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

@busymomtoone Dont want to sound like a dick, but they mainly employ me for my qualifications/experience and it’s looking after children, so it should be more than a cafe worker gets paid, shouldn’t it? I worked at cafes twenty something years ago while doing my degree, it would be a bit unfair to be on that wage and shouldn’t looking after children be considered more due to the responsibility etc

@Alwaysforgetthecrackers sorry, not buying it I lived in a very very expensive area of the SE. You'd have been laughed out of the house if you said you charged £15 an hour.

I was responding to someone who said she should be charging £7.50 as that's what they charge in their northern town? Should have quoted - sorry! I think interacting/putting to bed is fine, but cooking several different meals and snacks, tidying, etc and not paying the expected amount is taing the mickey.

So, you charge on the basis they will be asleep? That's how it's coming across - That you charge for sitting there and doing nothing while eating their food and watching their TV.

Your duty is the children. Babysitting is just that. There will be children involved and the tasks which come with them.

What a bizarre post. "Should I charge extra for doing my job role."

It would be interesting to do a survey of how much people pay for (occasional) childcare of awake children in various parts of the country.

I'll go first - I pay £18ph for occasional weekend/holiday babysitting/nannying/warehousing, call it what you will, of my children.

This is during the day (we rarely have evening babysitters) so both children are awake. The babysitter will take both kids for a walk or to the playground, and then will bring them back and give them some food or a snack (which I leave out or in the fridge for them).

This is in the South-East and we use a local babysitting agency. Minimum 3 hours booking.

@DemBonesDemBones Not buying what? Are you saying I’m lying? Average house price is 9 million, I have no reason to lie and quite shocked it sounds so much to some 🤷🏻‍♀️

I shall leave you to your fantasy.

They sound like a complete nightmare family! Not sure I'd want to do it for £20 an hour... she was bang out of order quibbling your rates after you were recommended to her by an existing client. I'd have backed out at that point personally. Society as a whole don't value care providers sufficiently. Sounds like you have a comfortable home and family to spend your evenings with, so be more picky about who you work for. They should appreciate your experience and skillset and not treat you like a skivvy!

@DemBonesDemBones ?? You are aware of different areas and countries and different prices paid etc?? Get out, see the world a bit.

@Jo8chocolate It did feel a bit like that 🤍

But your “ experience” is pretty pointless if the children are asleep ?! ( unless they have advanced medical needs ) As I also said - more than a TA gets paid. I’m not saying £15 is overpaid, nor debating that generally work with children is undervalued , but if you end up just sitting on the sofa snacking and watching tv it’s a pretty cushy number !! You’re barely “looking after them “ in terms of any input if they are asleep , which is why I think you should be prepared to have to exercise your skills in actually providing childcare without begrudging them being awake !

@Goldbar

We are in London, use a babysitter through an agency. They charge £13/hr + £5 booking fee. I described it as £14/hr for ease earlier.

The babysitters are all qualified, our regular one is a teacher.

Usually we get babysitters to come for 5:30 or so, the kids go to bed at 7:30 so it's a mix of interaction with them and sitting watching TV while they sleep.

I like this. I think perhaps different numbers/ages of kids plays into this. If you have three kids of widely different ages - say, 3, 9 and 12 and they all want a slice of you (bath and story, talk to me and homework help) that’s not the same as a baby or children who have been sent to bed with the stern instruction that they must only bother the baby sitter in case of CRISIS. I seem to remember the latter paid better 😆

30 years experience in childcare and you are complaining about caring for children?

Your 30 years qualifications and experience mean nothing if you are expecting children to be asleep and not to care for them.

Would you consider dropping your price for children who have a bedtime routine and will sleep throughout the night perhaps, as you are not really doing any child care at all?

Sorry, I couldn't read all 16 pages but surely this is just like any job? I don't get paid more if I have a busier day.

I'm a nurse, the ward I work on has quite a lot of very unwell patients. I don't get paid more than the nurses that work in areas with lower acuity. I don't get paid less than the nurses that deal with aggressive or more complex patients. I could work somewhere "gentler" but I choose to work where I work.

Charging if the children are awake is the thin end of the wedge, will you charge more if one child vomits? Or if there's a fire and you have to get everyone out? What if you have to deal with an explosive nappy situation? By all means, if that particular family isn't a good fit for the type of jobs you want to accept, don't book them. I wouldn't ever want to work in outpatients so I don't. Same same.

I am a nanny myself and it boils my blood when parents reach out to me for babysitting and then gasp at the fact that I would charge them my normally hourly rate “just for sitting and watching tv”

they seem to forget that I have already worked probably a 10 hour day and would rather be in the comfort of my own home rather than being at theirs putting children to bed.

they also seem to forget that their children are meant to be the most precious and important thing to them in the world yet they’re willing to skimp on how much they’ll pay someone to supervise and keep them safe.

I have spend thousands of pounds and hundreds of hours in further education with regards to my profession, I re do my first aid certificate every three years, have a yearly nanny insurance policy and have to re new my ofsted status every year all of which cost a lot of money personally but in the same breath they make me the best person for just “sitting and watching tv” in your house because I would know what to do in a medical emergency or heaven forbid there was an accident like a fire.

if you want to be a cheap skate when it comes to your children’s safety and well-being, pay the local teenager £20 for the night but don’t be surprised when if there was a fire she just saved herself or didn’t know what to do if one of your kids started choking etc.

people in childcare deserve a decent wage. If these parents who moaned about what they were paying you were asked to do extra/unsociable hours in their normal jobs, they too would expect to be paid their normal wage (if not more)

Course it isn’t. It sounds like a side hustle, and also it’s a business. Add on 30% for pension, sick pay, tax etc. And you set your own T&C.

I think you don’t pay a babysitter for what they do so much as what they provide - which is security.

I get £12 an hour for caring for the elderly with dementia and intimate personal care... I'm in the wrong job clearly. £15 an hour to eat snacks and watch TV 🫣

And like I said, if such an incident occurred they would be compensated accordingly. Shes not a firefighter on danger money. This whole thread is about her wondering if she should be charging more because she's had to do something with the kids, like the norm is to not have anything to do with the kids and is being given work for "just incase" eventualities. What's shocking is her thinking she deserves more pay for doing less work than the teenage girls on the tills in homebargains.

No they don't, firefighters are constantly working.

They threatened to wake up lol

I've done a lót of babysitting when I was a teen/twen. In my experience children often were still downstairs. Usually I was asked to help them brush their teeth, get in their PJ's, read them a story etc. Really the whole bedtime ritual, and I liked that very much. I often brought a little treat and my own storybooks so it was a special night for the children as well while their parents were out. Sometimes I was asked to give the children their evening meal but that had always been prepared in advance. I then cleaned up once the children were asleep, put their toys away too and it was always much appreciated but never demanded of me. A few families asked me again and again every time they had a special night out because they knew they could trust me with their babies. Except for that one family where my mother made me go although I hated it. They demanded I cooked for the children, fed them, bathed them, sat with them untill they slept. I had to stay the night there too. Before the parents left they turned the thermostat on nightsettings so I always sat freezing in front of the tele once the children slept. They hardly payed me. After two turns I refused to step in the car to be taken there.