I absolutely love our current babysitter but I haven’t quite figured out how the wage works. Growing up when I babysat, I never knew what my wage was until the end of the night. When the end of the night approached I was given the money for caring for their sleeping child and watching movies on their couch. My mom always taught me to clean up after myself. Even if there were dishes in the sink that had been there prior to my arrival, I needed to clean them or put them in the dishwasher. The expectation was I was “working” for this family, so what they gave me is what I deserved and I needed to be thankful.

Now, having my child I’ve come to see that babysitters have learned to set a competitive wage while us as parents seek for the proper fit. Babysitters these days aren’t “applying” for a job but simply waiting for you to accept their wage. This caught me off guard immensely for a couple reasons. First, aren’t we teaching our children to work and appreciate what they are given? Second, why are our young kids setting the boundaries for the parents?

I haven’t been able to answer these two questions as every babysitter out there is currently setting the wage for our family. My husband and I haven’t figured out how they ‘nickel and dime’ us but it has worked. I have found date night to be extremely expensive even when it only consists of golfing. I’ve also found many people who really want to babysit for us as my son is extremely easy going and sleeps a lot leaving our couch to be kept warm while the television flickers a movie or TV show.

The battle within me is the one aspect that my husband continues to remind me “you get what you pay for!” But there is still part of me that disagrees a little bit when you have a young highschool girl watching TV or on the internet while your son sleeps. My mind can’t quite grasp the concept that I can easily pay over $100 for our date plus babysitter. When I look at my bills at the end of the month and having a babysitter 4 times a month, it begins to look outrageous to me.

Look Mommy, I’m still small enough to crawl in….

The trials of babysitting has been an ongoing issue since my son has been born and it seems we can’t find a babysitter as back in the ‘old’ days; pay what they are worth at the end of the night. I don’t have a problem paying what these girls ask, my problem is that I don’t simply get the choice in deciding what this as they set the wage prior; not me.

Moment of Truth: The trials of not having family around to simply drop Cooper off when needed is a big struggle for me.  The struggles of having babysitters that pay an arm and a leg is also a struggle of mine. The end result: I’m thankful I have a little munchkin that is worth paying any amount of money for no matter how his mama feels about the circumstances. :) I must flow with the change in times! Is it worth the battle of a few bucks an hour to have my child in safe hands?

I would love to hear your response…