Good Parenting

Babysitting charges are not as black and white as we would like to think. Hiring a babysitter isn’t like being hired to work at a local store where the pay rate is already set in stone. There is usually a little bit of wiggle room for you when you are looking to hire a sitter for your children. The difficult part is when we are trying to figure out the amount we feel comfortable paying a sitter.

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When you begin calculating your price to offer a sitter, you should keep in mind the tasks you would like the sitter to handle while you are away from your home. Babysitter charges greatly depend on more than caring for the child or children in the home. If you want anything done in your home on top of caring for your children, it’s going to cost you more money. But, how much more should you pay?

Obviously, if you only want the dishes from the children throughout the day to be cleaned when you walk in the door at night, it will be less than if you want your floors washed, house vacuumed, children bathed, meal cooked and grocery shopping completed before you walk in the door. Be reasonable with what you ask your sitter to do for you and your children while you are at work.

Of course, if you are a single parent of two children and you work a minimum wage job, you will have to consider your expenses to determine the amount of money you can afford to pay a sitter.

If you know the amount you can afford is not going to be enough to pay a sitter, you might want to check into a state funded daycare facility with a sliding fee scale to care for your children. You will need to meet the minimum and maximum income guidelines in order for you to qualify for the sliding scale fees.

Baby sitting charges should not cause you to need a second job to pay your bills, however it should be enough that the sitter does not feel they are being taken advantage of. If you can not afford to pay a sitter for doing the dishes, by all means tell him/her to leave the dishes and household stuff until you get home. You will take care of everything, all he/she needs to do is provide care for your children.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 6:09 am and is filed under Good Parenting.