My daughter made $75 babysitting last night...- Page 2

[StockardFan]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 5:10pm

That's funny, Yenta!

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 5:13pm

I should print out this thread. I'm sixteen, and I've never gotten paid more than five dollars.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 5:47pm

You should!

Do you drive yourself? That makes a big difference to me. If I have to pick up and take home I usually pay around $7-8. If they can drive themselves, I usually pay $10.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 5:56pm

Haha, I can't drive. Sadly, I don't even have my permit. I'm terrified of learning to drive, because I know I'd forget I was driving and start reading a book and crash through a building, or something else idiotic like that!

But honestly, I don't really care about money... I usually babysit for free, and I generally do it just to do family friends a favour. If I ever get money, it usually ends up getting spent by my sister anyway, so it doesn't really make a difference.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 6:13pm

I babysit for my two grandchildren all the time and never get a cent. I do get paid in hugs, kisses and so much affection that a price tag could never be placed on it!

Updated On: 10/6/08 at 06:13 PM

[StockardFan]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 6:30pm

Aw, Schmerg you can baby sit for my kids.....I'll pay ya!

Dolly grandparents aren't supposed to get paid!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 10:07pm

Believe it or not, the OTHER grandparents DO expect to get paid. Perhaps that's why I do more babysitting than they do.

(I love every minute of it!)

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 10:52pm

The most important 2 things (these days, that is) are:

1. You might be watched via "nannycam", so be super responsible,
2. Save 20% of anything you make, ala "mommy and daddy's" great advice, that I rarely followed in the old days!?

[CJR]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 11:23pm

I was a nanny for 12 years. In my prime - and we're talking 10 years ago - I was getting $15 to $20 an hour. Double time after midnight. And parents paid it. I remember one New Years Eve, three families went into a bidding war for me because I watched all their kids. At the end of it, I wound up having all the kids (six of them all under the age of 7) at the largest house (thank God they were all friends) and got paid $600 for watching them from 9pm until 2am. Insane.

I think the pay also has a lot to do with the area of the country you live in. When I was growing up, my neighborhood had the highest per capita in the country and we had bored housewives with money to burn. There was the insane wage (which, when I advertised that I was a babysitter, I advertised charging $5 an hour), plus bonuses, tips, ridiculous presents (lots of Tiffany's - and I remember one family that bought my high school ring for me as a thank you).

I really wish I'd listened to my parents and saved most of what I made. I would be RICH now if I had. There was one point - junior year in HS - where there was actually a schedule up on the fridge of exactly where I was babysitting at all times (no cell phone then). Some days I would go straight from my after school gig to a night gig with the family I later became a live in nanny for.

So you young kids, take heart to what we're all telling you. Put your money away!!!! When you're my age and you want pretty things, you'll be happy you have it. Put it towards college, put it towards a car - hell, I probably could have bought my first car outright and THEN some, had I saved. You won't be sorry that you did when you're older though, I promise.

Oh and nanny cams. They are much more inconspicuous these days than they were when I was nannying all the time. But do be aware that most families DO have them nowadays.

Of all the families I nannied for over the years, there is only one I keep in contact with. And that's an understatement. They have 4 kids - now 15, 14, 12 and 10 - and they are as much my children as they are their parents. They're just wonderful, wonderful kids and my life would be very empty without them. Over the years they weren't so much my charges anymore, as much as they were my family. Sometimes when you're lucky, you land a family like that.

They now have an au pair they can't stand because she's only 19 and they don't really know her. I keep begging them to give her a chance and they keep calling me wanting to know why *I* can't be their au pair. If anything, I think I see them more now that I'm off the books than I did when I was on them. They're with me at least 3 times a week.

Updated On: 10/6/08 at 11:23 PM

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 10/8/08 at 10:42am

Wow. I'm an adult with a Bachelor's Degree and only made 8/hr as a teaching assistant 4 months ago. And now temping in a car dealership I'm making the same amount. Maybe I need to go back to baby-sitting. Hmm....

[mc1227]

Posted: 10/8/08 at 2:30pm

Honestly, I think those are the areas for older people to consider. Watching children, running errands, working in supermarkets, etc. There doesn't seem to be much of a job market for adults over 40 if they are looking to change careers. Great way to pick up extra cash that we all need right now.

[CJR]

Posted: 10/8/08 at 5:10pm

I still nanny occasionally - and I have a full time job and am in law school. When I find the time, I don't know, but once or twice a week I do. I make about the same as an assistant property manager as I did as a nanny, but lemme tell you, being a nanny is FAR more fulfilling.