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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]15/hr. sitters aren't trained or experienced in infant care. They're just starting out. You can go out and see for yourself want you get for your $15/hr. and it's not pretty.

Anyone with high standards or means, is not going to settle for mediocre when it comes to their baby.

[/quote]

Some $15 sitters and nannies are plenty experienced in infant care.  I've personally hired them and was very impressed, with one exception who was not asked back after a few hours of sitting.  The woman I used most when my DD was a newborn had years of experience handling infants at a day care center, came highly recommended by someone I trust, and proved herself to be something of a newborn whisperer.  She asked for $13 per hour because she would only be caring for one child, but we ended up paying her $15 because we was great and we wanted to match the rate she was getting at another part time job with two children.

The key to good infant care is careful screening during the hiring process, not paying at the top of the pay scale.  Yes, you [u]can[/u] pay top dollar for a newborn care specialist, but be sure to probe the credential first.  Some of those newborn care specialist certification programs are nothing more than one or two day workshops covering the kind of things most new parents are taught by post-partum nurses in a day or two at the hospital.  [/quote]
How old was your $13/hr baby whisperer? What was her training/experience?[/quot
She was a thirty-something mother of a four year old who was enrolled in preschool while she worked.  She also had seven or eight years experience working with infants at a daycare center and two years working as a trained and certified medical assistant.  She also had a college degree from her home country.  Fully fluent in English, own car, American citizen, sharp as can be.  There isn't much correlation between qualification and rate.  Hiring would be much easier if there were.[/quote]

Maybe part of the problem with there being no connection between qualifications and rate is people like you who underpay qualified employees. If she's as wonderful as you say, she was worth more than $13/hour. I made $15/hour as a college nanny with little experience. In my opinion, that's pretty much the bottom for anyone who speaks English and can illustrate some level of intelligence and common sense. [/quote]

20:02 again.  You seem to have missed my statement that we paid her $15 per hour instead of the $13 that she requested.  I don't regard that as underpaying because (1) She was very happy with the rate and I respected her intelligence enough to believe that she is capable of valuing her own services, (2) Newborns basically just eat and sleep, so she had hours of downtime each day in which to read magazines and relax while holding the baby. (3) I was able to give her some scheduling flexibility and a calm, respectful work environment, all of which were more important to her than the rate. (4) When I parted ways with the baby whisperer because I needed more hours than she could provide, I hired a wonderful, college-educated, full time nanny and a wonderful part time nanny with a masters degree, also for $15 per hour.  Both have stuck around and received raises, but were entirely comfortable starting at $15 per hour.  (5) Over the years, I've hired multiple long-term sitters at $13-15 per hour.  All have been very bright and responsible law students or young, college-educated professionals in their mid-twenties with years of babysitting and camp counselor or swim instructor experience, and in many cases, a lifetime of exposure to the needs of younger siblings.

If every one of these high caliber women was happy to get $15 per hour, it is not rational to conclude that they were all happily underpaid by "people like me."  Instead, the logical conclusion is that $15 per hour buys some very good childcare options in the DC market.[/quote]

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