Nanny Gossip! What Your Babysitter Doesn’t Tell You {Part 2}

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Last time in Nanny Gossip! {Part 1} we talked about what Moms should know that our nannies or babysitters don’t tell us. Here are some more insightful answers, along with the very important question, “How much do I pay the babysitter?”

What was the most embarrassing experience as a nanny?

I would have to say walking in on a parent naked!

Funniest thing a child has told me about their parent?

One little boy once told me, “my mommy got her vagina waxed today!” I didn’t quite understand why the mom told her little boy that piece of information.

 What items surprise you the most in our Scottsdale/Phoenix homes?

I am very concerned of what I see in the kitchen pantries. The amount of suggary snacks and processed foods is very scary and I am concerned about some of the food we are feeding the children. I often think about what outcomes the processed food is going to have on them when they grow up.

Often I get asked questions about how much do I pay my nanny to babysit at night or weekends. Does your nanny babysit on the weekends? How much do you pay your nanny to babysit on the weekend?

What the nanny and babysitters say about pay:

 What do local Moms pay for babysitting?

I mostly see anywhere from $10/hr to $35/hr+. My advice for parents is to try and consider the following factors when figuring out what to pay:

Pay your sitter based on their experience and what you are expecting from them.

  • Are they driving the kids around?
  • Does your sitter always leave a clean house or do they leave a sink full of dishes every time?
  • Do you come home and see that the kids were doing something fun or does your sitter put them in front of the tv all day?
  • Do you have multiple children, infants and/or difficult children?
  • How long is the job?

Sometimes shorter jobs you need to pay more to make it worth your sitters while. It’s hard to drive somewhere far to only make $20. The opposite is true, longer jobs can be negotiated as a flat rate or salary.

Important note: A 16 year old sitter with limited experience shouldn’t charge the same as an adult nanny with 10 years of experience.

 Here are a few good websites to help calculate what you should be paying your sitter/nanny:

Care.com

This website has a really good pay calculator. You can include your zip code, how many children you have, how many hours and it gives you a calculation for you.

Sittercity https://www.sittercity.com/babysitters/babysitters-rate-calculator.html

LifeWorx: https://www.lifeworx.com/calculator/

How much to pay for an overnight stay?

I usually will do a flat rate for the day, $100/min plus hourly charges for the morning after the kids wake up. Some babysitters will charge $50 minimum for an overnight plus an hourly charge the kids are awake.  Most nannies will negotiate this amount if needed.

The relationship is so important whether we leave our kids with them for two hours every couple of months or every day. We are trusting them to care for our babies. Again, thank you LP for all you do.

Do you have any funny or interesting nanny or babysitting stories to share? How do you manage the babysitter or nanny relationship? 

For more great information on babysitting in Scottsdale, please visit Joy’s three part series:

Babysitting in Scottsdale Part 1 – How much do you pay your sitter?

Babysitting in Scottsdale Part 2 – Do you refer your babysitter to friends?

Babysitting in Scottsdale Part 3: Start a babysitting co-op

 
Photo: flickr by kibblesthepig