Is it ever appropriate to leave a set of chores for your babysitter to do while she watches your child?
Kathleen pays her babysitter what she considers a lot of money, so when she went out to dinner she left a list of chores to do after the baby went to sleep. Is Kathleen justified in asking her to clean the kitty litter, vacuum or do the dishes while she’s being paid to be there?
Jonathan: Today for panic button we have Kathleen. Hey, Kathleen.
Kathleen: Hi.
Jonathan: So you have a bit of a problem with your freeloading babysitter.
Ayla: What happened Kathleen?
Kathleen: I have a two and a half year old. And my husband and I wanted to go out on a date night one night. So we looked up a babysitter, and we’ve hired babysitters in the past that have been much cheaper. They just end up not working out. They’re not focused on the baby.
Ayla: They’re usually younger, too. How much did you pay for the babysitter.
Kathleen: For this one? Yeah. I paid $25 per hour.
Jonathan: Okay. I feel like that’s the going rate right now.
Ayla: That seems about right, actually.
Jonathan: Because I’ve been in the same situation where we found a babysitter that was like 15 bucks And then we came home and she had a party at 17.
Ayla: Yeah, I came home and the house was a mess.
Jonathan: She didn’t clean up at all after the kid, after Finn and literally put them to bed and didn’t read them a story or anything. Because then we went up to check on him, and he was still awake cause he was waiting for a story.
Kathleen: So you get what you pay for.
Jonathan: You get what you pay for. Yeah, yeah.
Kathleen: See, we renegotiated with our babysitter. Our babysitter tried to do 25 an hour, and we’re like, that’s a lot. Can we do 20? So we pay 20 an hour, but it’s still a lot of money.
Ayla: Yeah, but when we paid $25 she was great. Better service. Anyway, so what happened, Kathleen.
Kathleen: So that was my experience as well. I was really okay with it, but I kind of thought, since I’m paying this much money an hour, maybe I can give her a list of things that need to get done around the house in addition to taking care of my baby. So I left her a list of chores, to put the dishes away from the dishwasher and vacuum. I did put on there to clean the kitty litter.
Ayla: Okay, change the cat’s litter box. Why?
Jonathan: Why not?
Ayla: Because it’s not her cat. Okay, I get the dishes thing. Because if you’re feeding the child, you should do the dishes afterwards. Maybe vacuum if you get crumbs all over the floor. But a kitty litter thing?
Jonathan: Why not? Wait, let me ask you something. How late were you guys out?
Kathleen: We were out probably till like 10:30 or 11.
Jonathan: And what time did your baby go to bed?
Kathleen: Oh, like 8.
Jonathan: So that means the babysitter was there for three hours getting paid to do nothing?
Ayla: Yeah. That’s what babysitters do.
Kathleen: I mean, that’s what I think too. And I have friends who are babysitters or nannies. They do that as well.
Jonathan: So I figure clean the kitty litter.
Ayla: Well. Are you a nanny?
Jonathan: Really? Because they’re getting paid to live.
Ayla: And I think maybe have an ala carte list, like, hey, if you clean the kitty litter, I’ll pay you extra.
Jonathan: On top of $25 an hour.
Ayla: Yeah, maybe because it’s not her cat. The dishes, I think, should be included. All the other things that relate to the kid whatsoever should always be included in whatever you’re paying.
Jonathan: Okay, I disagree 100% because this is the problem with babysitters.
Ayla: Do they charge an arm and a leg?
Jonathan: And for your kids, the majority of the time they’re not doing anything because you don’t go out to eat until late.
Ayla: And they’re already in bed.
