How much would you charge for before care?

[elizabeth rose]

Hi, just curious, how much would you charge for before care for two children monday thru Friday and daily bus stop pick ups mon thru Friday? In addition on thursdays I drive to the school, pick up the kids, take the sister to dance and bring the boy back to my house till the dad picks him up about 7 p.m. The before care is for about 45 min in the mornings. I have to walk them up to the bus on the next street also.

 

currently she is only paying me $100 a month. I think I am doing her a HUGE favor, but I don't feel like she sees it that way. It is in no way reciprocated by her, in other words, I often have her kids over extra times, but she never has mine over. Also she does not pay in full or on time.

 

Oh on days they have off school, and she works, I have them for about 9 hours and I get $50 for both. I want to renegotiate for next year. What do you think?

[kewb]

I think you are being taken advantage of. The going rate here for 2 kids for someone who drives them places is $15 per hour.

 

Since she is historically late-payment in advance for the upcoming week. No payment, no watching. Cash only.

[elizabeth rose]

I think you are being taken advantage of. The going rate here for 2 kids for someone who drives them places is $15 per hour.

 

Since she is historically late-payment in advance for the upcoming week. No payment, no watching. Cash only.

 

 

this is what my dh says. he is actually very irritated by it. I am beginning to agree. I know I am working for a pittance, but when she is rude to me and does not pay on time or in full, it really makes me feel like an idiot.

[G5052]

No way would I do that for $100/month. Locally before school care through the county (i.e. subsidized some) runs $130-150 for before school at the school, and $220-350 for afterschool. When school is out, it is $50-70/day. The scale is based on household income, but that gives you an idea.

 

Here, you pay for the month ahead of time, and don't get care if you haven't paid. Period. I'd absolutely require prepayment. I did that when I was tutoring, and it made a huge difference in both who decided to make it work and my headache level. Even our piano teacher requires prepayment, although her contract says that she'll let it slide for up to two weeks if you've been with her for six months and have always paid on time. After that though, no lessons.

 

You might want to check with your local system to see what they charge. You should charge at least that much (they don't take them to activities, and only do it in-school),

[Um_2_4]

$100 a month... no way! Not sure where you are but here, at a center (so no taking them to after school lessons, etc) it runs $130-$175 per WEEK. And they do not provide snacks, etc. Not sure about "off" days.

I actually started to look into this as a "back up" in case I ever needed to go back to work. But I am still checking if here I would need daycare license I think I might go more the tutoring route. (I did that in college.)

[elizabeth rose]

yep, I am crazy. I'm in MD, a pretty well off area, so I'm sure the fees in our systems would be pretty high. I'll need to renegotiate this for next year. Really I would have been ok with it if she hadn't continually treated me like cr*p.

 

She owes me $20 from January, I mean how petty is that? I feel so low having to ask her again for it.

[Um_2_4]

Can you set it up on like paypal or something... like" oh I know how hard it is to remember to carry cash, so I thought this would be more convient"?? You could even send her a "bill". Or if she has a Chase bank account, we can send money from emails/cell phone numbers... something along those lines?

[G5052]

yep, I am crazy. I'm in MD, a pretty well off area, so I'm sure the fees in our systems would be pretty high. I'll need to renegotiate this for next year. Really I would have been ok with it if she hadn't continually treated me like cr*p.

 

She owes me $20 from January, I mean how petty is that? I feel so low having to ask her again for it.

 

You aren't low. You deserve to be paid. I do contract work, and last year one customer consistently paid me late. They had some financial set-backs, but I got resentful, especially when I had completed work and found out that they had been taking trips, buying gifts, etc. etc. while they hadn't fulfilled their end of the contract.

 

And they are no longer a customer of mine, and never will be. Not even for a small job.

[elizabeth rose]

Can you set it up on like paypal or something... like" oh I know how hard it is to remember to carry cash, so I thought this would be more convient"?? You could even send her a "bill". Or if she has a Chase bank account, we can send money from emails/cell phone numbers... something along those lines?

 

that's a great idea!

[elizabeth rose]

 

You aren't low. You deserve to be paid. I do contract work, and last year one customer consistently paid me late. They had some financial set-backs, but I got resentful, especially when I had completed work and found out that they had been taking trips, buying gifts, etc. etc. while they hadn't fulfilled their end of the contract.

 

And they are no longer a customer of mine, and never will be. Not even for a small job.

 

thank you for this. yes I am getting resentful of things like you mentioned. Dinners out, etc, that I could not afford myself. I do not want to be resentful and have that influence how I treat the kids. It doesn't but I think I get more irrtated at things, kwim? Well i just emailed her and told her I needed the other $20.

[sassenach]

You are seriously being underpaid. Does that even cover your gas and food costs? Is there a reason you need to wait till the end of the school year? That's easily a $100/wk job.

[elizabeth rose]

With the cost of gas and food I'm either breaking even or losing money :(

I just feel bad asking for more for this year since I did agree to it. next year though is a different matter in my book.

[Um_2_4]

With the cost of gas and food I'm either breaking even or losing money :(

I just feel bad asking for more for this year since I did agree to it. next year though is a different matter in my book.

 

Be honest and tell her that with the big rise in gas cost and food costs, you just can;t do it anymore for $100/mo. You are doing no one a favor by building up resentment. Companies all the time change their monthly fees for things. Even a small increase now would help you out and then when comes time to talk about summer care or next year it gives you an opening to say "Look, last year my fee didn't even cover my costs. So this summer/year I need to charge $xx per week/mo".

[lmrich]

I thi k you need to bill differently. One bill for the morning care and one for the Thursday obligations. It looks like you spend 20 hours for the morning care each month. How much time does the Thursday care take? Figure out your hourly rate and charge it. She pays in full upfront of every month or you are not available to watch them.

[heritagelearningacademy]

I agree you are being underpaid. What really stuck out to me was that you said she has treated you like crap. That is unacceptable in my book. I would take payment upfront or no child care at all. And, I would think that it is appropriate to change the cost now. I would tell her you and your hubby have looked at it and budget wise you need to be paid for your time and gas.

 

I keep thinking if you lost her as a customer, how quickly would you be able to replace her? And, you might even be able to replace and not do dance trips and make more money.

 

I would want to only care for someone's children who appreciated me.

[RoundAbout]

$100 a month is not worth the daily hassle especially if she treats you poorly and doesn't pay on time. You could make that much collecting cans!

 

I would charge at least double just for morning care. Driving anywhere would be a lot more.

[vonfirmath]

Hi, just curious, how much would you charge for before care for two children monday thru Friday and daily bus stop pick ups mon thru Friday? In addition on thursdays I drive to the school, pick up the kids, take the sister to dance and bring the boy back to my house till the dad picks him up about 7 p.m. The before care is for about 45 min in the mornings. I have to walk them up to the bus on the next street also.

 

currently she is only paying me $100 a month. I think I am doing her a HUGE favor, but I don't feel like she sees it that way. It is in no way reciprocated by her, in other words, I often have her kids over extra times, but she never has mine over. Also she does not pay in full or on time.

 

Oh on days they have off school, and she works, I have them for about 9 hours and I get $50 for both. I want to renegotiate for next year. What do you think?

 

 

We pay $215/mo for after care (2:40p to anytime up to 6:30p) for one kid

This includes all day for the days that school is out all day, but NOT Spring Break, Christmas, etc. It does include a snack. There is no before care option here.

[threedogfarm]

Maybe looking at it objectively from an hourly rate might give you a different perspective:

 

45 min/day x 5 days equals 3.75 hours per week. If there are 20 school days in a month that would be 15 hours. If you are just doing before care (and the time you have them is really 45 minutes from the time they arrive to the time they get on the bus in the morning) then you are getting $6.60/hour.

 

If you add in 4 hours (from 3-7 on Thursday--I'm just estimating here) for 4 weeks per month, that's an additional 16 hours (I'm not counting your gas here either) you're making $3.23/hour (which is your rate/hour right now).

 

When you're watching both children for $50 per day when they're out of school and if that's for about 9 hours then you're making $5.50/hour (this is your best rate yet).

 

 

How much do you feel you should make per hour? What does the average babysitter make per hour where you live? Do you offer more than the average babysitter (on Thursdays you do--you're picking up and dropping off at ballet). You're also providing a convenience for the mom and dad--close to their house and only contracted for the time that they need you.

 

I'm sure you have not contract with this family so I think it is within your rights to change the fee for April. This way you can see if it's going to work out between you and them and whether you want to look into finding another family to do this next year (if you are doing this not just as a favor but for the money as well). You can look at the school calendar (usually posted online--I know our public school's calendar is online) and figure out what the next month's bill will be and tell them payment is due 7 days prior to the start of the next month.

 

Also, something that we don't know based on your post is how this whole arrangement came to be. . .are your children friends with her children? Do you two go way back? Or is this more of a business arrangement? That might totally change how you should handle this. Let's use $10/hour charge for example. If you did that you would be raising the monthly rate from $100 to $310 for a 20-day month. That's a huge jump (don't get me wrong, it is still reasonable when you look at it from an hourly standpoint) and if this person was a close friend I might just finish out the year at the current rate and then just call it quits so there are no hurt feelings all around.

[airforcefamily]

Sounds like she found a good deal and is taking full advantage. I don't think it's so much the hourly wage when it comes to mornings but more the inconvenience of watching extra kids every day for under an hour first thing in the morning. In your shoes I would ask $10 per day plus vehicle expenses. I think milage reimbursement is typically something like 22¢ per mile for wear and tear plus the cost of gas. For example, if it's a 10 mile round trip and your car gets 20mpg you would get $2.20+1/2 the cost of a gallon of gas in your area+your hourly rate. If I were hiring an experienced parent (not a teenager) I would expect to pay a bare minimum of $10/hour for school breaks with some sort of daily cap, perhaps no more than $80-100 total per day. Before/after school and school breaks are very high demand hours and babysitters can and should charge more.

 

To put it in perspective, we pay teenage babysitters $10-20/hour (depending on experience and demand for the time we're going out) and they're earning money for several hours at a time. No getting up early to work for 45 minutes, taking other kids out of the house first thing in the morning, spending money on gas, or dealing with drop offs/pick ups.

 

One of the nanny/babysitting websites has a calculator based on your zip code, the number of kids, and years of experience. I would use that as a starting point.

 

The prepayment suggestion makes sense. Maybe write down the hours, the cost of gas, and the cost of wear on your vehicle and show it to her or put it in an envelope with a polite letter. If she sees how little she is really paying hopefully she will do the right thing and pay you what you deserve.

[airforcefamily]

I wanted to add that when our kids were in a private school they offered before school care. It was $75 per week per child. It was any portion of the hour just before school started in the morning for the same price.

[Mandy in TN]

Also, something that we don't know based on your post is how this whole arrangement came to be. . .are your children friends with her children? Do you two go way back? Or is this more of a business arrangement? That might totally change how you should handle this. Let's use $10/hour charge for example. If you did that you would be raising the monthly rate from $100 to $310 for a 20-day month. That's a huge jump (don't get me wrong, it is still reasonable when you look at it from an hourly standpoint) and if this person was a close friend I might just finish out the year at the current rate and then just call it quits so there are no hurt feelings all around.

I tutored a friend's child for one-two days each week for about two and a half years. This is a very good friend and I love her dd. She is my not-a-niece. This child is welcome in my house whenever. Anytime my friend needs help or my not-a-niece wants to be here my door is open. I have no problem taking her with me wherever we are going or dropping her off somewhere she needs to go. I am always excited with just getting to spend time with her. I never expect any money in return, so I am always thrilled with whatever is given. Heck, I get excited when my friend comes in and unloads and loads my dishwasher. :D

 

If, however, I had a business arrangement and I was being treated like cr*p, I would look for other employment. So, if this is just a business arrangement, I would notify her in writing that she needs to find someone else to watch her kids. I would do this immediately.

 

If it is somewhere in between almost family and a business arrangement, it is trickier. I am inclined to suggest doing it for the rest of the year, but do as was suggested with paypal. At the end of the year, tell her that it was too hard on your family and she needs to make other arrangements for next year. However, this is tricky especially since your dh has commented on the arrangement. So, it is an issue that is infringing on your marriage. This is something that I would take pretty seriously and however I handled the issue it would need to be an action that caused the topic to cease being something that ate up my time with my dh.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[happyhomemaker]

So this woman is grossly underpaying you for childcare and paying you late and being rude!!?? No. Just no.

 

I don't see any reason why this woman should get to keep taking advantage of you until the end of the school year. Tell her the new terms for keeping the kids (prepayment and a higher rate as PP have said). I would give several weeks notice so she can find other arrangements if she doesn't want to agree to the new terms. Personally, I would be pretty surprised if that happens though. Oh, and don't be surprised if you hear a few sob stories in the beginning about why she can't prepay on time and how it will just be a few days late and it will just be this once, etc. It's going to happen. Prepare yourself to just say no.

 

((Hugs)) to you. Childcare can be rough. My aunt kept kids in her home for years, and people were always trying to take advantage of her. You have to stay strong about what you will and will not do- with the kids and with payment agreements.

[Tracy]

It would not bother me to be underpaid if I felt that we were both benefitting from the arrangement. It is the late payments and not being paid in full that would make it not worth my while. Unfortunately, once you have set a precedent, it is very hard to change the rules without creating a lot of tension in the relationship.

 

You could renegotiate the price and demand to be paid at the beginning of the period. You could have her sign a contract (and you absolutely should have a written contract just to make sure you both understand the terms). But it is hard to imagine this getting better. Unless you are really, really desperate for extra money, I would just not do it anymore.