What does a babysitter do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This might be a silly question but I was raised with a nanny and this is my first child. We expected to have a nanny, but between COVID and a really unlikely spot opening up in our first choice subsidized daycare, we haven’t hired one. We hired a college student to come in for a few hours a day this summer to provide extra play for the baby while we WFH.

Baby will probably sleep at least 1.5 hours while she’s here. I was thinking of assigning one basic baby task— either washing baby’s lunch dishes and bottles or folding a load of baby laundry— after which I’m happy for her to do whatever she’d like, but I don’t know what is par for the course. Our nanny when I was growing up made family meals and did light housework but I don’t think that’s appropriate for a summer sitter. Can I ask her to go to Starbucks for everyone, for example? I have no idea what is “normal”

Stay home with them and take care of them yourself. Problem solved. Stop being cheap and hire a qualified Nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This might be a silly question but I was raised with a nanny and this is my first child. We expected to have a nanny, but between COVID and a really unlikely spot opening up in our first choice subsidized daycare, we haven’t hired one. We hired a college student to come in for a few hours a day this summer to provide extra play for the baby while we WFH.

Baby will probably sleep at least 1.5 hours while she’s here. I was thinking of assigning one basic baby task— either washing baby’s lunch dishes and bottles or folding a load of baby laundry— after which I’m happy for her to do whatever she’d like, but I don’t know what is par for the course. Our nanny when I was growing up made family meals and did light housework but I don’t think that’s appropriate for a summer sitter. Can I ask her to go to Starbucks for everyone, for example? I have no idea what is “normal”

Stay home with them and take care of them yourself. Problem solved. Stop being cheap and hire a qualified Nanny.

I understood that qualified nannies don’t want jobs that are a few hours per day while the parents are home, at least that is what I understand from this board.

[Anonymous]

The red flag is that you seem to want to squeeze extra out of her. You said you got the subsidized daycare and now you.want more. A few hours with the baby sure but why try to wring out extra? Just let her be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The red flag is that you seem to want to squeeze extra out of her. You said you got the subsidized daycare and now you.want more. A few hours with the baby sure but why try to wring out extra? Just let her be.

You realize the thread is now several weeks old, she’s been coming and doing the dishes for the baby without suggesting it is unusual. Baby loves her and she does a great job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The red flag is that you seem to want to squeeze extra out of her. You said you got the subsidized daycare and now you.want more. A few hours with the baby sure but why try to wring out extra? Just let her be.

You realize the thread is now several weeks old, she’s been coming and doing the dishes for the baby without suggesting it is unusual. Baby loves her and she does a great job.

I’m glad it’s working out but I’m going to caution you to be kinder and easier on your babysitter if you want her to stay. If you lose her now you aren’t likely to find another this late in the summer. Our sitter always does the kids dishes and cleans up a bit but I’ve never asked her to do it and we pay her extremely well. And we thank her everyday and let her know how much we appreciate her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The red flag is that you seem to want to squeeze extra out of her. You said you got the subsidized daycare and now you.want more. A few hours with the baby sure but why try to wring out extra? Just let her be.

You realize the thread is now several weeks old, she’s been coming and doing the dishes for the baby without suggesting it is unusual. Baby loves her and she does a great job.

I’m glad it’s working out but I’m going to caution you to be kinder and easier on your babysitter if you want her to stay. If you lose her now you aren’t likely to find another this late in the summer. Our sitter always does the kids dishes and cleans up a bit but I’ve never asked her to do it and we pay her extremely well. And we thank her everyday and let her know how much we appreciate her.

Can you let me know how you think I’m being unkind? The conversation went “sitter, once DD finishes her lunch could you please wash up her dishes and wipe down her seat? No need to do it immediately you can wait until she’s napping.” She said something like yes of course and it’s never come up again. She does a lot proactively, like walk the dog, and we thank her effusively.

I think this summer is an outlier because so many college students are home due to Covid, but I’ve had two colleagues approach me saying their college aged daughters are looking to babysit, and one lifeguard at our pool approached us to offer as well. So I am not worried about losing our sitter. She has also mentioned that in previous summer vacations she waitressed, but wasn’t willing to do so during COVID. I do think a lot of people are trying to pay too little which is probably contributing to people losing sitters.