Attention to all "Sitters" sitters.

[Mtorun]

Hi all,

I work for Sitters for nearly 7 months. Whichever family I babysat for asked my name again and again. Now I have regular families asking me to babbysit for them. So I must be good right?
But the hourly rate we get is £5.85 for weekdays and £6.85ph. for the weekends. I received a text from Sitters asking me to babysit on Sunday. I accepted and they send me a confirmation text but in that text it says hourly rate is £5.85ph. I thought we will get weekend rate on Sundays as it is still weekend!

I will call Sittters and ask about it. And also do you think it is reasonable to ask them to increase the hourly rate? I was thinking if we all call and talk to them about the rates, do you think they will do somthing about it? Surely it will make a difference if we all call.

Thanks

I don't work for sitters for this exact reason.

navyeyelash, I did join as I was looking for a new role and thought something better then nothing. But thank god I found a job and it started as soon as I finish with my previous one. I think I will leave them soon. I was just thinking if we all complain then I'm sure they will do something about it.

I'm not a babysitter, but I guess the reason is, at least in part, that they insist on people booking for a minimum of 4 hours (iirc?) and of course they take their cut of the fee, so it would end up being prohibitively expensive for parents if they paid sitters a decent wage.

I don't use them for booking sitters, btw, because I'd rather the babysitter got the money than a middleman.

You are right midnightexpress. I mean If I was to babysit for this amount even for £8 I'm sure I would get lots of enquiries. I think its time for me to leave them. Tonights sitting is from 6pm until 1am and I will be only getting £40.95 for 7 hours! Feel like canceling.

that's appalling! i would just go direct to the families and agree a price with them.

sitters must get a large cut to pay so little. makes me so mad how little pay is for childcare, sunday too. grr

I just called them and left a message saying I wont be able to sit tonight as I dont feel safe getting on a bus that late(my friend was going to pick me up after sitting but he cant do now). I hope they will get the message and inform the family.

That's rubbish, I get £10 per hour for babysitting!

i've had enough of sitters and am just ignoring the messages now.

when they ring me ot offer me a job and i'm busy so leave it to go to answer phone i find the message is usually a snotty woman and along the lines of - 'we've booked you in for a job on x night at x time, ring us and let us know if its inconvienent. and you need to have your phone on you at all times so we can get hold of you'

i've taken to just ignoring theese messages and declining when i do answer or ignoring texts.

i've had lots of other crap form them as well, like phoning them to say theres been an emergancy and dm has gone in to hospital so unless i can take 2yo db with me to booking i will have to cancell

only for them to tell me its 'unacceptable to let clients down at short notice, what ever the reason' and 'you really do need to change your attitude if you want to keep recieving bookings'

they dont pay me enough to take that crap

i should probably mention the change your attitude comment came when i cancelled because i was having a mc at the time.

(i have only ever cancelled twice)

It's £5.80 and £6.25 in my area.

I don't think it's that bad really, as you get a least 4 hours and it's not exactly hard work!

Last night I got £25 and I was only there 2 hours.

Sitters get £4 a booking and around £50 a year from the parents, as far as I know.

Fri & Sat are the weekend rate nights

I wouldn't be prepared to pay more tbh

To be honest, I never get messages saying that they book me for x family. I always get messages first and if I dont want to sit i ignore the text. Then they call and say "x family wanting you to babysit, and we thought you might not get our text, are you ok to babbysit?". And to be honest if a snotty woman call and leave me a message like that I would call Sitters and complain about her. Its up to me to sit not to them!

I do get £10 for babysitting if I arrange privately, most of them word of mouth. And once I told them that I reduced my hourly rate cause of creadit crunch, all the families expect one said I shouldnt and they are happy to pay £10 plus a taxi or they would give me a lift.

I think weekends rate should be the same.

"Fri & Sat are the weekend rate nights"

Well in my area (SW of London). Friday is £5.85 and only Saturday is £6.85. That is what I'm trying to say. Weekend rates should be the same at least if not more.

Sorry my mistake

Back in December I did a comparison of Sitters fees vs my own. See the comparison

For those who want to skip the full comparison, here is the Chart

The conclusion at that time was that if parents went out for 4 hours or less, then I would only be more expensive than Sitters if the parents had me babysit on more than 17 times a year.

When parents comment on forums like Mumsnet about the cost of Sitters, I often see them mention the low hourly rate. I feel it's wrong that they do that, as it isn't the REAL cost. If Sitters were to increase the amount they suggest parents pay (I'm using suggest as Sitter say that babysitters are not their employees, so in theory as a babysitter you could charge the parents anything, as the contract is between the parents are you... Sitters are just the introduction agency), the total cost to the parents will increase and more parents will realise it is cheaper to go direct.

However there are benefits to using an agency like Sitters - parents don't need to arrange to meet local babysitters, parents can call late notice and often get someone, parents can visit another part of the country and still request someone to babysit. There are probably more pro's to it... but that's just a few I can think of.

For our usage it works out equivalent to just under £10 an hour
Local sitters want £8 - £10 an hour plus a taxi or lift home

The taxi or lift is the dealbreaker for me

EldonAve - quite agree, the taxi or lift would be the dealbreaker for most families I expect. I would be expecting the babysitter to make their own way to/from your home. As a teenager I used a push-bike, as an adult I drive.

If the sitters lives in your area then no need for a taxi or a lift. Which area do you live EldonAve? I can babysit for you if you live close by.

I know what you mean about the weekend rate, I think that Sundays should also be included as I find that sometimes you get rergualr bookings from families just on Sundays because it is cheaper for them, but Sitters need to consider our families as well. I know that we can always say no to a booking, but sometimes it is fine to do a booking occasionally on a Sunday but at the rate charged it isn't really worth it!
BTW my 16yr old dd babysat for a local family on Friday & got more than I would have done for the same amount of time doing it with Sitters!

ditto navy - this is why i wont work for sitters

they pay almost 50% less then what i charge

obv for those nannies who need the work then sitters are good, but i find my own bs work and charge my rate of £10ph and a minimum of 4hrs regardless if they use me that length of time

I dont normally sit for them on weekends and Fridays. As I BS for my regular families and get my hourly rate. But would do during the week if the families are walking distance to my place and I have nothing to do.