Like everyone else on the planet, I’ve decided that 2017 is the year that I GET ORGANIZED.
Unlike everyone else on the planet, I have a lion living in my basement (and baby it’s ready to ROAR.)
In order to make room for my oldest chicken coming home to roost, I have been spending a lot of time cleaning out the basement and pantry and all of the closets.
I have paid the teenager $50 (in segments) to occupy Miss Babystar so I could have some uninterrupted time to sort through all of the valuable and necessary items crap.
I also paid College Boy $30 to occupy Babystar while I continued cleaning out closets. He needs SOMEWHERE to put the all of the stuff that we just drove here from Florida.
I babysat my younger sister and brother so much when I was growing up, and I definitely resented them for a long time because of it. I’m over it now, but I still tend to mother them. (They would probably appreciate it if I would stop. Nope.)
The Teenager and College Boy adore their little sister, and they play with her all the time. HOWEVER, when I ask them to occupy her for however many hours while I either work on something at home (or shower), or get out alone with my husband (rare, but it does occasionally happen), I pay them our area’s going rate of $10/hour. I think it keeps them from resenting her (they play with her plenty on their own), and it definitely keeps me from taking advantage of them (because that is expensive, yo, and I don’t have a job).
We HAVE actually gone out to two (!!!) concerts recently and it cost us $190 in combined babysitting so we clearly need to find shorter concerts that are closer to home.
MAYDAY MAYDAY: I really want to know. What is the going rate for babysitting where you live? (I pay my kids at the lower end, actually, but I deserve a small discount for BIRTHING THEM.) Do you pay your older children to babysit your younger ones (if you have that type of situation)? Did you babysit siblings in your youth? Did your parents pay you (mine did NOT)?
RAISING BABYSTAR: $19,149.45
BabyCostsMoney 
That lion!!!! I love lions. It’s my thing and I don’t let myself indulge in it. I think it would be really cool to have them work together to sell the items you are weeding out. They put in the work and get all or part of the cash and in the process learn to handle online sales sites, safety, and working together. As a nanny, I have been lucky to get $10 an hour for two kids, and I’m a freaking adult with years of experience. The area I’m at now is definitely lower than Chicago and Denver where I have lived and worked before. So yes, you are paying them well and I think it is a nice thing to do when it’s scheduled events and times etc.
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I was the neighborhood babysitter growing up. With 5 younger kids in my house, I was a pro! The going rate was about $8/hour when I was in 8th grade. It slowly moved up to $12-$15 and hour. When I was out of college and nannying I made $23/hour. I also drove and did a lot with the kiddos! It sure is expensive 🙂 When I have kids I might just have to utilize the, “don’t touch the stove, lock the doors, here’s the phone, be back in an hour” method. 😉
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