Baby sitting, what happened to my cousin what would you do
By meandmy3
@meandmy3 (2227)
United States
July 2, 2009 12:28pm CST
my cousin is here for five weeks, she is 16 years old and wanted to earn some money, So I suggested she baby sit for some of the neighbors. Well the couple behind us asked if she could sit for them on Saturday night and that they would be home around 11 or 11:30 at the latest. She said yes, the mom calls back about an hour later and ask if she can baby sit for one other family as well six kids in all, she says yes but that both will need to pay her 10.00 an hour.
no problem they agreed.
My cousin gets home at 4 in the morning, they said 11, 11:30 they paid her for 10 hours six kids $100.00
I thought well the other family just did not get to pay her because well the mom, the one that lives behind me was so drunk she could not walk (she is 42 years old) so I call her up yesterday to ask her about it and low and behold they said they had paid her all they were going to pay her and that we were being unrealistic to expect that much. REALLY six kids for 10 hours where three of them did not go to sleep and they were all unruly and bad. In fact she had to call me over there three different times to help settle them down.
so 100.00 for six children for 10 hours, PLEASE
okay so I copied this from my last post. I wanted to see who is wrong here, please tell me if I am crazy for thinking they should have paid her at least 150.00 and it should have been 200.00 if you ask me as the going rate in our neighborhood is 10.00 an hour for three kids, she had six kids for ten hours. They took advantage of her in my opinion and should have to pay her more money
1 person likes this
12 responses
@Wizzywig (7847)
•
2 Jul 09
I dont think a 16year old should be left to care for SIX children on her own in the first place and its unreasonable to expect her to work a straight ten hours. Its also totally irresponsible and unacceptable for the parents to roll back incapable of looking after their own kids 5 hours late. Your cousin was not really under any obligation to stay beyond, say, midnight and they are lucky that Social Services/Child Welfare or whatever you have there were not called. I hope any future babysitting your cousin does is for people who are more considerate and caring.
@meandmy3 (2227)
• United States
2 Jul 09
She will under no circumstances baby sit for this person every again, either of them. I can not believe how inconsiderate they were to her and to us. We go to church on Sunday morning, she was unable to go with us, because well she needed to sleep. I am still so livid over this. I have told all the other normal baby sitters in the neighborhood that this happened, trust me there will be others that refuse to sit for them as well
@meandmy3 (2227)
• United States
3 Jul 09
Lets hope they are not that stupid, but then yet I would not be surprised, the day after they were out that late there was a baby shower, and well one of them was there and her six year old and four year old were home alone for three hours, while she was at the shower. In fact the four year old walked over to the shower with her and she told her to go home and baby sit her brother.. yes it was just across the street, but seriously they were too young to be home alone
@sysdexlicwriter (1619)
• United States
3 Jul 09
Welcome to the world of day care. I had contracts with people and asked for my money up front because of this. I would let the money thing go since they are neighbors and they have kids and this could affect your children's relationships in school, social gatherings, etc. I would, however, be busy the next time someone needed their kids watched and let God take care of the inequality in pay.
@sysdexlicwriter (1619)
• United States
3 Jul 09
Now is your time to shine and take the higher road. I pray that they will not take from others because what they sow, they shall reap. That is a sad place to be. No wonder it is so important to love others.
@chantalgiardina (2523)
• United States
2 Jul 09
That is crazy! Im so sorry she had to go through that! I would not have done it. They need to pay her properly. Especially for that mnay kids and 4am! NO WAY!
@my_name_is_coco (4333)
• Philippines
3 Jul 09
well,they abused someone who wants to earn decent extra money.don't ask your cousin to babysit for them again.ask them to pay-up.if they don't then good luck with their karma.they should be ashamed that they took advantage of a babysitter.
@meandmy3 (2227)
• United States
3 Jul 09
My cousin refuses to sit for them ever again and as far as my doing them favors that is done as well. They are all out of town this weekend and they asked that I get their mail, I told them that I would be leaving as well so that I could not do that. I just can not see doing something for them when they treated my cousin the way that they did
@Caylaxx (96)
•
3 Jul 09
Awww crap. Thats really not on like! 100 for minding six children for ten hours! what the hell. Firstly, I wouldn't of even been able to babysit 3 kids nevermind 6 lol. My nephew is only 21 months and I find it hard enough to babysit him cos he is so active and hyper I can't even begin to imagine sitting for six kids!!
What your neighbour done was completley unacceptable and she more than likely knows this but there is always gonna be people like her! She just seen your cousin was eager to earn some money and is young so she though she would take advantage. She should have got paid at least 200, and a tip aswell!
What I would do with your neighbour is avoid her and if you run into her just talk to her like you are the better person and that you don't care, let her know that she was completley unacceptable and then add ''but hey, some people are just like that, selfish'' lol that will leave her fuming
@laurahen (596)
• Canada
3 Jul 09
well i have had some experience with babysitting and 100 dollars would be great for one night. the most i have ever made in one night was 80. but i was only babysitting two kids.
i think that is extremely unfair that she had to babysit 6 kids! and the fact that she did not get home until after 4 is even more unfair. i would tell your cousin to talk to the people she's working for before they work. she should talk about how much she is suppose to earn and tell them that she needs to leave exactly at the time they confirmed.
she might want to get some new customers. you could suggest putting up some signs around the neighbourhood.
good luck!
@meandmy3 (2227)
• United States
3 Jul 09
We sent out a mass email to all the neighbors and posted that she sits on our community site. She has other calls already and around here $10.00 an hour is cheap for three kids. So that was not good for the night. That is why my husband and I do not have many date nights by the time we pay for a sitter we can not afford to do anything else
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
12 Apr 10
Well if the agreement was for $10.00 for three children and they were gone for 10 hours, that would be $100.00 for 3 kids or $200.00 for 6 kids. It seems they stiffed her. In the future I'd say for a job that big she should get at least half up front and have them write up an agreement...then if they don't pay she has proof of what they owed her.
Babysitting is famous for ppl getting ripped off...daycare is just as bad. If she does this on a regular basis she'll need to build a clientele and weed out the scammers from the good clients. Once she does that, she can actually make a nice little income doing babysitting.
[b]**AT PEACE WITHIN** 
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~[/b]
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~[/b]
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
4 May 10
According to my calculations she should have gotten at least 200.00. If they couldn't afford to pay her then they shouldn't have stayed out so late. Did they even call her to say they were going to be later? Six kids is an awful lot of responsibility. She earned the money and they should just pay up. You should show her this thread.
@Raven7317 (691)
• United States
2 Jul 09
OH WOW! A 16 YO was brave enough to take on 6 kids??!! I wouldn't even do that!!! LOL Anyway, good for her for trying to earn money...
Shame on your neighbors for backing out of the deal! You did say that your cousin specifically stated that BOTH sets of parents would need to pay $10/hour and the agreed???!!! That's not right. Also, the five hours extra, that alone is worth a huge increases in pay! Your neighbor is completely and utterly ridiculous for saying you/cousin are being unrealistic when they all stayed out until 4 in the morning! (what does one DO at 4 in the am, anyway???)
I would simply explain to your neighbors that since it was agreed upon beforehand and that they didn't honor the agreement, that your cousin would no longer be available to them... OR to the other family! Take care to explain to your cousin that some people in the world aren't always as nice as they seem and that it's not her fault. Don't let her get discouraged, there are still parents/people out here that will not take advantage of her and honor our words! If need be, for a little while, maybe you should be present at the salary/time frame conversations when she books jobs... this may prevent adults from backing out of the deal if there is another adult present.
@anotherxidentity (1434)
• United States
2 Jul 09
First off shame on you guys for allowing her to babysit 6 children at the age of 16. What happens if there was an emergency would she really be able to handle it? No. And even though you guys are right there sometimes things happen in a moments notice. Seriously - who in their right idea would tell a teenager to do that????
But yeah they should of paid her but maybe there was a misunderstanding. Have you ever thought about that? And trust me I use to get paid $50 a week for watching 2 boys about 2-3 hours each day and it didn't bother me at all because guess what - I'm not certified in CPR, I have no training on how to handle certain situations and I'm a teenager so therefore I shouldn't get paid a great rate.
If I were her I'd be happy with what I received.
And seriously if you had 6 kids would you trust them with a 16 year old???? wow...
@meandmy3 (2227)
• United States
2 Jul 09
Seriously, she works at a daycare when she is home and has 10 three year olds in her room. so yea she can handle six kids. And I was in walking distance and well the parents were just down the street as well. So yes she could handle it.
this was two different families, and yes I would trust her with six children. She is CPR certified.. and no there was no mis understanding they are taking advantage of her. You do not know these people I do, I even warned her about it and she still wanted to do it. I was sure both would pay her, I was also sure both would be out LATE.
@roseyroser (1059)
• United States
2 Jul 09
That is very wrong what they did! They agreed that BOTH families would pay that amount so they should follow through! I hope that lady who was drunk wasn't taking care of the kids. I agree that your cousin should never babysit for them again. If they ask why, tell them that they had agreed to an amount before and only paid part of it.
Six kids are a lot to take care of. Your cousin must have a lot of patience to do that - and at sixteen!!
@meandmy3 (2227)
• United States
2 Jul 09
She had to be carried inside her house, literally. and yes her children were taken home with her and her husband was gone. It is sad, but it happens all the time with her. I warned my cousin that they would more than likely not be home when they said they would. She said that was fine as long as they paid her. Each family paid $50.00 for 10 hours of baby sitting. WRONG
@hiitssandra (32)
• United States
2 Jul 09
I think that they should have paid your cousin at least $300.00 because if the going rate in your neighborhood is 10.00 an hour for 3 kids then that would be $300.00 dollars.
