Oh To Be Twelve Again...

And to make $20 per hour! Wouldn't that be nice? I can just see it now...I'd be wearing designer jeans, the biggest hoop earrings that Claire's has and all of the pink glitter lip gloss I could find. It'd be great. Today's teenage babysitter has got it made - they tell you how much they want to get paid and pout when you disagree, making you feel guilty and cheap.

I wanted to go school clothes shopping yesterday for Emma and Ian but didn't want to bring the whole Brady Bunch with me so I asked the neighbor girl to come over for an hour or two so that I could hit the sales at Old Navy and Target (they're in the same shopping center). She said yes and then immediately asked how much she was going to get paid. I told her it depended on how long I'd be gone and that I really wasn't sure. She said okay and we agreed on a time for her to be at my house.

The next morning there was a light rap on my front door and I went to answer it. She was right on time! Yay - good for her! She also had her mother with her, which was a little unusual but we're friends and I thought she wanted to come over for a chat. After about five minutes of small talk she came right to the point. "I'm here because my daughter is a little bit nervous to talk to you and I'm here to get the conversation started." Okay. I wondered what was so important. She told me that she wanted to know how much I paid hourly so that she could know what to expect when she came over. That's understandable, I thought, but I let her know that no other babysitter ever told me how much to pay them so I usually just paid what I thought was fair. While I admit that I'm not the highest paying mom out there I don't think I'm the lowest either. (I once babysat for a family with five children and got paid a dollar per hour TOTAL.) She suggested that I pay $5 per hour per child...what?!?!? That's A LOT in my book. I'd end up paying $15/hour for my three kids - that's more than I'd pay if they were in a professional daycare! When she saw the shock on my face she quickly suggested maybe $3/hour per kid and I still thought it was high. We settled on about $2/hour per child and I know that maybe that's a lot cheaper than some of you others pay out there but we're in the middle of cow-country Idaho for goodness' sake! She's still getting paid more than minimum wage and I think that's okay for a kid who has no experience. I talked to Carolyn about it and I'm pretty sure that she disagrees with me, which is fine. I'm glad for her input because sometimes I'm completely out in left field and she helps me to see the bigger picture - thanks, Carolyn. It's just hard to loosen my purse strings, I guess.