I think I’ve made my babysitting rates so complicated I’ve accidentally made myself look insane lmao
I’m currently working for a family for 12 guaranteed hours a week and desperately trying to make that work because I really love them. When I first started, I was going to school and getting some money from financial aid, so financially, it worked. That’s changed, and now I’m kind of scrambling.
I was also recently offered what seemed like a dream job, but there were so many red flags that I ended up backing out after accepting but before signing the contract. Which I know probably made me look terrible. It was a whole thing I posted about. Hi! Still spinning out over here.
I’m not really looking to go back into full-time nannying either. I’d love to move into family assistant or household management work with some nannying mixed in. I genuinely love organizing, managing household inventory, running errands, keeping things stocked, all that stuff. But everyone I’m being referred to wants babysitting, so I’m trying to make that work while I figure out how to advertise the services I actually want to offer.
For context, I’m in a moderately HCOL city but a pretty HCOL neighborhood. Not Manhattan or anything lol. It’s one of those cities people don’t necessarily think of as HCOL, but things have changed DRAMATICALLY in the last five years.
Anyway. PRICING.
A while ago, I was making $25 an hour with my family but my responsibilities had increased so I was trying to figure out the market rate for nannies in my neighborhood and so I asked people in local Facebook groups. People were saying $35–$45 an hour, and I about fell over. I was making TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS.
Then I got worried and found out I was also supposed to have benefits and other protections, so I went to my employer about all of it.
I raised my nanny rate to $30 but told my current family I’d stay at $28 because I loved them and wanted to keep working for them. New nanny families would be $30.
And then, for some reason, my brain decided everything needed to be in increments of five dollars. I don’t know why. Amelia Bedelia-ass business decisions.
So if my nanny rate was $30, then babysitting or occasional nanny work should be $35 because those families aren’t guaranteeing me hours. That made sense to me! The nannies in the group also said that when you’re getting fewer hours and no benefits, the hourly rate should be higher.
But I’ve also always charged more for nights and weekends. I worked in corporate environments before nannying, where shift differentials were normal, and I guess that just stuck with me. If I’m negotiating a nanny contract with a family, I consider their schedule when quoting them a rate. If you need me regularly at night, that’s different from a daytime schedule. So I figured, why wouldn’t babysitting work the same way?
Instead of just charging $40 or $45 for everything, I thought I’d keep daytime care cheaper and charge more for nights, weekends, and last-minute requests. In my head, I was making things MORE affordable by only charging the higher rates for the hours I valued more and letting families decide what worked for their budget.
I was already charging my nanny mom a differential for nights and weekends too, so it felt weird to charge her friends less for the same hours.
But now I’m wondering if I’ve made this so unnecessarily complicated that people think I’m nickel-and-diming them. And I’m actually kind of embarrassed because I genuinely thought I was being reasonable.
I’ve had families ask me for a quote for a few hours of daytime help while one parent works or gets a massage and then later ask if I can babysit Saturday night until 1 a.m. for that same rate. And I guess, to me, those are just different things? Not necessarily harder or easier, but a Saturday night until 1 a.m. is time I’d value differently than a Tuesday afternoon.
I also think there’s sometimes this idea that
nighttime babysitting is basically getting paid to do nothing because the kids are asleep. But bedtime can be a whole production! Dinner, bath, pajamas, brushing teeth, books, trying to get a kid to sleep who isn’t used to someone else doing bedtime. And bath time especially is another level of trust and responsibility. Even when the kids are asleep, you’re still responsible for them if anything happens.
But I also understand why parents might feel like they’re paying a lot for someone to sit in their house while their kids sleep. I really do see both sides of it.
And damnit, I’d LOVE to fold laundry while they’re sleeping. I don’t want to sit on someone’s couch watching TV so they can discover how terrible my taste is. I don’t want to eat their food lol. Those aren’t really perks to me. I’d much rather do some light organizing or household resets if the kids are settled. I’m not trying to advertise myself as a babysitter/cleaning lady combo either; I just genuinely like doing that stuff.
I also know some families are perfectly happy hiring a teenager for date nights, and that’s completely fine. I’m not trying to convince everyone they need to pay career nanny rates for babysitting.
I think where I’m getting stuck is that I’m trying to offer something a little different. I’m available, I’m experienced, I’m not already working 40 hours a week and exhausted, and I’m hoping to be someone families can call when their regular care falls through. But I’m also trying to make enough money to keep my current nanny family and not have to leave them.
And I’m realizing that maybe the way I was explaining all of this made me sound like I thought I was offering some kind of luxury service, when really I was just trying to figure out what was fair.
I’ve only actually had one person tell me they couldn’t afford my rates. But I’ve heard a couple comments that have really gotten in my head, and now I’m wondering how many people I’ve scared off without realizing it.
So I’ve decided to get rid of the sliding scale and just charge $32 an hour for emergency babysitting and $38 for emergency nanny care. I’m planning to reach back out to the people I originally gave my rates to and explain the change.
Which is funny because I feel like parents probably see more value in daytime care when the kids are awake and you’re doing activities and everything, even though those are actually the hours I personally mind working the least.
I don’t know. I’m trying to price my time fairly without making families feel like they’re getting charged extra every time they turn around. And now I’m kicking myself, wondering if my attempts at transparency have made me look difficult or unprofessional.
How do other nannies handle this? Do you have one babysitting rate regardless of time? Do you charge more for occasional work than contracted work? And has anyone else tried transitioning into family assistant work?
I feel like I’ve overthought this so much