job. They don't know how far away you live, your mode of transportation, or the cost of your travel. The strategy I use is simply to alert families that because I will be taking the T to get there, if they're home later than 11pm I charge a flat fee of $20 for my cab fare home. If they aren't comfortable with that they can hire someone else, but I've never had anyone turn me down.

For the nanny who said her family doesn't pay for her gas to get home...that is true. But would you spend $25 on cab fare after working a babysitting job that pays $50? Or even $100? I would not - that's a 25-50% pay cut! If you were spending 50% of your FT wages getting home every night after your work as a nanny, I suspect you'd be looking for a new job ASAP.