Childcare question

Darcy Baldwin

Darcy Baldwin

Just a Scrapper
I have a friend who has asked me to pick her son up from school everyday at 2:50 and watch him until about 3:30ish. They are offering to pay me for my time, but I haven't a clue at a good ballpark number for this. It's only 30-35 min, and half the time we could just go spend it at the park before heading back to his house, or come home and have a snack and have legos out to play.

But 9 months is a huge committment for me for someone else's kid. I know a lot of you do daycare of various forms, so looking for your expertise.
 
Is it out of the way? Would you feel comfortable accepting money for it? I honestly, if they really wanted to pay me for it, would only ask for $20. Enough for either gas, or a little special treat for myself for each day. (Like special coffee, a milkshake, Sonic, etc)
 
I am also extremely uncomfortable taking money from people though. lol I guess I should add that. I almost always say "No, really, you don't need to pay me, please, don't."
 
MommaTrish said:
Is it out of the way? Would you feel comfortable accepting money for it? I honestly, if they really wanted to pay me for it, would only ask for $20. Enough for either gas, or a little special treat for myself for each day. (Like special coffee, a milkshake, Sonic, etc)
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For the entire 9 months or per week?

We pay $450 per child/month for before and after school care. The kids are generally in afterschool care for roughly 2 hours, which essentially equates to roughly $50 for just the afterschool portion, but it's for a longer duration. I think $20/week sounds reasonable.
 
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so you have to pick him up or is he getting dropped off by the school bus? If you are picking him up, you are using gas plus your time to pick him up. You will be doing this when you are sick, when you don't feel like it, etc. So make sure you price your time to make up for those feelings. :)
 
I wish I could tag Laura Wilson in this post. :p

Maybe when Tarapalooza is over next week, she can pop in with her advice.
 
I would say between $10-$20 also. I used to refuse taking money, but then I realized that they may end up feeling indebted to me :unsure: I watched my neighbors kids after school (I was walking down to pick up Eden anyway) for about an hour once a week and wouldn't take money. They bought me a birthday and Christmas gift instead.
 
I have a neighbor that is going to bring my oldest home from middle school each day with her own kids. Then my daughter will go home (ideally, she might want to hang out with her friend). I planned on offering her $15 for the week for her trouble. Exactly as Julie says, there are going to be days when you don't feel like it or you have to stop what you are doing to take care of it. I think $20 is fair for the driving and for the babysitting.

You can always donate the money in the end if you really want.
 
I might be doing the same thing for a friend, but it won't be every day. She has 2 girls and I would be watching them for about an hour or so after school, maybe once a week. I don't want to take money for it, but if it was EVERY DAY...I would consider payment for sure! The 10-20/week sounds reasonable. Think about what it would be worth for you to have someone making sure your kid was safe after school every day and not having to worry about it.
 
In a case like this, I think you have to factor in the inconvenience as well as the actual time. What I mean is, if I was already going to pick up my child at the school it's no big deal to add another child and I'd charge a small fee, like $15 a week. But if I was going to have to start planning my afternoons around the need to pick up someone else's child, dragging my kids out of the house and away from their homework or activities for it, I'd want more, probably at least $30. (And to be honest, I don't think I'd agree to take it on for $30 a week because it's hard enough planning around my 3 kids' comings and goings after school for 9 months. But it sounds like you're willing to do it for her and it won't be too much of an issue.)
 
Can you do a search and find out what the after school care in your area costs? I had a similiar question about doing a day here and there and just went to our Y website and the prices the Y charges for after school care were right there on the website. Here it's $45/week for up to 2.5 hours. Are they prepared to find alternatives if you're out of town or busy with your own kids activities? How much is it worth to you to stop what you're doing every afternoon and take on responsibility for this child? I would definitely set a price that makes it worth your time. $30 seems very fair to me (especially since I'm thinking child care is probably more expensive in your area).
 
Um, wow, you guys are nice. Nannies around here get paid $12-15 dollars an hour. There is no way I would do it for less than $50/week, taking into account the inconvenience factor. I mean, unless you are just doing this out of the goodness of your heart, it's gotta be worthwhile or you will start resenting them. Or maybe that's just me -- I would start resenting it. You are probably nicer than me. :)
 
Thanks, everyone.

Dawn, I am a little afraid of that because that's during my school year work time (which I then won't be able to actually work with him around), and it's a whole year! lol. Though it would pay for piano lessons for Aiden for the year, so it might be worth it , lol. I appreciate everyone's advice.
 
I think $25 a week, $100 a month seems very fair. Enough to make it work your time since it is a short amount of time, but not enough for her to think you are over doing it.
 
I pay $7.00 a day for someone to take my daughter (age 9) home from school and wait with her (for a few minutes) until my oldest gets there. Total time is less than 30 min.
Kj
 
I think $25-$40 a week would be very reasonable......I say that because it is easy to pay $25 or an even $40 (from a payer perspective) :) $10-$15 does not even make it worth your time.....if you were picking your boys up from school or something and it wouldn't be out of your way, then it wouldn't be as much of a hassle, but since that is technically during your "work" time, then it has to be worth it. Is there some reason the child can't ride the bus to your house and then they pick him up? I say that because my kids get on the bus at 325 pm and are home about 400 pm.....and I am home by 415 pm unless I run errands. I pay my oldest $100 every 2 weeks to get her siblings up and off to the school bus everyday....so she gets up around 8 am, the 2 oldest get themselves dressed, she gets Peyton dressed and by that time it is almost time for them to go to the bus....
 
Interesting thread - I hate telling someone what to pay me because I always wonder if it is too low or too high. I hope you find an answer here....
 
The more I think about it, if you're making a special trip to the school to pick up the child, I'm not sure $20/week is enough (I don't know how far away the school is). For some reason, I was thinking you'd already be picking up at least one of your own children at the same time, so it wouldn't be a special trip. I guess it depends on how good a friend it is and whether that person has previously done similar things for you. It's a fairly big time commitment and it limits what you can do with your own time, if you're bound to do this every school day. You're a better person for me for taking it on!
 
Our afterschool care is $40 per child, so we're paying $80 a week for roughly 5 hours total. $40 is the minimum, for morning care it would double. Does she have care for all of the inservice days and holidays or will she expect you to provide coverage for those as well?
 
I would also suggest talking ahead of time about if it doesn't work out for either party that you will let the other one know.

While it is a small time period, it seems like a major commitment when it doesn't coordinate with your existing schedule (i.e. you are not picking up your own kids from the same school, plus it affects the timing of your homeschooling).
 
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