When I was still working late ngihts, I set out to find an overnight daycare. The several I talked to said 30.00 pernight weeknights, and 40.00 per night for weekends. I quit working nights. There was no way I could afford that 5 nights a week. A regular day care with a license charges minimum 100.00 a week for day times and those are very hard to find. The norm is roughly 160.00. It has actually been more cost effective to work side jobs over the last two months, when ever I could than to get a decent job. Not to mention that my kids benefit greatly from this , as I am home more. Even unlicensed sitter are charging 100.00.
I went away this weekend. Saturday morning to Sunday night. I paid my sitter 50.00 for the whole time. For 31 hours, she sat around watched tv, played on the computer, ate, fed my kid, colored pictures, listened to music, washed up their dishes, and talked to her friends no my phone. At the rate of about 1.61 per hour. She asked me if I can afford that and offers to take less since she wasn't really doing anything. Mind you, my daughter is 7 and as long as she isnt trying to cook for herself or is running outside in a skirt in the snow, she is very low maintenance. So , I told her no, she was doing me a favor and I was glad to give her the money. Now, if my 2 year had been there as well, I would have offered to pay her a little more, since he requires a bit more attention. He goes to the potty and can feed himself and brush his teeth and wash himself off. But he needs to be watched more closely, since he is only two. I don't get how someone who stays home all day with her own kids would want to charge a person who can't do that, an huge amount of $$ . I have babysat since I was 12, I got 2 dollars an hour. WOOPPIEEEE!! That's a ton of $$ to a 12 year old. When I watch kids now , I don't charge at all. HELL, I get to stay home and play with my kids . WOOPPIEEE , that's better than $2.00 an hour!!
My best friend is paying 160.00 a week for her two kids and they are both in school. Ludicrous!!! Seeing as how, a day care provider can have up to 8, and that is with two infants.She is making bank!!! Yes, I know the provider is taking care of my kids so I can go to work. But how does this make sense. I pay the provider upwards of 200.00 per week to stay home with her kids and play with MY kids, while I go off and work for some jerk who wants me to treat my job as though I have no kids, by putting my job before them even if they are sick, or our of school. I then have to come home and in some cases beat the pervert who molested my child, or see my daughters chopped off hair because the provider wasn't watching because she snuck in an extra infant and had no one else there to help her, only to sit down an realize I can barely afford to pay my bills monthly. HMMM!! That does not seem like balance. When I first moved to this town after leaving Calvert Co. I put my then, 3.5 year old in two different daycares. One threw her out becasue she bit the child that bit her, who happened to be the providers son. The other woman calls me in the middle of the afternoon, and says I need to get my daughter,afterwards admits herself to the c-unit for a nervous breakdown or some crap because she couldn't take it!! How about the religious fanatic who would forcibly restrain a child who would not sit on his/her own, and had nearly ten animals in her basement causing the house to stink, meanwhile all the children were crammed in to one small area of the main floor( this was just the interview ). I think I have spent plenty of $$ in hopes of getting QUALITY care for my kids, someone I can trust will not hurt my kids or send them home with even worse manners or habits than they do now!! I think that the ones willing to do it for less have worked out better than any of the ones I paid a load of $$ to. Even the one daycare I liked best taught my 5 year old how to dance "like Brintey Spears"!! OMG!!! BS is a nasty freak and now my little baby girl is humping the floor!! I am better off at home.( No, I am not on welfare. Yet, I do need to work a bit more before I end up on it, but I hate that kind of life. I want to have my own, on my own. I have a wonderful mother, boyfriend and friend who help me out, so I have not needed to go that route.)
NannyPam, I think you charged a decent amount, yes you are helping someone out, but really how hard is it to watch one kid who is sleeping half the time you have her. Unless you have a curriculum and are teaching this child phonics and stuff like that. Otherwise aren't you just feeding her and watching her play? I don't have a clue how you operate and I don't want to make any assumptions, but as you can see, I have not had much luck with daycares. Still, I happen to think that 100 bucks is darn good money! I would would to do for that much.
$100, 49 hours, $2.04 per hour.
