? for those who pay child care. About This Page:

[niccole]

I just started watching a little girl. and unsure of the price I should charge. What do you pay? And for some of the things should there be a penalty?
So here's the details....

• She is 18months.
• Hours - possibly - 8:15a to 7:15p
• Wed- Sat
• He sends lunch and a few snacks
• I feed her dinner (I can't feed my kids and have her watch them eat)
• He sends diapers / wipes / sunblock / swimmers
• I provide all art supplies (we paint / color / glue / use clay / pipe cleaner / side walk chalk )
• We play "school" w/ flash cards for colors and shapes. We take color walks and each kid get a color the have to find.
• We go to the beach / park / I have a pool / we take mini "hikes" / berry picking.
• He tends to forget to tell me when I will have her till the last min. (11pm the night before) even after me telling him I need to know by Mon.

Also to take her I am giving up a job that I can make $10/hour + commission. and have my kids with me.
So what do you think?

[B.M.]

I don't/haven't had kids in child care but know people who do. Average daycare costs for an 18mo old is $150 per week, but your clearly keeping her hours that a daycare will not. My dsister pays a nanny $300 weekly for a 12mo, 4yr, and 9yr old.
I'm surprised ya'll didn't agree on a price before you started keeping her.
Four days per week, 11 hour days- I'm thinking around $150-200 weekly. If he's going to pick her up after 7:15 yall should agree on an additional price (maybe an hourly rate for each extra hour?)
You may be better off taking the other job; JMO.

[HiddenMickey]

Sounds a bit like a nightmare to me.
QUOTE: He tends to forget to tell me when I will have her till the last min. (11pm the night before) even after me telling him I need to know by Mon.

I think either you should have a set schedule every week or not do the job at all. He should guarantee that you'll be doing the job Wed-Sat for set amount of hours every week (and he should pay for those days whether he brings her or not). Taking a job that may change from week to week when you have other options that are more permanent doesn't sound good to me.

As for pay, I don't know. I paid my sitter a set wage each week that was below minimum wage because she could bring her daughter with her and eat at our house. I did pay social security and medicare for her as well.

[niccole]

We had set a temp price while he was moving. His girlfriend (the mom) decided to move to the other side of the country and was gone 3 days later. He's DH friend so i agreed to see how it goes.

I was suppose to get her for all the hours but then his family said they wanted her for some of them. then they kept changing them. I think this part has been resolved (we will see for sure next week)

The better job is only for the summer. I would be going to farmers markets selling Dessert Hummus.

I just wanted to be fair. to him and myself. (right now I'm getting jipped @$3.50/hour) and feeding her dinner (she eats more then my 10y/o)
but he is now in and settled.

[my2girls]

When DD8 was that age in daycare, she was there from 7:00 - 5:00 M-F - we paid closed to $190.00 week. That breaks down to $3.80/hour. Right now, her summer care is $130.00 per week and that doesn't include the lunches we send with her.

[jenjen1127]

For my grandson, before he started going to After School Care, my daughter paid a small Day Care facility $225 a week, from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, 4 days a week.

[Huntermom]

My kids are now 27, 25 and 22. I paid much more than you are getting per hour way back when. When I had a friend babysit, I would pay $6.00 and hour just for my DD and $10.00 if she had all three. Once I got stuck in court and she had the kids until 11:00 pm (DH missed his flight so didn't pick them up as planned).The next day I gave her an extra $100. for really helping me out.

Make sure you don't get taken advantage of because you are a friend. I think you might also want to consder that caring for this child will allow you to be home with your children. While the sales job may pay better, I would not want my kids to be with me at a flea market most of the summer.

Edited to add: KUdos to your friend for stepping up to the plate. In my experience it takes dads a lot longer to "get it together" than most moms, so bear with him,
Diane

[niccole]

Originally Posted by Huntermom

I would not want my kids to be with me at a flea market most of the summer.

Edited to add: KUdos to your friend for stepping up to the plate. In my experience it takes dads a lot longer to "get it together" than most moms, so bear with him,
Diane

That's why I'm not just telling him to fly.
My kids have gone with me to many craft fairs that I have sold my Tutus at they are actually really good and have fun.

[honeybee723]

My DD is in daycare right now and she just turned 1. However, she is not at in-home daycare, but at a church/school facility and the pricing is different between the two. I pay a whopping $250 a week (no option of paying by the day) and our daycare is open from 7:30am - 6pm. I provide her diapers, wipes, sunblock, breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack. When she turns 2, the price will then drop to $196 a week.

Now my brother, who just had a baby, uses an in-home daycare provider, and is only charged $175 a week ($35 per day). She is open between 6am - 8pm, and my brother provides all of the above as well.

The difference is that in the State of MD, an in-home provider can only have two children under the age of 2 at any one time, while a facility can have up to 6 with more staff to take care of them. That is why there is a price difference.

With you paying for meals and such, I would take that into account and charge him those costs as well.

[Tricia Davids]

I run a daycare out of my home.
I provide breakfast, snack, lunch and snack
I provide all school & art supplies (I am a credentialed elementary teacher)
Parents provide diapers and baby food until they can eat table food
I'm open from 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
I charge $40/day which works out to $200/week for full time
with a charge of $12/hour after 5:30
Good luck!

[OhToodles!]

DS went to an in-home provider until he was 18 months and I think we paid about $130/week and we HAD to be there by 6pm to pick him up. I supplied diapers, wipes, formula, etc. while she provided food, snacks, & milk.
Now he's at a licensed facility and we pay $170/week and provide diapers and they rotate on wipes.

I would say you should charge somewhere in between those 2, especially since you're watching her at night and maybe include a cost for if she stays after your agreed upon time - like when she's there after 7:15pm. I would also look into seeing how much other people are charging in your area.

[boo mommy]

When we sent my 12 year old to daycare this is what we paid

200 a week until potty trained.
175 after that......
We paid for the whole week whether we sent him or not.
That was the policy.

My friend at the time ( who lived too far from me to babysit)
was watching a neighbor's child at her house...
Provided pretty much the same as you and she charged
35 dollars a day. If the parents picked her up after 9 hours it was an additional 10 dollar charge. She did get burned some times with the last minute stuff but she nipped that in the but when she said no a couple of times because " she had plans".
The parents learned to "plan" better.
Good Luck!!!

[eff051102]

We use a Mother's Day Out/Preschool program at a church and one thing they do
is charge $1 per minute after pickup time.

[MichaelF]

We paid $235 per week a couple years ago. Thankfully all of our kids don't need daycare anymore. I know our daycare provider is up to $260 per week now. Rates differ by where you live. Even one side of our town is higher than the other so I'm sure MI is different than NH.
We had to pay the weekly rate no matter if we were there or not. The daycare provided lunch, a couple snacks, all art and activity supplies. She took one week per year off for vacation and we didn't pay her that week. If we took a week off we still paid.

[niccole]

Thanks everyone. the total was $340 (for 89 hours - he did an early drop off a few times)