I tell you -- sometimes you just don't know what people are thinking...
A couple weeks ago a friend and neighbor of ours (not a close friend or neighbor -- they live a couple blocks away, we have met them casually a few times, and our kids play together once every other month or so) asked my wife if she wanted to earn some money this summer. The mom works and since her daughters would be out of school, she needed a place for them to stay from 8 am through 5 pm for three days a week. She offered my wife $100 FOR THE ENTIRE SUMMER to watch the girls.
Let's do a little math here:
- 8 am through 5 pm is nine hours a day.
- At three days a week this would be 27 hours a week.
- With roughly 12 weeks in the summer, this gets us up to 324 total hours.
- Given the above, my wife would be earning 31 cents per hour.
Was the lady CRAZY?
I asked my wife if she was sure she heard correctly. Maybe the friend offered $100 a week. While this would still work out to a very low $3.70 per hour to watch two girls, it's much better than 31 cents per hour. But no, my wife was sure that the offer was $100 for the whole summer.
Needless to say, she declined. We don't need the money and the hassle factor alone (interfering with our summer plans) made it not worth it.
But really, what was our friend thinking?
My wife had a offer from someone at our church to completely cover her daycare business for only $20/week for 3 weeks. What was bad about this was this person who owned the home daycare was pulling in $800/week. The answer was obviously no.
Posted by: Ryan S. | May 13, 2008 at 11:26 AM
Somehow, people have come to believe that childcare:
1) Is so easy that no one should object to being asked to do it, and
2) Should be nearly free, since the person doing the babysitting is obviously so lowskilled that they're available to watch other people's spawn children.
I've had two friends ask me to babysit because I'm home all day anyway. We homeschool, so I'm rather busy. Not exactly sitting around all day eating potato chips and watching Oprah, even on an easy day. To top it off, one of them offered me $40 a week, the other offered me a big fat nothing! How insulting...
Posted by: Cindy | May 13, 2008 at 11:37 AM
Wow thats shocking, I'm surprised this person could even make such an offer. Thats such a small number that its disturbing. I'm in total disbelief that someone would honestly make such an offer.
Posted by: Matt | May 13, 2008 at 11:38 AM
One other cost to factor in here is the food! My wife and I watch our cousin's kids in the evening and she watches our son during the day. But the cost of food for kids ages 8, 6, and 2 (and sometimes 12 and 10 when the step-kids come over) are vastly different that the cost of food for a 1 year old!
Posted by: Jared | May 13, 2008 at 11:43 AM
I work in sales and marketing but babysat a lot in high school and college. I am still babysitting some of those kids now on the side for extra cash...I live in south FL and the lowest I have ever been paid is 10 bucks an hour and most of the families pay me 15!!
I would have been shocked!!!
Posted by: JEM | May 13, 2008 at 11:47 AM
I work in sales and marketing but babysat a lot in high school and college. I am still babysitting some of those kids now on the side for extra cash...I live in south FL and the lowest I have ever been paid is 10 bucks an hour and most of the families pay me 15!!
I would have been shocked!!!
Posted by: JEM | May 13, 2008 at 11:47 AM
My response would have been....BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Some stuff people say is so stupidly funny that I'd even forget how insulting it is.
Unfortunately, there are enough suckers out there who are babysitting for a pittance that parents keep hoping to run into one of them.
The daycare providers I've known ALL said that their houses got totally trashed. Daycare is just a human zoo.
Posted by: devil | May 13, 2008 at 12:03 PM
I think it goes without saying that you wife's "job offer" (can we even call it that without laughing?) was ridiculous. On the other hand, I think the offer may also indicate how tough it might be for some to afford good child care. I am a single mom and paying a decent amount for informal child care (aside from preschool) is often quite challenging. Whenever someone cares for my son, however, I take along prepared food (lunch, snacks) and return when I said that I would. I also offer care in-kind and/or discuss a reasonable payment with he caregiver. 2 kids + an entire summer=$100? Sheesh!
Posted by: Bobbi | May 13, 2008 at 12:12 PM
The only way that would be workable if it was family. My parents watch our little guy once a week for free even after we tried to pay them a little bit. The skeptic in me thinks she was trying to get some cheap labor for the summer.
Posted by: Kevin | May 13, 2008 at 12:13 PM
Unbelievable. You should at least come back with an appropriate counter offer to show how ridiculous she is.
Posted by: David | May 13, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Your neighborhood sucks, so do the neighbors.
Posted by: aa | May 13, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Dude... lol, that is funny. No, it's crazy!
Maybe this lady was thining that since you guys know each other... that it's some kind of favor-type thing (to possibly be repayed in the future). Of course, I would never make that sort of transaction... but you get the point.
Posted by: J in FL | May 13, 2008 at 12:43 PM
I received a crazy offer like that, not for a job, but for a vehicle. I was selling a beat up old car for $500 and one of my neighbors came down and was interested, and he decided to buy it. I also had another vehicle stored in the garage that I didn't use much (4 year old jeep wrangler with only 45k miles on it) and asked if he was interested. With a completely straight face, he said he would give me $500 cash for that vehicle. Blue book value at the time had it close to 12k.
I literally started laughing and just said, "sorry, that is out of the question." Maybe he thought I was clueless and might think that was a good deal, I don't know. But it was quite an absurd offer.
Posted by: Jeremy | May 13, 2008 at 12:58 PM
I run into that problem a lot. Not nearly so laughable but I'm not getting my kids up at 4 am to pick your kid up and take them to daycare at 7 am - ruinning my kids schedules for $1.50/hour.
Posted by: Marie | May 13, 2008 at 01:00 PM
Wow. My mom used to babysit for free, but not on a regular basis... It was a standing arrangement of sorts she had with friends, who'd take us too if we needed it and they were able.
Anyway, she didn't take money for it...I think that probably would have been insulting (compared to doing it out of the goodness of her heart). At least with what she would have likely been paid.
Posted by: Mrs. Micah | May 13, 2008 at 01:15 PM
FMF, maybe the friend was just opening negotiations with a lowball offer.
Just for fun, counter-offer $10,000.
Posted by: Matt | May 13, 2008 at 02:26 PM
ROTFL- That is insane. I'm cheap, but I certainly wouldn't expect someone that is a very good friend or family to keep my children for $100 for the summer. That is insane!!! I need to see if my teenage babysitter if she would take that...I'd even throw in letting her use our pool. She isn't even that desperate for money!!!
Posted by: sahm | May 13, 2008 at 02:28 PM
Hard to know what the woman was thinking exactly. Maybe they just don't know what babysitting is worth since they are used to getting it for free elsewhwere. Or maybe its meant as a favor with a few bucks thrown in to defray costs or something.
She could be thinking that since your kids play together that it wouldnt' really be babysitting/daycare but instead just letting her kids hang out with your kids and your wife watching them a little, i.e. not exactly real babysitting.
*shrug*.. still hard to now what she was thinking unless you ask her.
Jim
Posted by: Jim | May 13, 2008 at 02:58 PM
UNBELIEVABLE!!! I wonder what she pays for someone to mow her lawn.
Posted by: Susan | May 13, 2008 at 04:29 PM
Maybe she's pregnant and meant to say $1,000. Pregnancy makes you say loopy things.
Posted by: MetaMommy | May 13, 2008 at 06:17 PM
When I had a nanny watching my child, that same time would have cost me nearly $5000. And I still had sympathy for her. The last couple hours can get tough, so when I could get home by 4 instead of 6, I was there, sent her home, and never reduced her pay.
$100? It would cost you more to buy the snacks her kids will eat.
Joe
Posted by: JoeTaxpayer | May 13, 2008 at 07:12 PM
The question is: what $100/summer stranger I trust to watch my child? What my child would eat, drink, play, do in mean time...
I think she's not crazy because she offer you $100, she's crazy because was giving you 2 girls believing you are a $100/summer person.
Posted by: ro | May 13, 2008 at 10:33 PM
Some of these comments are really fantastic. I agree with the points made regarding more realistic pricing. Also, there were many good points regarding Mrs. Crazy's quality expectations for her own children.
Overall, it seems that Mrs. Crazy is entirely out of touch with the supply/demand curve and realistic pricing. Perhaps you could point her toward your blog so she can expand her financial knowledge..?
Posted by: Dimitri | May 14, 2008 at 06:12 AM
Wow. I would have been insulted by this.
Posted by: Tim | May 23, 2008 at 10:42 AM