OT-Should I pay dd to babysit ds?

[SandraC]

Hello All ~ dd has been babysitting neighbourhood children for a couple of years. I would like her to babysit her 8 year old brother for two days this month. Should I pay her or should I expect her to do it for free since we are family?

I'm incline to pay her. What do you think?

Thanks, Sandra

 

[toesmom]

pay her a discounted rate

 

[highland3]

We pay our DD to babysit DS.

 

[bababear_50]

As the oldest daughter of FOUR siblings I say PAY her!!!
Hugs Mel



P.S then have alittle talk about R&R ,,room and board.

 

[Microcell]

^^ LOL! I am the third of four siblings, and my mom should have paid my sister to watch us... I was a handful!


I work from home and I had to go to four and a half hour straight shifts, and there is a little leeway in my situation to check on things, and I still pay DD to keep an eye on DS because he is just like I was, and I am sure annoys her to distraction!

 

[maryliz]

Great question! My DD is 11 and my DS is 8, so I'll be in the same boat soon. I say pay her for the two days, since you'd be paying for daycare for him if she wasn't available. I don't think she needs to be paid the "going rate", since she is immediate family. And maybe offer DS a little incentive ($5 ???) to be good for his sister those days.

I have told DD for when she starts babysitting, that if DH and I are just going for a walk, or to the store, she will be looking after her brother for free ... as part of the family. But that if DH and I are going out where we would normally be getting a sitter, than she will be paid.

I do not foresee DD looking after DS for summertime daycare ... they bicker far too much, and DH is often sleeping during the day if he works all night. So I think DS will be going to camps for at least the next couple of summers.

 

[wee-haggis]

Hello All ~ dd has been babysitting neighbourhood children for a couple of years. I would like her to babysit her 8 year old brother for two days this month. Should I pay her or should I expect her to do it for free since we are family?

I'm incline to pay her. What do you think?

Thanks, Sandra

No....its her brother !
What I would do is (if she does well),slip her a few bucks after the fact,but don;t pay her like a business transaction.

 

[disneyfan2]

Does anyone know how old a child must be before they can stay alone? I have read somewhere that it is 12 but other times it was 11 yrs old?

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

Hello All ~ dd has been babysitting neighbourhood children for a couple of years. I would like her to babysit her 8 year old brother for two days this month. Should I pay her or should I expect her to do it for free since we are family?

I'm incline to pay her. What do you think?

Thanks, Sandra

I vote to pay her, it's a valuable service .
Go with your instincts!!

 

[tigercat]

My rule was that you contribute to the family and if that included doing a little babysitting then so be it. But then I believed that the kids needed to learn to earn things. Their friends used to get paid for babysitting and we were often told that. Now that they are in their 30's they have thanked us for doing what we do. That they really appreciate everything they have as they have earned it. They still do stuff for the family, just as I do things for them. That's what families do. We never took advantage of them as we really didn't have a lot of money to go out so it was only when work had to be done.
tigercat

 

[maryliz]

Does anyone know how old a child must be before they can stay alone? I have read somewhere that it is 12 but other times it was 11 yrs old?

I don't know that there's an actual "age requirement" ... I do know that several organizations offer courses in "staying home alone", and the one that I have used, the child had to be 10 years old to even take the course.

My DD is 11 but does not like to stay home alone. She will, if circumstances demand it, but only if it's not at night.

 

[drag n' fly]

We pay our ds14 5 bucks an hour to babysit our ds5. There are times when he has to do freebies, but if dh are going out to dinner etc he gets paid.

 

[Debbie]

Does anyone know how old a child must be before they can stay alone? I have read somewhere that it is 12 but other times it was 11 yrs old?

When my DD was 11, she babysat 2 boys down the street for the summer. I was home, so all three of them would come over for a swim in the afternoon. The mom and I both checked to see if that was okay, and we were told that there was no law, and that (of course) it would depend on the child's comfort level. Now, that was in 1997, and I don't know if it has changed, but some kids are capable, and some aren't at 11. BTW, all my kids took the Red Cross Babysitting course, too. That's good whether your child will be babysitting or not.

 

[disneyfan2]

i guess i should check with my local authorities, but next year, when my DD10 will be coming home with her sister from school( other DD will be 6) i am going to need after school car for less then 1 hr only 2 days a week. I would like to see if she will be able to come home then. She is mature and even if she is allowed to do this, i agree, i will have her take the Babysitting course.

 

[Bea]

We pay my dd14 depending on the circumstance, and not the going rate . If I am running out to the gym, or groceries then it is a freebee. If it is for a few hours at night (movie) then $10.00 say.

We decided that if she were ever asked to babysit for someone else and we had already "booked" her (like Christmas, New Year's) we would pay her the going rate, so she doesn't loose out on that money . We also give allowance every week so part of earning that is babysitting when I run the odd errand.

 

[maryrego]

I babysat from the time I was 10. I did take the St Johns Ambulance course for First Aid and Babysitting. My brothers were 2 and 3 years younger then me. They were the hardest to babysit and I never got paid for watching them. (Put it to you this way the first time they were left home alone at 13 and 12 they burned the bathroom down). My dad did always buy me whatever I wanted though to make up for it lol.

My brothers have sice apologised for all the crappy things they did while I babysat for them.

If its a couple hours I would say its family obligation lol but longer then that I would throw her some $$.

 

[deanie]

I would say to pay her also. One summer I had my two sons alternate babysitting their little sister. As I did not want to tie them down all summer, I had them trade off on what days they were responsible. I found that when I paid them, they were not resentful with having to stay home and also they would play with her more. Plus it gave them some spending money. As PP have said, I did not pay them for short periods of time, like if I went to the grocery store, etc.

 

[SandraC]

Thanks all.

At first I thought about not paying her and chalking it up as a duty as a part of the family. But since she does babysit other kids for money, I thought it only fair to pay her.

So I'll pay her.

When I was 10 years old, I started babysitting my younger sister and brother. Sometimes I got paid, sometimes I didn't. I was also the neighbourhood babysitter and many oodles of cash doing so. My folks paid me to babysit my sibs when I was missing out on a paying job.

ds is NOT looking forward to having dd babysit him. I think it's good for both of them. I completely trust them both.

As far as "when" you can leave a child on his or her own....I searched and searched for this information and came up this nothing. So I just went the common sense route and watched dd for signs of maturity. I started letting her walk home from school alone [all of 4 minutes, we live behind the school] when she was 7 years old. I would stand in my backyard and watch her walk from school to our home. I started leaving her in the house alone for 10 minutes to get milk or go to the library when she was 9 years old. Now she is 14 and loves getting the house to herself.

S