The world is feeling very green right now. My husband and the 6-year-old planted a garden inside a deer fence this year with various things like sunflowers, blueberries, and corn. It is amazing the volume of plant matter that has been generated by sun, water, and soil! And all from little seeds. I know this happens all the time, everywhere, and is the reason we can exist on this planet but…it’s still something of a miracle.
I am not getting much done on this summer Friday…I did cross some things off the personal list though. I went to the library this morning and got my card renewed for three years. And I checked out 8 books, including several ridiculously-sized coffee table ones (like we’re talking The Gardens of Bunny Mellon…). I went for a bike ride along the river, which was lovely. It’s too hot and muggy to run outside mid-day, but biking generates its own breeze. I have also been crossing things off my annoying task to-do list. I have my Global Entry interview next week. I am eagerly awaiting my PA background check certifications to submit those so I can volunteer at the schools (I filled everything out, and one certificate came back instantly, but the other can take up to 2 weeks. I have done this twice before, but the clearances only last 5 years.).
My daughter finished up a babysitter certification program this week. I was impressed. They taught her child and infant CPR and first aid, but also stuff like dealing with common disciplinary issues, setting wages and working conditions, advertising safely, etc. I was talking with her and a friend about the challenges of charging dollar amounts that aren’t easily divisible by units of currency, and the friend said her mom told her everyone would pay by Venmo. Which is probably true — so you could charge like $17.37/hour if you wanted. I felt kind of old and out of it!
(What do teenage babysitters charge around you? We will probably focus only on families in our neighborhood where she can walk to/from the job, or families of her little siblings’ friends.)
This week’s content…Over at Before Breakfast I interviewed Nick Epley about how to be a little more social. We had a snafu with the sound – if you automatically download Before Breakfast the day it comes out, you might want to refresh and re-download as the tracks are now fixed, but it was bad at first!
In the short episodes I talk about why you might “Drink your coffee outside” and how to “Make holidays work for you.” In that particular episode I talk about a Mother’s Day chat thread for people with pet-babies, and a “Jesus is Risen Hot Dog Roast” for clergy people too tired after multiple services to do a full-on Easter dinner.
Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I note that “All tasks take time.” The time needs to be accounted for somewhere. This is one of the upsides of time tracking — I see what fits in a day and what doesn’t. Speaking of which…behind the paywall I’m talking about “9 lessons learned from tracking time” and why I am still at it 11 years later.
The Best of Both Worlds Patreon community has had several great threads this week (in addition to our super secret special episode — released this week and available only for members). We’re talking about singers/performers we’ve seen live or want to (48 comments on that!) and sleep patterns + disturbances. Please come check it out. Membership is $9/month and it’s pretty easy to cancel if you decide it’s not for you.
Thanks for supporting me and my work!
(Also…the scams keep going. If you get an email purporting to be from me, from something like “Laura Vanderkam blogger” or “168 hours blogger” — and they seem suspicious…please report it. I tend to write short emails, and these AI-generated ones are long. And I never ask for money to be on a show or a newsletter. It’s so frustrating but it keeps happening.)
Re: babysitter rates, we pay $18-25/hr depending on age of the sitter (ranging 14yo to 21yo), weekday regular afternoons vs occasional weekend gig, whether or not we can leave the house (i.e. 14yo watching a 2yo, no), and how many kids. Example: we paid $18/hr for our 14yo neighbor 6y ago when we didn’t leave the house. We now pay $25/hr for that 21yo on weekends (3 kids ages 3-11). This is just for occasional babysitting (not our full-time nanny). Live in Baltimore.
@VSH – she is thinking of marketing her services for being a “parent’s helper” for younger kids when the parent doesn’t leave the house. Feels like there might be a market for that.
I live in Quebec, Canada. In my area, teenage babysitters earn about $10-20 per hour Canadian dollars depending on their age and the number of kids. I think this would be $7-$14 USD. Most are paid at the lower end of that range. Minimum wage is $18 per hour Canadian, but U suppose doesn’t apply to babysitters. I have gone to the high end of that range because I think that if someone is mature enough to watch my child, she should be paid at least minimum wage even if she is still in high school and under the age to have a job say at MacDonalds. Anecdotally, it seems like rates in the US are much higher. I wonder if it is because childcare in general costs more, so people are more used to paying higher rates. (My son’s daycare is $9.50 Canadian a day for us, about the same cost as the fanciest drink at Starbucks, and of course also paid for by taxes, so it does feel a bit painful to pay $60 or $80 for a date night babysitter.)
@Natalie – it may be that we are accustomed to paying a lot in the US!
Going rate in SE MI which is pretty similar to Philly suburbs is $18-20 per hour for one child and an additional $1-5 per hr per additional child. The days of lowballing teenage (mostly) girls are over.
I should have said $18-25 per hour.
@Omdg – I remember my early babysitting days when one family paid $2/hour, only started the clock when the mom left which was, weirdly, always at least 30 minutes after she had me come, and they paid by check. Glad those days are mostly over.
Catching up on personal tasks on a Friday sounds satisfying. I hope your bike ride was lovely! I live just outside of DC and sitters typically charge $20-30/hr., but teens are usually $1 for each year of their age. So our 15yo sitter is $15/hr. I only have two older children though, and babies or more kids should be factored into pricing. And yes, I pay with Venmo if they have it.
@Amanda – yeah, we’d been hearing in the $15-20 range – and I suppose the number of kids and their ages would affect it for sure.
Laura, I absolutely loved reading Big Time! I had saved it for my vacation read and it was perfect. Thank you! I left you a review on Goodreads but is there anywhere else I can copy and paste the review to benefit you? Not sure whats best for authors! Adding it here – Admittedly, I would consider myself a Laura Vanderkam superfan. I have read (almost) every book she has written, listen to her podcast multiple times a week, read her substack newsletter, and often read her blog! Given this, I want to emphasize even more so how despite consuming a significant amount of her content, I still learn something new and gain extremely valuable insight with every new book she puts out!
I loved Big Time, especially for the way Laura frames time in this book. So much of time literature leaves you feeling even more frazzled. Theres “no time” to be able to have a successful career, a flourishing hobby (or multiple), be a good family member, and also do the mundane of life. Laura throws this idea out the window. You have time to do everything you want to do, VALUE to do, and so much more. What a relief to hear that our lifes are not limited; rather we get to choose what to spend our time on and more importantly, it may not be as hard as you think.
I would highly recommend this book to all, and especially to those in need of a mindset shift about their schedules. You have more time than you think!
@Theresa – thank you so much for the kind review! I love that even after reading all my stuff you still found something new in there. I am not sure where you got a copy of my book, but whatever retailer that was would be good (so amazon, barnes & Noble, etc.). If you bought it at an independent book store, somewhere like Goodreads would be good. Or feel free to tell friends/social media people/etc. Thank you!
Of course! Meant every word I said. I purchased through bookshop.org so Ill checkout what they have as well as post to Goodreads. And of course, word of mouth always! Thank you
I remember making $2/hour for 1 child and $3/hour for 2.
My daughter is making $25/hour to care for 1 tween girl!!! She does not realize how good she’s got it!!!
@Elisabeth – I know there’s been inflation and all but…I would have been very very happy with $25/hour for taking care of one kid!