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

I don't think awake/asleep would be my concern, it would be 'activities &/or chores expected'.

So if a kid can't sleep & needs chivvying back upstairs & tucking in, or is sitting quietly watching telly with me for an hour or so, or chilling reading or gaming in their room - fine.

Organising games & meals - bit more than babysitting.

Having said that, as an older teen, ds was everyone's favourite babysitter because he was happy to take on large families of rambunctious hyperactive kids - & had a high old time cooking & playing silly games with them. He found it totally boring if they went meekly off to bed!

I think ultimately, it's just up to you to decline bookings if the family are a handful & not what you want to have to deal with. If the mum hadn't already quibbled over price, I would say charge more & say it's because of 3 kids &/or the meal prep she's asking for, but it doesn't sound like she wants to pay more. So I'd just be busy if you think it's too much work for your usual rates.

Which is why any decent babysitter would arrange a time to meet the family prior to sitting. Unless it was needed as an emergency or last minute but I doubt that happens often.

But nobody can predict how an evening can go

What if the parents booked and paid for the more expensive service but didn't need it, would you be honest and give them a refund?

What if they booked, budgeted and paid for the cheaper service but the children played up - how would you prove it /justify charging them extra?

If I were you, I'd be glad for the times I got paid £15 an hour to sit on my arse watching Netflix, and would just not re-book any families that you didn't enjoy working for. One of the joys of being self-employed is that you can pick who you work for!

@sleekcat No I’m saying they came back earlier than they said and paid me less, my preference would have been for them
to come back when they said and pay the amount I expected. As it was, I gave up my evening (have my own small Dd) to go for more work than usual and less money than usual. I could have accepted another job or stayed at home
I don’t mind if parents come back later than stated and they always text to check if it’s ok. This mum didn’t even text for anything, just very different to previous jobs

Definitely make it clear that children have to be settled in bed before you arrive otherwise if there’s an expectation of entertaining the child, then charge them double.

Surely you need to be prepared to actually look after children you are babysitting? To me childminding isn’t awake and babysitting = sleeping, childminding is a more regular setup and babysitting is more sporadic.

What would you do, charge one amount if they stay asleep and then add on a fine per minute if the child wakes up??

@twoforj0y I disagree. In other professions, we often choose based on who is more experienced/qualified. For example, I won’t leave my Dd with the 16 year old local babysitter, even though she’s a wonderful girl, I’ve chosen an older lady, mum herself, previously a nursery nurse/nanny. I accept this is personal choice, but I expect to pay her a little more and I do

You were paid for the hours you were there.

Again, you've set this rule so you can't be annoyed by it.

If this is your business, you're not running it at all well.

I’m sure parents will be flooding to book a babysitter who advertises that they can’t look after awake children and will charge double if your child dares to wake.

Doesn't this depend on the time of babysitting and the age of the children? You can't expect an 8yo to go tamely off to bed at 6.30pm, for instance.

OP i think you are getting a predictable answer from a particular (and if they're honest, pretty entitled) demographic!

The UK living wage outside London is £12. I hope everyone here would agree that should be the absolute minimum.

But you are providing a service which is both in demand, and seasonal. You have to compensate for the fact that you can only be busy in this role for 4 months of the year.

£15/hour as a minimum baseline is absolutely reasonable in these circumstances. £3 above living wage for a service that is in demand but not sustainable throughout the year. This is how all other tourist services work - we anticipate a reasonable uplift in those areas.

On top of that, there is clearly huge difference between active childcare, and simply enabling parents to leave their sleeping children without breaking the law. It's hard work dealing with over-tired and -excited children whom you don't know, on a one-off basis.

As outraged as parents will be to hear it, you're not in this role for love. And I think there is quite a lot of internalised sexism going on here - because this is a primarily female role, other women are angry to hear that you might structure your charges as any other business would do.

What you don't charge these families (who are clearly comfortable enough to a. take holidays and b. have babysitters - both of which are out of reach for many of us) you are taking from your own.

By all means pitch it as a discount for sleeping children rather than a hike for demanding awake ones, but don't listen to those on here who stand to benefit from your good nature.

Edited to add: you can start the differential at a couple of quid per hour and see how it goes. I'd really hope that your clients wouldn't begrudge an uplift equivalent to a large glass of red over the evening.

As it was, I gave up my evening (have my own small Dd) to go for more work than usual and less money than usual.

But that's entirely your own fault - because you haven't set out proper terms and conditions regarding payment, hours worked etc.

I do evening dog-sitting and charge per hour (or part of). Owners book the times they need and pay for that entire time. If they choose to come back early, they don't get a refund.

If they're not happy with that, they're free to find another sitter, but as this is my living, I can't afford to be messed around, so I charge a set price. You need to do the same.

Look, you win some you lose some. Babysitting can be Netflix and snacks, or can be full on as it was with this scenario.

I don't understand why you wouldn't just talk to the parent hiring you about expectations and then you can decide whether or not you want to do the job. I'd say theoretically you could charge a bit more for additional children but once you veer into determining price according to levels of interaction it becomes impossible. Just sound the parent out first.

It sounds like you're happy the majority of the time, so maybe in future just have a proper discussion of what the task entails and then decide whether or not you want to take it on. I don't think it's feasible to charge more than an extra fiver per child per hour though.

But it’s not, is it? It’s keeping an ear open, phoning the parents if a child is ill,, dealing with any kind of emergency. A babysitter is not a nanny.

lol. She doesn’t need hundreds of clients, only the ones with kids who can settle easily and aren’t a pain in the arse at bedtime.

I’d rather pay a lower rate for a babysitter to sit in my house for an evening whilst my kids slept. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Dd has just turned 18 and babysits for a few families locally. She usually gets about £8/hour and often has to play games, read stories or put kids to bed. It's a win if she gets a tween who just watches a film with her!
I babysat for a friend the other day (at their request) baby in bed, so all pretty easy and got nothing in return, not even any snacks!

Well if you expect to receive the services of a childminder or nanny but for the cost of a babysitter, don’t be surprised if you’re disappointed. I expect a babysitter to watch a baby monitor, ring the fire brigade if the house sets on fire or ring parents if the children are misbehaving/ refusing to go to bed. I don’t expect them to do bedtime routine, entertain kids or make them food, and if I did want them to do that I’d ask how much more they charge.

If someone advertised different rates for sleeping/awake children, I'd assume they weren't interested in interacting with my children and therefore were not the sort of person I'd feel comfortable leaving my children with.

I wouldn't expect a babysitter to be making my child endless snacks though, I'd assume they'd have the intelligence to refuse and certainly wouldn't be expecting them to tidy up. No elaborate games expected either but I wouldn't expect some books/card or board game/a movie to be too much to expect with an older child.

Don't sit for them again OP. People that quibble, cheap out and generally take the p do not value or respect you. Wouldn't surprise me if they find some damage in the house and ask you to pay towards it, or find some other way of clawing money back / underpaying you next time.

I couldn’t afford to pay anyone £15.00 an hour on top of a night out. We have a lovely teenage babysitter and I pay her around £30.00 a night. I used to babysit as a teenager and all the kids ( bar one family) were up and I had to put them to bed. I certainly didn’t charge more for more than one child. I wouldn’t have had many jobs if I did that.

also it’s babysitting not rocket science. I don’t need someone qualified and in all my years of babysitting I never once needed first aid. The most that’s going to happen is that they fall out of bed.

It's not a race to the bottom. Your daughter is pretty much a child herself and would never get work from clients who don't know her from Adam during their holidays. The OP is an experienced babysitter with a proven record, and presumably her clients recognise that this is valuable enough to enable them to leave their darlings with a complete stranger.

I couldn’t afford to pay anyone £15.00 an hour on top of a night out.

Well, many people can afford it.

I know which one I would rather hire.

Many seem to be hung up on the definition of a babysitter, but it's still childcare. Nobody is stopping a babysitter from saying they'll only sit for sleeping children. I just don't expect they'll be in massive demand.

Again - apples and oranges. This is a very young person you know well, who lives near you and presumably has their own parents to hand in an emergency.

The OP's clients are effectively leaving their children with a stranger whose maturity, reputation and experience are therefore critical.

I feel like maybe you could charge per number of kids. Or possibly based on age?

Don't agree with the comments about wanting 15 quid to watch TV. OP is being paid to be responsible for the children and make sure they are safe, be there in case of any emergencies etc. she also has to give up personal time and travel there etc.