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Babysitters
What do you pay yours and what do they do to earn that pay?
I ask because I left a sitter with my two kids tonight (had the infant with me). DD is 21 months. DS is 3 1/2. She fed them dinner, played, and put them to bed. No baths. Of the 5 1/2 hours I was gone, she had active kid involvement time of about 2 hours. The rest of the time she sat and did homework. I paid her $10 per hour.
When I came home, the dinner dishes (that the kids ate off of) were piled in the sink, no toys had been put away although I asked her to have the kids do this. And, the dog had pooped the floor in the other room (away from her so she couldn't have known), but I had asked her to put the dog out. So that is a signal to me that she did not let the dog out (open the door and attach animal to chain - very easy).
Am I off base for being a bit irked? I have no expectations for her to clean my house.
Re: Babysitters
I do however think you have the right to be irritated, because you asked her to do these things. Those were expectations you set to begin with, and she didn't follow through. And I think you paid her really well to do them. If you are irked enough, find another sitter, or give her one more chance but let her know she has this last chance.
I think in your situation, if you would like to use her again, make it clear to her of what your expectations are. I nannied all through college for 3 different families (shared the time between them all). 2 out of the 3 families would always leave me a list of things that needed to be done or taken care of. I loved it! It made me feel like I knew I was doing what they expected of me (like bathtime). But also, they never put "wash dishes" on there, and I always would wash them and put them away. Even if there was a dishwasher. So maybe you need to make that clear to this one. Unfortunately not every teen-20 year old has been taught that they need to clean up things. It's sad, but true.
The $10/hr sounds reasonable to me, even during the sleeping hours.
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I always cleaned up and took care of anything additional the parents asked of me. If it was an easy night and I had two hours of down time after the kids went to bed I only charged 8 for those two hours.
She should have cleaned the toys and she should have let the dog out. Dishes I can see leaving but not the toys or dog.
Love: March 2010 Marriage: July 2013 Debt Free: October 2014 TTC: May 2015
Thanks ladies.
I came home last night after a horrendous meeting - exhausted and it just made me so frazzled to find all that stuff left undone (and the poop).
I am still going to use her, but just be more politely direct about my expectations.
I told her to help herself to anything in the fridge or pantry. That was the extent of my food talk about her eating. That's what moms I babysat for as a kid always told me. I don't think she ate anything, though.