Charge more for children who don’t go to bed?

[Alwaysforgetthecrackers]

I do babysitting/childcare over the summer in a busy, tourist area.
The majority of the time I’ve always had 1-2 children and when I arrive, they’re in bed sleeping and stay asleep for the evening, parents give me the remote, kindly say I can help myself to food and all is great.
I recently sat for someone who had three very active boys, they were still up when I arrived, wanted constant snacks mum asked me to make and tidy things away. They all had different bedtimes, mum wanted me to play games with them, put them to bed etc, little one fought with me on this and eldests bedtime was literally just before they returned home, so I spent the rest of the evening getting him snacks, tidying after him, playing games.
I’m ok doing this…it did make me wonder though, should this be the same charges as basically sitting with the child already in bed?
Also, nice as this mum was, she initially queried the price being a bit expensive, whereas all
others have been very appreciative

@medik7 Yes, a few of the more expensive agencies definitely have differing prices for amount of children and so on.

@medik7 My Op isn’t about whether the children are awake or asleep.

@medik7 Also I do work for agencies occasionally-lots of different rules.
No idea of the stipulations babysitters working on their own make, I haven’t asked them.

What?

Isn't that exactly what you were asking about?

@exprecis No, there were lots of different aspects-number of chindren, times of bedtimes, making snacks, cleaning away, the parent complaining about the price…

@medik7 Yes, with the other parts that went alongside it, it’s pretty obvious what I mean

@medik7 So ridiculous

Ok..

I think it amounts to the same thing if what you're asking is: should I charge more when I have to do something rather than nothing?

I.e. you can try but it will depend on the local market rate.

I pay £14/hr and have had no problems getting people to put my kids to bed and play with them for up to an hour beforehand so personally I wouldn't pay more than the 15/hr you're already charging. But your local market might be different

@medik7 What on earth are you on about? Read all the posts.

Are you bored today?

I get you OP. I babysat a lot as a student, sometimes through an agency. I cherry picked jobs as much as possible to avoid multiple older children who would be awake for hours.

Once a parent owed me £45 and gave me £40. I reminded them it was actually £45 and they very reluctantly took £5 out of a jar in their hall in coppers and 5p pieces. They requested my help several times after that and I said no. So patronising and belittling.

Anyway, I understand and I also think that babysitting multiple older children who are awake is worthy of a slightly higher rate than sleeping children.

Essentially it’s like this:

Job 1:

Arrive-Child asleep in bed, parent shows you where everything is, hands you the baby monitor, says to help yourself to anything, sets up the tv. Check in by text-1-2 times that might, child may wake up and needs gently consoling (rarely happens) parent arrives home and pays X amount, parent very grateful, never queries price, in fact says it’s a good price, recommends you to lots of friends, who you then work for, returns each year or a few times per year and you build a relationship with the family.

job 2:

Parent in initial text contact queries price, saying it’s expensive and would I accept X amount (fair bit lower)
Arrive at house to 3 *Lively boys, sat on iPads, eating dinner and arguing with parents about what time they’re allowed to stay up until, arguing amongst themselves too (a theme for the evening)
Parents leave, v messy table and dishes to clean and food to throw away. Play games with arguing boys, stopping to make more food and snacks on demand, stop boys fighting and littlest getting upset. Kids watch tv but mainly fight over who watches what, more snacks and sweets wanted. Try to get youngest to bed, who doesn’t listen, gently pick up/cajole him upstairs after fourth time of being ignored, spend ten minutes trying to get him to brush teeth, another ten trying to get him into bed.
Downstairs to other two fighting, more snacks and tidying, taking boys up and down the stairs as they have different bedtimes, then back up and down as different rules, such as, has to be in bed at X time, allowed iPad for 15 minutes, then I must go up and take off him. Last boy finally in bed after watching Netflix loudly and being told three times it’s his bedtime.
Parents arrive home earlier than scheduled and hand over amount for the time I’ve been there, not until the time they said they were coming home.

Would/should these jobs be paid the same amount? (Even if job 1 is in fact paid less?)

I have no problem doing any of the jobs, I’m a hard worker and don’t just want to sit there and watch tv and eat snacks.

Anyone can see there’s a difference between these two jobs. My query was-should they be paid differently

Yes, of course. I would charge triple in the latter situation. The parents are taking the piss.

Can you afford to decline jobs?

You're self employed so really it's up to you.

If you don't want to look after more than one child and want them to be asleep, you can specify that. Or if you want to be paid more.

Some people might be put off by this. I would be - I think £15/hr is a high enough rate that it's not unreasonable to expect some interaction with the children. But it's really about your local market which you will know better than any of us.

As an aside, just because someone is very wealthy doesn't mean they should spend more than they need or want to on a service. And it doesn't mean they can't think something is expensive or bargain for a better price

Yes you should have a range of fees. You don’t do extra work for no extra money. I think making you do tidying the dinner away is beyond cheeky.

And no, you should not sit for anyone who tries to lowball you. Ime if people start bargaining you down it’s just the start of boundary testing, and I cannot be bothered. Don’t want the service, don’t have the service. Imagine ringing your hairdresser and telling them they charge too much - nope. If it’s too expensive you are free to go elsewhere.

The point is, if you're paying your babysitter minimum wage for such an important job then you are grossly underpaying them. Why would you want to exploit the person who is doing such an important job?

A babysitter, by definition, is occasional, part-time childcare. It's not a regular nanny or a nursery, so the analogy of paying more or less for your everyday childcare (and most people pay for the best they can afford) is not applicable.

If you can't afford to pay a babysitter a proper rate, I would consider that a parent who just finds someone who accepts min wage, knowing that's way below market rate and a fair amount, values their children less than a parent who just doesn't go out.

@Qanat53 If my problems that I can’t solve are so effing boring, why even bother coming on my post?! It wasn’t a problem, I was curious if others views.

£15 an hour for babysitting?! As a recently retired babysitter who charged way less than this ph I am gobsmacked you are questioning the tasks your employer asked of you. £15!