To ask how much you’d expect a babysitter to cost on NYE

[ThatMauveRaven]

20yo DD has been asked (last minute) to babysit her manager’s two young children tomorrow night. They’ve offered her £60 in cash to be there from 8pm-1am. The two kids will most likely be asleep in bed, so she won’t exactly have to do much work but I still think that this is quite stingey considering it’s New Years Eve!

Thoughts?

YABU - £60 is enough
YANBU - I’d expect to pay more

Are you the type of parent that would tell their child to sit at home and claim benefits rather than work a minimum wage job also?

What? So young people should let stingy people exploit them?

The OP already said this man is her manager, so clearly she works. Why are you talking about benefits?  She just isn't going to give up her NYE for a knockdown price to look after his children because he wants to pay a shockingly low hourly rate for someone to do so. If anything the fact he doesn't deem caring for his children something worthy of much over minimum wage says way more about him than about her.

@Meemeows "That's not enough for a normal Fri/ Sat evening for 5hrs let alone NYE, especially for a DBS checked young woman with healthcare and first aid training and experience with children. I pay mine £16ph on a normal even"

But you don't need a dbs or any of that other stuff. It's babysitting sleeping children, literally sitting on the sofa and watching tv! I did it when I was a teen, it's a piece of cake when they're asleep. There are people out there working really hard for not much more than £12 an hour. I don't understand

I think 60 is minimum acceptable.

100 would be very generous, would say 80 would be a good amount to offer. Will they provide food/take away money on top?

Obviously DD can say no she has plans (even if those plans are to stay home and rest!).

I’m not sure the boundaries are worth crossing for any price as this is her manager, but that’s a personal decision for her.

I would expect to pay £1000 minimum. New Years Eve is only once a year and you're expecting someone to give theirs up so you can go out and enjoy yourself.

I'm assuming an extra zero in your reply, Oona!

I pay £75 for a normal evening (5 hours at £15 ph), no special night (eg NYE), and no late hours (1am is a big ask!). So I'd be mortified to offer only £5 extra for NYE and until 1am!

DELIGHTED she is not doing it! Good on her!
As for the absolute MISER who pays her babysitter £20 a night. Shame on you taking advantage of someone like that. Mortified for you.

But you don't need a dbs or any of that other stuff. It's babysitting sleeping children, literally sitting on the sofa and watching tv! I did it when I was a teen, it's a piece of cake when they're asleep. There are people out there working really hard for not much more than £12 an hour. I don't understand

More fool you if you leave your children with someone without a DBS check or basic first aid training.

Irrelevant in this case, anyway, because the OP's daughter has both so can reasonably expect to be paid as such.

This is caring for an 18 month old and 4 year old. It very much might not be "just sitting on the sofa".

These attitudes astonish me. We are talking about somebody left in loco parentis, required to respond if the child becomes unwell and needs urgent medical attention, and as I said earlier in the thread would be responsible for gettig your children out of the house if there was a fire, dealing with an attempted burglary, etc. It is a responsible job and should be done by a responsible and capable person and paid as such. Most cleaners are paid more than the rates people are quoting here to pay someone with whom they would be trusting sole care of their children. Mind-boggling.

Good for her

Just caught up with this from yesterday

Cheeky sod

He should have paid the £100

What did dd do in the end ? On sofa or out with friends

£60 was fair enough if she had no other plans. £100 was a mickey take really.

Well, I'm sure your opinion on it is very comforting to him given that apparently 80 different young people all disagreed and not a single one of them was prepared to accept his proposed £60 payment, and he's now sitting at home for the evening. 😃

£12 an hour, reasonable as she's under 21 but I'd also ask for lift/taxi home and a pizza being left

£15 per hour is my standard London suburbs (more NYE)

You think it's cheeky to offer double minimum wage to someone without qualifications?

Maybe we're on a different thread but I've read a lot of replies saying they would do it. And if OPs daughter really thought that then OP wouldn't need to start a thread at all.

But ultimately it doesn't matter either way. What matters is if this young woman wants to do the job for this price.

Totally agree with this.

It's not cheeky to have a £ value that you would consider worth doing a job for.
Nor cheeky to have a £ value you would consider worth paying for a job.

The babysitter could ask for £1000 and the parent offer £2.50. Neither are CFs but neither are likely to find a someone willing to pay or do the job for that.

He offered £85 and that wasn't worth it to OP's daughter. Fair enough - her life, her decision.

It wasn't worth £100 to him so he declined, Fair enough - his life, his decision.

When i was a teen i babysat
The parents had no mobile
I had the number of the the pub or restaurant
I had no first aid training
I would bet my last fiver millions of teens up and down the country have done this

So interesting, this thread, when you look at all the essential but chronically underpaid workers in the UK. If I only worked for the rate I know we should be on and colleagues did the same, there would be no professionally trained carers anywhere on these isles.

Standard rates of pay for full time roles are different to an individually negotiated price for ad hoc work for someone who is a full time student, already has a part time job, doesn't require this income for living expenses and is considering completely optional additional work on a day which is traditionally one of the main celebrations in the annual calendar.

Fucking lol at someone describing this babysitting request on NYE as “being asked to cover a shift”.

When i was a teen i babysat
The parents had no mobile
I had the number of the the pub or restaurant
I had no first aid training
I would bet my last fiver millions of teens up and down the country have done this

I'm sure. But child safeguarding and acceptable parenting have progressed a lot in the last few decades.

Many parents used to transport their children without car seats. Many parents used to let very young children go out on their own. Many parents used to do what the McCanns did on holidays. Lots of people deciding to put their children at risk doesn't make it a good idea.

Guys, this isn’t an annual salary we’re talking about here, across the entire year.

It is one night. Arguably, the biggest party night of the year across the globe. The cost is so high on this ONE NIGHT PER year because parents are asking young people to give up their own celebration with their own friends and family to sit alone all night and babysit. That is why the premium is so high on this one particular night. It’s not a sustainable career choice across the entire year, nor is it a dig at people who are lower paid. It is a premium to pay because lots of young people would rather be out themselves. Google dynamic pricing if you don’t understand the theory.

It was mostly the whole 'know your value' stuff. Along with how derided the care sector generally is.

I think it's cheeky to EXPECT someone with whom one already has an unequal power-relationship with to do a service for less than they have requested for it, yes. I also think it's cheeky (and the unprofessional and inappropriate) to post on a work WhatsApp chat full of one's employees, asking them to do something unrelated to their job.

And yes some people on this thread have said they'd do it for £60. That's fine - their choice. Just like it's the OP's daughter's choice NOT to. It is really simple. Unfortunately the fact that some random MN-ers would do it is no help to the man who now couldn't get a babysitter. It's supply and demand at the end of the day, and the demand ramps up hugely on NYE (and the supply diminishes).

Yep - exactly this. Very simple.

It was mostly the whole 'know your value' stuff. Along with how derided the care sector generally is

I agree that carers should be paid far more. I also think this applies to full time early years staff in nurseries.

The barrier to this is economic viability. The only way it would be possible to raise pay significantly is through appropriate Government subsidy of these roles because otherwise it is cost-prohibitive. As with many problems in the UK economy, the fact this doesn't happen is due to incompetent mismanagement of institutional structures and poor use of tax revenues.

However, as I said you cannot compare between a one-off ad hoc discretionary offer of work on a date of annual celebration and negotiations for full time salaries.

I also don't think that care work is derided. All people I know who have had carers working in their families are immensely grateful for the work that they do.