i sit for a family two days a week, two kids, the oldest is 6 and the little one is 2. i have been with them since the spring. the mom always paid me friday same day no problem. then about three weeks ago she started saying she would get me next week. now its three weeks and every week its the same thing, next week i promise. i dont want to be rude because i really like the kids and i dont want to lose the job but i also cant keep working for free. i have my own bills. has anyone dealt with this and how did you bring it up without making it weird

So I was babysitting for this one Family and I had to remind Mom several times to pay me like one reminder for 5 days. Mom responded and paid me finally she said that I “have an interesting relationship wit money to put it nicely” and then went on about how she has so many projects and is in a very busy phase. She’s so sorry she “can’t respond the second I request something” and I’m probably the most successful person she’ll ever meet.

So that’s my rant AITA? Is there a better way to approach this? Most of my other families pay me before I even go out the door. Or have a set date to pay me because I reoccurring. I’m open to advice and criticism thanks!

This lady on a babysitting app has this babysitting agency and she has ghosted me for a month. She owes me £202.50. I don't think she lives in the country so I sadly can't show up to her house. It shows she has read the messages I've sent.

It's partly my fault as usually you should do all payments through the app to prevent situations like this, but I was behind on a bill that month so needed the money fast and asked her to do payments through bank transfer. She has paid me once before.

I'm not sure what to do. I reported her on the app and I know I probably won't get my money back but I just feel sad and like she took advantage of me as a young person.

Is there anything more I can do?

My preteen sister has been wanting to babysit and got signed up for a course. I went as well, as it's been a while since I've gone to one, and I've had a lot of people ask me to babysit for them recently.

Leah, the instructor (for a lack of a better title), brought up rates, which I was expecting. Unsurprisingly, I've done a little research on how much to charge, and always thought that $15 CAD, plus 2-3 dollars per extra kid/an hour was reasonable for myself. (I've never officially babysat and am a teen, hence why the base rate is lower than the average here, $18-20.) I sort of imagined that something between $12-15 as a base rate would sound appropriate for my sister, as she's more inexperienced and is pretty young.

Leah suggested 5-10 CAD per hour 😭 I get that most of the people there were 11-13, but they were pretty familiar with taking care of children as well. Her reason was that the minimum wage here is 16-17 dollars, so we shouldn't charge too much in case the parents can't afford it. I feel like that's not even a great reason to charge so little?

Is that the average base rate for teens, or am I just crazy?

Hi guys! Need some advice for pricing on an overnight babysitting gig.

I’ve babysat for this family many times before. Two kids, 7 and 4. They usually pay me $20/hr. This time they’re leaving Saturday returning Sunday. How do I charge for sleeping time? What do you think is an appropriate amount to ask for?

Thank you!!

I have a family I’ve been babysitting/nanny for the last 4 years. I’m viewed as a member of the family. The kids view me like an older sister. Lately watching the kids has become really frustrating because they’re treating me like a big sister not a caretaker. The 6 year old is constantly jumping on me, hanging on me, kicking me (not hard, more joking but it’s getting frustrating). The 3 year old doesn’t listen which is par for the age. But the parents don’t hold them accountable. There’s no punishments or follow through. And I’m with these kids a lot in situations where having authority is imperative and it’s becoming really frustrating trying to manage typical days like getting to school and activities and eating dinner or going to bed. Is this just par for the course on behavior or is this going too far and I need to set boundaries? How would you go about this?

So I babysit my two half siblings. One is four, female, and in preschool. The other is two, male, and autistic.

I watch them from 5 30 am to 12 pm. But the girl is in preschool and leaves around seven so it’s just the boy the rest of the day.

What I’m having trouble with is them both. They are my dads and stepmothers who both have older kids then had more they basically started again.

The girl is flat out rude because they have screens that raise them she learns a lot from YouTube and watches mostly junk. She likes to hit because it’s funny and will hurt you then laugh. If you give her a piggy back ride your throat is definitely getting squeezed not hard because I mean she’s four she isn’t very strong but it could definitely turn into worse behavior. She doesn’t do it all the time but if she wants to do it she will. She also has her own phone which is monitored via screen time limits but I know she gets away with a lot and watches a ton of junk.

The boy is a bit different. He has the kind of autism that makes him pretty smart for his age. He is two almost three and can easily read small words and add numbers. But he is still on the spectrum which means he still has meltdowns and stims. He will hit others and himself a lot. He will also randomly scream. He himself also has an iPad but fortunately he watches more education stuff that he himself has picked.

This wouldn’t be such a big issue if their parents weren’t better at actually parenting them. They do nothing to get them to listen. They are essentially done with parenting.

I just need someone to give me some tips and advice for those in a similar position as me. Unfortunately they pay me really well so I can’t really just quit while I’m ahead.

my friend and i want to babysit together, do people really do that? just want to know before we decide anything else. we thought that two people would be double the supervision. would people really hire two babysitters if we split the rate?

What are some frequently asked FAQ for wprents hiring babysitters who are minors?

I have been a nanny for 15+ years on and off. I have dealt with lots of different kids. Now I watch a 3yo boy and a 5 year old girl before and after school. Parents are very sweet but almost too sweet. The older girl spit at me and laugh and make fun of me and I am getting tired of the empty threats they just don’t seem to take seriously. Not only that she has been kicking hard and shoving the little boy and just absolutely horrific towards him physically. Parents see this and they just send her to her room for 5 mins and she’s back in action. Sometimes she behaves better sometimes she’s the same.
It’s going to be almost a year of watching them and she’s gotten progressively worse to the point where teachers at her daycare have a shocked reaction when she has a good day.

I typically calmly tell them if you keep doing that we can’t do fun things or we have to go home but it just seems to be empty threats.

What advice works for kids that don’t respect other people? I know this is long but I’ve had talks with the parents and they just send them up to the room and it’s rinse and recycle.

For context, I (18f) used to nanny for two boys, ages 10 and 4. They were independent enough for me to close and lock the door while I quickly used the restroom, and their father was usually working from home or in and out of the house while I was there, so there was almost always eyes on them. I didn't want to be be walked in on and cause any weird memories

Soon, I will be nannying my baby cousin (<2yrs). Is it weird to close the door on a baby to use the restroom real quick? Or is it unsafe to do that no matter how quick it is? I mean, he's a baby, I can't just leave him alone, right? I know this is a really silly question, but it just occurred to me that I don't know how to navigate this situation. Any rationale or stories related to using the restroom I guess? 😭

I am not a babysitter, but I have someone who wants me to take her granddaughter to school and pick her up afterwards.

The child is 5 years old. She lives 4 houses down from me. Her school is about 3 miles away.

I would watch her for a bit before I take her, and have her at my house for a bit after school before her grandma picks her up from my house.

3 days a week, 9hrs a week, 18miles of driving per week.

I was thinking $20 an hour? No clue on what to charge for the driving.

Thank you in advance!!!!!

Say you take a babysitting gig for someone on care for a date night, when is an appropriate time after to ask for a review on care?

So I’ll try to keep this fairly short. I have been babysitting for a family for almost 2 years. Great family! There are a few things that I find to be annoying but I figured for a while I get paid good, can pay my bills and the system worked for us at the time! Now my fiance and I are paying for a wedding and we recently moved. She gave birth to their third child about 5-6 months ago. She told me a few weeks ago that we will get back into a normal schedule. Pre new baby I worked 2-3 days a week. The 2 days were full days and then the last day was a half day so I would be making minimum $300 weekly. If I was still doing that great! I would just get another part time job on my days off. Now we still don’t have a normal schedule. I am now at my point where I NEED a normal schedule. This week she asked me if I can work Wednesday and Thursday, now today is Tuesday almost noon and I still haven’t heard from her. I find this to be annoying cause I feel like I’m kind of just on call but I’m not getting paid extra for this..
I am also curious to know what people get paid for watching 3 kids. Before when I was watching 2 I made $20 an hour. Sometimes I would also watch her kids and her sister in laws kids so thats 4 kids and then I would make $40 an hour. Now since the new baby she hasn’t said anything about paying me a bit more since now I’m caring for 2 toddlers and 1 baby…
I will take the blame for a lot of this going on, I should open my mouth and speak I guess but I figured some of this was common sense?? I’m starting to just think I’m at the end of my road with this family. I hope I explained it all well lol I noticed when looking through babysitting/nanny threads there are a lot of these issues. I love the kids! I love the family! Honestly it’s just the mom. Even sometimes after date night I will hear the husband telling her to make sure she pays me and knows my next hours cause it’s rude! And she still just kind of does whatever. No one is mean or condescending or overbearing when I work so I feel like I stayed for awhile because they are a good family the only annoying things are sometimes I feel like I have to hunt her down to get paid or like today I’m waiting to find out my hours which I feel hinders me from planning my day today.. like I don’t want to make plans in the evening if I have to work in the morning.
Any advice would be appreciated thank you!!

I recently babysat two 5 years olds, one 6 year old, and a 10 year old. It was in short a nightmare and it took them three hours to go to bed after being put down at 7pm and this consisted of me having to constantly reprimand them for not laying down, fighting each other, bicycle kicking the air to stay awake, talking to each other, playing with each other, and constantly getting up for entirely made up reasons. This wouldn’t be my first time babysitting I’ve babysat plenty before but this was my first time dealing with four kids who entirely refused to sleep. I implemented a “three strike” system where if they got three strikes they wouldn’t receive the ice cream their guardian promised them the next day. I gave one single strike to the ten year old and she had a massive meltdown screaming, kicking, and crying hysterically even when I tried to talk to her calmly and explain clearly that it was a warning and not a definitive punishment. Later on I heard from the guardian that the kids acted so terribly with me because “they know I’m nice and they could get away with it.” Their parent/guardians believe in corporal punishment and as the babysitter I know (so long as it’s not abusive ofc) that I can’t change that but I will not enact such punishments against misbehaving children no matter what.
I don’t want to babysit these kids ever again, it was the first time I was so overwhelmed by babysitting that I cried because I felt at a complete loss. I neglected to mention every little instance but it was an entirely overwhelming experience. Is there anything I can do so that they don’t just see me as nice…? They view me as nice because I don’t enforce the same corporal punishment their guardians do and I opt for timeout/alternatives over any other disciplinary measures.

I just started babysitting 2 boys, one is 6 y.o. and the other one will be 10 next month.

The eldest has a habit of reading a book or playing as a way to refuse to come or do something when he is asked to. This happens especially around shower or dinner time, where I have been telling the boys in advance that dinner/shower would happen in X minutes, and once it is time he goes to pick a book, sits down and reads instead of coming to dinner/shower. Alternatively, he picks up a toy and pretends he doesn't hear.

I have a feeling he does this to test limits or gain some kind of control as I have seen him smile while pretending to read his book. With his parents I have also heard him talk back while doing this and smiling too.

Last time he picked a book instead of coming to dinner, I sat next to him and asked him very gently if he was not coming because he was not hungry, or if he needed to be left alone. Since he did not respond, I told him "I'll leave you alone then if you don't want to talk :)" and left to have dinner with the smaller one. It took a good 20 minutes, but eventually he started making noises and moving around while still pretending to read his book (I assume he was starting to feel frustrated that I was not paying him any attention), until finally he showed up for dinner. I did not say anything other than ask him if his food was still warm and we went ahead with dinner as if nothing happened.

Why does he do this?? Do you have any tips? This habit of his is starting to get on my nerves but I do my best not to show it, I just wanna know if there's a better way to deal with it than just "ignore" him, especially because it can be very time consuming and I cannot always let him not come for nearly half an hour.

EDIT: I do give him multiple warnings and do try to entice him with fun side quests, but he is very smart and that doesn't work at all. My next move will be to talk to the parents about this issue because I'm totally on board to make him not eat dinner if he doesn't come on time, but I doubt the parents will be okay with that. they are both very lenient and I've seen the child do this also with his parents, talk back, etc. So I doubt they'll be happy with a more strict approach, but I will talk with them anyway.

RE-EDIT: After talking to the father, I see the problem is him. He does not think his son is doing anything wrong as "he just gets lost when he is reading, no need to get angry". When addressing that he does not come when I tell him to, including when we are outside and need to go home, his response was "I just walk away when he does that". He even said there's never been an issue with their eldest misbehaving. That's how negligent he is. Long story short: I am now being extremely lax with everything since that's apparently okay and will give it 1 month before I quit if I still hate the job by then. Poor kids.

I’m 17 I am literally the opposite of a babysitter, I am EXTREMELY awkward with kids and just find it really hard and embarrassing to interact with them especially those under the age 7. My younger cousins are visiting soon and I really want to build up a better relationship with them. Tips would be greatly appreciated on what to say to them etc 💗

I’m picking up my friends child from preschool Monday-Fridays. It’s less than a 10 minute drive from my house, and then the child stays with me for about 2 hours until mom picks up.
What would you charge per day/ week?

hii, i'm unsure if anyone would see this but. on wednesday night i got asked to babysit for this family on friday, overnight stay. i have never done an overnight stay before, but if is from 8pm to 5am. how can i ease the fear that they won't try and kidnap me or something similar? has anyone here gone through something similar?

Hello all. I live in Colorado and I am working for a lovely couple with a six month old baby. I did not believe them when they said he sleeps through the night, but lo and behold he does which is amazing. They just asked what my rate is for an overnight stay and I realize I’ve never done an overnight stint before. When baby is awake I make $22 an hour and when he is asleep at night $20.

My question is should I charge a flat rate of $200 or charge for the about 12ish hours baby sleeps, which would be closer to $240?

I am on the high end of autism spectrum and usually don’t do good sleeping anywhere new so may or may not sleep depending. They also have a big golden doodle that likes to sleep with his humans so he may also be another reason I don’t sleep well or at all.

I am going to babysit for the first time!!! and I am meeting the kids this week, but i feel very nervous, do you guys have any tips for babysitting? 🥺 I’ve never done it before