Sitters and tips/vacations - What do you/would you do?

myla14 · January 2015

We have just started to use a non-family sitter for 4 hours a week, split over two days. Her rate was $10-$15/hour, and we agreed to $13. Because it's so little time and I want to make it worth her while, I'm fine to pay her for 4 hours a week even if I only end up needing her for 3 or so (for example, so far she has been able to leave 30 minutes early both days, and in the future may be able to come in up to an hour late at times). That being said, would you:

a. Tip on top of that? Meaning, I am fine paying her for time she isn't working, but is that enough of a "tip" or is that cheap? I always round up to the nearest whole number, but that can be a matter of just a few dollars a week. Also,

b. Would you pay her for days that she is not needed at all? This would be relatively rare, say, once a month or less.

I don't want to be cheap, but I also haven't used a regular sitter before and would love to hear what others consider typical. Thanks!

Care6582 · January 2015

I don't think you need to tip a regular, weekly sitter. I do agree with rounding up, I would think that's enough to keep her felling appreciated. We use my teenage cousins, but do pay a little extra if it's last minute or a late night. I took all 3 of them for mani/pedis during Christmas vacation to thank them as well. Got to keep good sitters happy!

zazu13 · January 2015

Maybe it's just me, but I have never heard of tipping a babysitter. Is that the norm?

I work part time (not babysitting), but if I have agreed to be available to work, then I expect to be paid for the whole time even if I do not end up staying the whole time or even being needed at all. Unless given plenty of notice that the hours will be different during a given week, I think it is fair to pay for the full four hours per week regardless of how much time ends up being needed. The rationale is that if you are the employee, you cannot at the last minute fill your time with other paid work because you are committed to Employer XYZ during that time. If given enough notice then you could book other work so you would not expect to be paid for that time.

myla14 · January 2015

Yeah, that makes sense. I think part of the problem is that I didn't make clear to her what the expectations around planned days off would be, and she seems like a really sweet person who would be like, "oh, whatever you think!" But I'd like to keep her since the baby does not do well with new people and she seems great, so just trying to be as generous as possible without doing something kinda unnecessary.

bootsiebabe · January 2015

I just had a sitter start about 3 weeks ago. She's doing 3 hours, twice a week. Even if I don't "need" her, necessarily, I still plan to have her come over and I'll just take a nap or something! I know that seems silly, but I kind of consider the time that she's around "me" time to work, get errands done, or whatever and if there's nothing that I need to do, I will just take a break.

myla14 · January 2015

That sounds great, I hope we get there! Right now if I'm home at the same time the sitter's here, the baby freaks the eff out. The sitter says lo does better when I'm not around, but it's still bad enough that I don't feel guilt free yet. Soon, I hope!

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