SAHM needs help with rates

[Anonymous]

I placed an ad on Craigslist several months ago and a family responded. We met and the mother never got back to me. Fast forward to today and she asked me if I can take care of her daughter starting Wednesday. I have a 2 year old home with me during the day. I am NOT going to start a home daycare. My rate needs to be at least minimum wage for this to be worthwhile. I live in the south and $25 per day seems to be the norm for home daycare. Should I be comparing my rates to home daycare even though I will only be taking care of 2 children in my home?

[Anonymous]

$10 per hour at minimum. Why would you even consider this unless you're desperate for money?

[Anonymous]

What rate did you discuss with her when you met? No idea what minimum wage is in your state but start from there and figure out how much more you would want to charge to make it worth doing.

[Anonymous]

No, you should not be comparing your rates to daycare rates since daycare takes care of way more than two children.

Take the average nanny hourly rate and divide it in half.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What rate did you discuss with her when you met? No idea what minimum wage is in your state but start from there and figure out how much more you would want to charge to make it worth doing.

We discussed doing a home daycare rate because at the time I wanted to start a home daycare. It's been 6 months and I've decided not to have a home daycare. I told the mom yesterday I am only interested in taking care of one other child. Honestly I've decided not to do childcare anymore. ALL of the parents I've spoken with want to pay per day and most of these jobs are nanny positions. I would be required to go to the families home. Nannies in dc want $30 an hour and in Georgia it's been impossible to receive a rate higher than $2 per hour. It's absurd. Somehow because I have my child with me they think it's ok to pay very low.

[Anonymous]

To be frank, as a parent I would not pay nanny share rates for someone taking care of my child in their home. I have to pack up and drop off my kid, they don’t get to sleep in their crib, and I have much less oversight over the environment. I can make decisions about child proofing my house, using nontoxic cleaning products, etc but cant easily verify all those details all the time at your place. Not to mention it’s your child in your home... i’d worry about favoritism or at the very least, your parenting style being the default regardless of my requests.

Now, a 2-child in home daycare is much better than say, a 4-infant setup (max allowed by law), so you can and should expect a premium over daycare prices. I’m in a big city in the South and daycare rates here are maybe $200-300 a week. Assuming you’re in Atlanta or Savannah or another large-ish city, you might get 25-50% above that for only having 2 kids. $10/hr is really at the high end though. At that price, I can find a good true nanny share that’s partly in my home and the other child is not the nanny’s.

I’ve also found that there seems to be a higher frequency of SAHMs in the South, and many are open to the arrangement you describe for a little extra money, so that also depresses the “market rate” for such a service. You should not have to settle for $2/hour even in your home, but the ceiling on this may not be as high as you are hoping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be frank, as a parent I would not pay nanny share rates for someone taking care of my child in their home. I have to pack up and drop off my kid, they don’t get to sleep in their crib, and I have much less oversight over the environment. I can make decisions about child proofing my house, using nontoxic cleaning products, etc but cant easily verify all those details all the time at your place. Not to mention it’s your child in your home... i’d worry about favoritism or at the very least, your parenting style being the default regardless of my requests.

Now, a 2-child in home daycare is much better than say, a 4-infant setup (max allowed by law), so you can and should expect a premium over daycare prices. I’m in a big city in the South and daycare rates here are maybe $200-300 a week. Assuming you’re in Atlanta or Savannah or another large-ish city, you might get 25-50% above that for only having 2 kids. $10/hr is really at the high end though. At that price, I can find a good true nanny share that’s partly in my home and the other child is not the nanny’s.

I’ve also found that there seems to be a higher frequency of SAHMs in the South, and many are open to the arrangement you describe for a little extra money, so that also depresses the “market rate” for such a service. You should not have to settle for $2/hour even in your home, but the ceiling on this may not be as high as you are hoping.

+1 What is minimum wage where you are? I think you're looking at $7-8/hr, maybe $9/hr at the max.

[Anonymous]

I think you should get paid half of a share rate for your area.

I am in DC burbs and pay $10 an hour ( cash) for a sahm with 2 kids to watch my kid for 3 hours a day 2 days a week.

[Anonymous]

In North Carolina I paid a SAHM $9/hr for drop-in childcare in her home. She had one child of her own and watched up to 1-2 other kids in addition to mine. Toddler ages

[Anonymous]

Above 2 posters make a good point about drop-in: you can get a slightly higher hourly rate this way since a nanny share or regular daycare wouldn’t be a viable alternative for someone needing very few hours. My previous post and numbers assumed you were looking at a fairly full time setup with your craigslist person. In my area there are drop in care centers that charge ~$10/hour but this is on an as needed basis with a minimal annual membership fee and only maybe a 1 hour minimum at a time (ie no guaranteed weekly payments like you would have with a regular daycare).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you should get paid half of a share rate for your area.

I am in DC burbs and pay $10 an hour ( cash) for a sahm with 2 kids to watch my kid for 3 hours a day 2 days a week.

Op here. Nanny shares are not the norm here. I used to live in a suburb of Atlanta but recently moved to Jacksonville Florida. $12-15 per hour seems to be the rate for most nannies here. It doesn't seem worthwhile to work for anything less than minimum wage. I could do free lance work in the evenings/ weekends while my husband takes care of our son. My apartment is too small for a home daycare setup. A few mothers have been very impressed with my childcare experience. They say that I am seem very bright compared to other home daycare workers. I also have a very nice place. My condo is clean and within walking distance to most of the major employers here in Jacksonville. I am not trying to get rich but I'd like to receive at least minimum wage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you should get paid half of a share rate for your area.

I am in DC burbs and pay $10 an hour ( cash) for a sahm with 2 kids to watch my kid for 3 hours a day 2 days a week.

Op here. That makes sense and it's exactly what I paid another sahm today to take care of my son while I went to the dentist. The families I've spoken to want to pay $30 but for all day care. A mother today said she wanted to pay me less because my daycare is not licensed. In my state I don't need to have a license if there are only 2 children.

[Anonymous]

Will you have operating costs such as: additional insurance, purchase of additional equipment and supplies, providing snacks and meals ? Factor those in when deciding how much you need to earn to make it worthwhile.