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

So how much do you think she should charge @goldbar?

You seem surprised and shocked at '£45+ for an evening out'

I never knew that babysitting only included looking after sleeping children.

I had babysitters many times during the day when I had an appointment, we have no family closeby.

They always played with my kids, fed them, one even took my baby for a walk in the park.

I was never charged a higher price because my children weren't asleep.

£15ph is not a fortune but neither is it "buttons". It's more than nursery workers get paid (for actually interacting with and actively caring for the kids!) for a start 🙄. It's also more than a lot of other jobs pay.

In my house a child old enough to be up past 7.30 (so 7 or older) is also a child that's old enough to get in their pjs and ready for bed, teeth clean etc before i go out, then read quietly in bed til the sitter says lights out.
I dont understand the snack requests. Kids dont need snacks after dinner? If im going out the kids would be fed, in pj's and teeth cleaned before i go, so no further snacks etc as their teeth are clean ready for bed. Even age 11 mine would have understood the need to be ready for bed early and reading in bed.

Childcare is playing with them/organising activities/day to day care.....it's night time.

That's exactly the job of babysitter. I am surprised you assume babysitter is a live version of baby monitor.

Op

You should charge more per child.....that was £5 per hour per child

And charge more after midnight

And did they pay for a taxi home?

Different situation, there is more than one person in the mix with daycare and there is a routine. Daycare/nursery is primarily to allow parents to go to work, not go on a night out.

One is not generally optional, the other is.

I think it would be confusing. I think a flat rate and take the rough with the smooth.
You wouldn't get a checkout assistant or shop assistant getting paid more per hour when it is busy compared to quiet.
Why is this any different?

So if you pay for daytime childcare and the child is asleep the whole time, can you ask the provider if you can pay less then?

@sunsetsandboardwalks

You are paying for CHILDCARE

Not after hours babysitting

The definition of babysitting IS childcare 🙄they're not two different things!

the work of taking care of someone's baby or child while that person is out, often as a paid job.

Like I said, we're in an expensive area and the going rate for babysitting (including daytime) around here is £15-18ph.

I pay next door's A-level student £12 ph to come hang out and play with my kids in the garden sometimes when I have work to catch up on and I'm Upstairs wfh sometimes. She seems happy with that. I pay our local babysitting agency around £18ph (depends on the sitter) if I actually need someone to care for my kids while I'm not at home.

I think £45+ is perfectly reasonable for an evening out (childcare is expensive because people's time is expensive) but I don't think it's a pittance. Tbh I work freelance and my hourly rate isn't much higher and is quite often lower!

I'd charge more and explain it by the snack making, entertaining, putting to bed and settling them and tidying up. So you'd have a charge for child ready for bed or already in bed which would include quiet activity bedtime story settling and being "on duty" and more if there is more work.

I think it's a bonus if kids are in bed and you can sit n watch tv

But I think for more than three children I'd probably amend my pricing structure

I was going to agree with you originally as I don't expect a babysitter to really do anything except handle an emergency. But then I see you charge £15 hour that's a lot I'd want you to do more then watch tv for that. This is why I have teenage babysitters £20 for the night sorted.

I think it's unreasonable to charge more on the basis of children being awake. I used to babysit during uni holidays which included doing dinner, homework getting the kids ready for bed and bedtime. The difference was that it was adhoc rather then always needed hence they didn't have a nanny.

If you didn't like the expectation of putting children to bed then put this in your terms up front then parents can decide if to book you or not.

Why? The babysitter is working unsocial hours....so you not have respect for that?

Going home in the dark, late.

You shouldn't charge more. I would say it's just luck if the children are asleep. £15 p/h is more than I get paid and I actually have to do stuff the entire time, not just sit down watching TV. Plus the children may want to get to know you first, rather than wake up to a stranger in the night. I would be paying you to play and interact with my children for at least part of the time, and unfortunately when it is bedtime they may not want to sleep as they may be excited/anxious to have someone else around. Ideally, you'd play with them and then they'd go to bed after which you could do what you like, but I wouldn't pay more if they didn't!

What about SAHPs who put their children into nursery? That's "optional", isn't it?

I really don't see what childcare being "optional" or not has to do with how much the provider is being paid. Either they're being paid sufficiently for their services or they're not.

What if I need the babysitter so I can attend an evening work event? If that's not "optional", should I be able to pay less?

Complete nonsense.

People in many industries go home late in the dark they don't get paid extra for it!

To actually work for money and not just sit watching TV!
GASP!

So that works out £5 per child per hour

tell mum she is getting a 2 for 3 bargain as you charge others for 2 children but haven’t put the price up to £22.50 as a promotion

you’re there to look after the children regardless of whether they are in bed or not - that’s the luck of the draw

To the contrary OP, i think in theory you should offer a reduction for sleeping kids. You are literally not doing any work. If i went into my job and watched Netflix for my shift I wouldn't expect to be paid the same as if I worked hard. However it's swings and roundabouts, I think the same rate makes more sense on balance.

Because the risk and the skills required to look after a wide-awake child (let alone three lively children) are far greater than the risk and skill required to look after a child in bed reading or asleep and prepared to turn the light out when the babysitter asks them to do so.

On a purely risk basis, imagine walking into a situation in a strange house with three children of different ages whom you've never met before who may or may not have behavioural issues, and being told to feed them snacks when they ask for them, clean up after them, make them brush their teeth and get them into bed at different times. I presume you weren't expected to bath them, OP? So much more could go wrong than turning up at a household where the children were bathed, teeth brushed and already in bed. While you're upstairs with the youngest, trying to get them into PJs and get their teeth brushed, the other two could be out of the back door that you didn't know had been left ajar by the parent, and through the back gate, which you didn't know was unbolted.