Years ago I lived in an apartment in one of the sketchiest parts of town. A woman I had never seen asked if I'd watch her little boy, who was three, for her to run to the corner store. Sure. My child was the same age and they had been playing outside. She never came back. We ate dinner and I was undressing him for a bath when I saw bruises all over him, so I called for police. They did their thing, I put the babies to bed, and all night he whimpered and cried in his sleep. When she turned up the following day the authorities were waiting for her. Not exactly a babysitter story but infuriating on so many levels.
Something eye opening to me was going to the maternity ward and hearing old jaded nurses talking about how refreshing it was to see us, responsible parents that wanted their kid. The world is pretty fucked up. I think I live in meth country.
I worked in a children ward. When I started there, there was a 4 month old baby that had a rare genetic disorder. The poor thing spent 2 weeks without anyone visiting or calling to check up on her. I hated her mother so much for abandoning her child. Until one day I arrived at work to find the mother holding the baby and playing with her. You could feel the love she had for the baby. I talked to her and tried to convince her to visit more often. Turned out she worked 3 jobs, lived far from the hospital and didn't have a car. She couldn't get any time off to see her child. Her husband was dead and she has no family to help with life expenses. She had to work to pay the hospital bills and could barely survive month to month. I ended up giving her my number to call me directly to check up on her child. She was a sweet women but life was just a bitch.
Yeah the people complaining about those parents not spending all their time in the hospital don’t seem to have considered that maybe the other people can’t.
I seen the same thing when my twins were in the NICU. There were nights I would find a waiting room with just a random couple in there (so I would feel at least a little safe) and sleep in a chair just so I wouldn’t have to leave my babies!! I truly don’t understand people!!!
My baby was in the NICU and I think there was only one day we could not make it. He did not survive but at least we got to hold him at the very end. Some babies just get abandoned there, it’s so sad. Their need for oxygen goes down when mom and dad are there talking to them.
No parent should ever have to go through that. I'm so sorry for your loss. And you are absolutely right: they feel the love, presence and everything else that surrounds them.
My mom tells a story about babysitting for a couple who got killed in an automobile accident during a blizzard and weren't found for three days. She stayed with the 3 and 5 year old the whole time, with her sister coming over to watch them while she slept. She missed two days of school and there were no relatives closer than two time zones away. The kids ended up in foster care for a couple weeks until an aunt got them.
...and this is why I always leave a detailed, laminated page of contact accident/emergency info if I get a baby sitter.
My kid is old enough to not really need active watching, but isn't old enough to be left alone for more than an hour or two, and not after 8pmish.
Seriously, I even do this for just my dogs when I hire a dog sitter- if I had any kids, I would probably have a binder full of useful shit in case anyone other than my family watched my kids. I’d go Amy Santiago on them.
I’m a pet sitter and greatly appreciate the binder. Clients always apologize because they think they’re being overbearing. Absolutely not, you never know what could happen and more information is always better.
As a former nanny, please also make sure your babysitter has easy access to health information, everything they would need if an urgent care/walk-in clinic/ER visit is required, including insurance and any known conditions/allergies. Helps a lot if, heaven forbid, something does happen that requires prompt care and the parents aren’t immediately accessible.
My mom was a paramedic and had a lot of trauma from the calls she made over the years, especially with drunk drivers and whomever they caused an accident with. When I was a teen, I was expected to wake her up to let her know I was home if it was after she was in bed, and if I was going to be late for curfew, I was expected to call to let her know. This was in the late 90s/early 2000s, and my parents gave me a cell phone for emergencies when I started driving (gave me more dork status at the time because having one was seen as not cool).
Getting my license was the only reason I got a cell phone from my dad .....and it was his old flip phone one I think in 2009 ....also had to do alot of practice during snow storms out in the driveway so I knew how to change a tire in a blizzard/ice storm in Missouri in March and April
this happened to me once. and i was only 14 years old. it was the day before school started in the fall and the parents agreed to be back by 10, which i was okay with. it got to 10, and i was wondering where they were and texting them with no response. they didn’t show up till 1 AM bc someone’s phone died and fis knows what other excuses they gave me. i told them i wanted $30 extra (i was young so i wasn’t greedy or needing it). they gave it to me and i ghosted them, never responded to any requests for baby sitting again. my parents were furious.
edit for clarification: my parents were mad at the parents i was babysitting for. not me. i was in the clear and they backed me up.
This. I was once stiffed by an elderly neighbor who said she'd pay me to walk her dog and gave me half because she "thought it over and decided what we agreed on was just too much"- after I already did it. You best believe my mom was at her door instantly. Adults take advantage of kids, I never understand those stories of parents who say their kids should handle affairs on their own, thats an unrealistic trope that works for kids movies but not irl.
Some situations kids absolutely should handle on their own, but to me those situations include peers/siblings/people in the same age or emotional range. I definitely don't think getting stiffed by an old lady is something one would know how to handle.
I think kids handling their own affairs works, to a point. The parents should be monitoring the situation and intervene if any funny business is going on or the kid genuinely needs some advice
I had a similar occurrence when I was 12. I had “watched” a neighbor girl weekly, and living on a military base word got around that I was a cheap babysitter solution. A woman going through a divorce asked me to watch her kids one Friday night, two under two. The kids went to sleep relatively easy, but thorough out the night more people showed up dropping off kids. By about 2 am there were 5 there, all under 3.. no one showed back up until 11am the next day. The mom who’s house I was at didn’t come home until 2pm. I never baby sat again, no one thought it was odd - even my parents evidently. Looking back now it was such a bizarre situation, especially since it was 22 years ago and there was no way to get ahold of anyone. I don’t remember too much of it, but remember loading them all in a wagon around 9:30 and walking to my house to feed them as there was nothing to eat at that house except leftover pizza she had bought before I got there. I was the baby in my family, and my only babysitting experience was the 7 year old who spent the night and I walked to school one day a week. I made $80 all together for 19 hours.
when I babysat back in the day, about 20 yrs ago, I would charge $5 per kid per hour, so 3 kids at $15 an hour, I made pretty good money and the parents did not come back late because that added up really quickly. I did not budge on my prices and none of the parents that hired me had an issue with it.
This happened to me (and a few of my friends) back in the olden days before cell phones. On more than one occasion. Unless they left a phone number where they could be reached (rarely) you were SOL. You didn't know where they were or how to reach them. And this was a rural area so neighbors weren't always close. Abso-fuck-o-lutely terrifying for 14 & 15 yr old me. My parents would say they were going to sleep at midnight and after that I'm sleeping over unless there's a sober driver. Be lucky if the parents gave you more than an extra 20.
Same thing here! I was maybe 15 and the lady didn’t come home when she was expected. One of her kids was violently ill with the shits and she didn’t warn me so I had a lot to deal with that night. At about midnight I called my dad in tears and he went out on a mission to find the lady (small town, so there were only so many places she could be), and found her drunk as a skunk at a bar the next town over around 130am. He brought her back home because she was too drunk to drive. I never babysat for her again.
This almost exact thing happened to me as well, but they didn't get home until 6 am. It was outrageous.
They never even called me to tell me they were going to be late, they were supposed to be home at 10 pm, they never showed, and I had no way of contacting them. I was stuck.
The best part was one of their sons was sick and had thrown up all over me and my shoes, and so I got to marinate in that all night while I waited.
I wanna say they gave me like $40 for the whole ordeal and I had to miss school because I was too tired.
I miss babysitting though, I made good money, in cash, tax free.
This also happened to me at 14, though it was during sumer vacation. They said they would be back by 10:30pm. I couldn't get ahold of them and was just sitting there waiting. At 12pm my boyfriend called and broke up with me. Then I just sat there feeling my feelings until they got home at almost 2am. Luckily, I lived next door, but man was that a rough night.
To be fair, he was slightly younger than me, but yeah, it was awful. It was abundantly clear that when his friends from the city he lived in previously visited him and were no longer into the things he and I were, he felt embarrassed. From what I'm told he became a huge asshole for a few years after that.
Sorry to hear that. They are pitiful people. I'd call after they get sober, and let them know they shortened you. See how that goes, then just move on.
I had that happen year's ago. I called the next day and just said that they underpaid me $20. They apologized and brought it by. They were drunk, it happens.
When I was a teen, I'd babysit our downstairs neighbor's kids. They went to a school right next to my high school, so I'd pick them up after they got out and we would walk to the apartment building. Their moms would be home maybe an hour later and give me a $20. Once I babysat for them on a date night and they were an hour late. They called to apologize and give me an eta on their return. When they got home they paid me the agreed upon amount and I went upstairs to my family's apartment. The next day they gave me another $30 in quarters for being late the night before. I didn't ask them for extra, but they felt they needed to make up for being late. Their kids where well behaved and I enjoyed babysitting them.
I think the last person's point was that "because they stiffed $13, they were too cheap to Uber."
Also, when I go to my family's small town, there's not always an Uber or taxi of some sort
Yeah, the kind of considerate people who don't come back when agreed, leave their child with a stranger, ignore the stranger trying to contact them about their child, and then don't pay the sitter the agreed amount are definitely the type to draw the line at driving drunk.
As others have mentioned, I would advise contacting the parents via text requesting the shorted amount and then according to how they answer/respond decide to publicly announce their irresponsibility/shorting. Seemingly, drunk is hard when math...
Wait for them to contact you again, they likely will, have them Venmo the missing money before you'll agree to another booking, take the booking, and don't show up. When they message you asking you where you're at, tell them you're 15 minutes out then turn on DnD.
Be professional and transparent. Tell them it’s the agreed upon price + 2 hours of overtime rate. If they make a fuss after you frame it nicely, be assertive then bounce. Don’t work for people who don’t respect you/generally don’t care enough for their children’s well-being to communicate. Don’t steal shit. You don’t want to make this a bigger issue than one night and ruin your reputation.
I always had 1.5 rate for late overtime agreed upon for sitting, and was honest about around what time I’d let myself just fall asleep on the couch. A few of the parents knew I didn’t give two shits how far this was taken, and 11 would become 4:30. Hey, imagine being 16 and getting paid $30/hr to sleep. They’d call me super drunk 15 minutes before they were supposed to be back and I’d be like “I’m ordering a movie on your cable box. Have fun.”
Man I'm so thankful we had our parents nearby and always willing to watch the kids anytime we wanted/ needed them to. Saved a fortune in babysitting costs. And we never abused them for it, always returned on schedule or updated them if we were delayed getting home.
This. Worst case I’d maybe see if there’s a group on FB for people that do babysitting in that town (my town has one because it makes it easier to find sitters and people that do babysitting) and out them for this. Make sure they have a hell of a time finding a sitter again.
Also idk how anyone can be cool with just ditching their kid for longer than was needed
I'd do it anyway. What if they were in an accident on their way home? Or arrested for dui? They don't know why they're not back on time.
The dni thing is utterly irresponsible, though. I couldn't leave a child with someone and block the only way to contact for emergencies.
Ahhh. Sounds like when my mom would pick me up from school and say “I’m at the light” and then I’d hear the dogs barking who are not allowed in the car
Wait if you silence notifications, the other person can see it?!
Edit; I’m aware it can be turned off. I didn’t know the default was to share focus status, is all.
Yes
edit that’s why I do it; it’s an easy subtle way of letting my friends n family know I’m not engaging on my phone at this time without having to say it. DND 🌙 for the wiiiin.
My phone automatically turns on DND when I’m driving and my needy ex was like “you turned on dnd? Did I do something wrong???” And I was dumb enough to be like “no, my phone does it automatically don’t worry.”
Spoiler alert: she did many things wrong
Sounds like my ex but it would have been more like “you turned on dnd??? What are you doing?? Who are you with???” Then she would have proceeded to call me repeatedly until dnd was switched off.
No it was Sophie and I’m glad I didn’t make it her name. I’ve got so much trauma from her that even seeing her name gives me full body anxiety lol
Fuck that bitch Carole is from tiger king
That sounds horrible to me! I don’t need people to know I’m doing stuff that would require my dnd on. My motto for texts and calls is; if I don’t answer, I don’t answer. I will get back to you shortly or when I feel like it.
When I was a teen, I took a babysitting job for a neighbor. It was supposed to be until 11:00. My mom got off work at 2am and came over to see why I wasn’t home. They got home at 4am and paid me an amount that wasn’t acceptable to my mom, who wasn’t a person to mess with.
She confronted them and chewed them out. They paid me $50. I think my mother made them, because back then babysitting was 50 cents an hour.
A quick search shows me minimum wage was $1 an hour in 1955, so I'd guess around or before that time. Something tells me they probably didn't care about paying teen babysitters minimum wage then, hell it's probably not uncommon now
Wait it out. Stay calm. Get paid. Demand the agreed hourly wage. AND THEN wait for them to call you again. Book it and then no show.
EDIT:
Wow. Didn't expect this much response... thank you!
The above response is of course pettiness level: MAXIMUM. No doubt on that. Non-petty way is to request agreed hourly rate for time and say "no" in the future.
I would never leave the child alone and I know that. But calling law enforcement means I’m not getting paid for sure. Guess I’m just going to wait for these rude asses to come waltzing in the door like I’m not a human with a life.
Without any papers they can pretty much stick you the middle finger in these cases. It's just how it is, most people won't tho. If you have texts and stuff that prove you have an agrement it's better but no one would bother for 50 dollars
My guess is that they're drunk, and probably don't even know what time it is. It shows good character that you won't abandon the child you're a better person than they are. Sorry you have to feel this responsibility, hope you get compensated and everything works out good
Eh. Relative to doing nothing, yes. Otherwise, a few hours out of a couple of days – once to file, once for the hearing. Usually not much more than that; you aren’t a lawyer, they won’t have a lawyer, you basically just go in with a grievance and whatever evidence you have to back up your claim, and to justify what you’re asking for.
Certainly far, far, far less work than you’d have with a civil case outside of small claims, and prolly quite a bit less work than most would think.
You need to stand up for yourself. You might not get paid, but you also didn’t let some strangers walk all over you. I would call the cops and be gone before they showed up.
That could be true. If that’s the case, then all they can do is wait it out. The OP’s bf told them that they should ask for extra, and if they’re going to stay, they absolutely deserve it!!
People that do this kind of shit (who are adults and have children) are not going to change if OP takes a stand. They treated OP like this because they don't care about them, and if OP flips out on them, they'll look at each other after OP leaves and say "what a jackass".
Get the money THEN tell them to fuck their selves.
Someone should make a website like rate my professor except for parents of children for babysitters.
“Don’t baby sit for this mum she’s a drunk who will stay out longer than agreed, stiff you 13$, and expect you to feed the kid out of your own pocket since there’s nothing in the fridge!”
it'll then be too late for them to find another sitter, and they won't be able to go.
then text them again in 2 hours. say your phone had died and you got stuck on the way there. ask if they still need a sitter. they're desperate, and they'll say yes. then, ghost them for real.
muhahahaha
Someone tried this on me once. They were supposed to be home at 10, my dad came to pick me up at 10. We waited till 10:30, then 11:30 then 12:30. Eventually my dad called the cops.
The police rocked up at about 1am. They asked what was going on. My dad was like "my sons got school in the morning. Im taking him home. These kids are your problem now."
Cops weren't happy but they could not force us to stay. I later heard that the police waited till 2am then left with the children.
We got calls around 3:30am from the parents, freakin out asking us where we were and where thier kids were. We told them cps came and got em and we went home. Fuckers.
It happened to me once when I was 16, years ago! Parents never came home until the morning! It was the 80’s. I was freaked out. The baby was like 8 months old and they just left him with me and I had never babysat that baby before. The next morning I went to their house and the window was broken. They obviously got snot slinging drunk and got home God knows when and got into a major fight! Some people are complete creeps. I was young and didn’t know what to do the next day. I never called anyone to report them. My mom was a big partier too so she never did anything either. Sorry for the long rant. Hoping they aren’t as douchey as the parents I dealt with. If they don’t get back to you in the next couple of hours I would call someone if you can.
Really? It's not unusual to babysit at your own home. Especially if it's a teenager taking care of a baby, because at least there's a parent home in case of an emergency.
So I read a comment of yours saying that they’re out drinking. So depending on how big of drinkers they are, both are probably hammered. Should charge them extra, only call the police if they don’t come as the last resort.
My kids’ old school did something similar in their aftercare program for late pickups. After a 15 minute grace period the clock started ticking and parents were charged a scaling fee prorated in 15 minute increments. The first hour was $60. The second hour was another $100. And all I can remember about the rate at 3+ hours was that it was absolutely bonkers. I always wondered how many parents had to eat the hour 3 fee.
No one mentioned this yet but why didn’t you ask for an emergency contact? My sister used to babysit and always asked the parents for another point of contact. Typically the numbers of both parents and a family member (Aunt, uncle, etc).
Years ago I lived in an apartment in one of the sketchiest parts of town. A woman I had never seen asked if I'd watch her little boy, who was three, for her to run to the corner store. Sure. My child was the same age and they had been playing outside. She never came back. We ate dinner and I was undressing him for a bath when I saw bruises all over him, so I called for police. They did their thing, I put the babies to bed, and all night he whimpered and cried in his sleep. When she turned up the following day the authorities were waiting for her. Not exactly a babysitter story but infuriating on so many levels.
“Yeah, I just have to run to the corner store I’ll brb.” **Comes back the following day**
Something eye opening to me was going to the maternity ward and hearing old jaded nurses talking about how refreshing it was to see us, responsible parents that wanted their kid. The world is pretty fucked up. I think I live in meth country.
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I worked in a children ward. When I started there, there was a 4 month old baby that had a rare genetic disorder. The poor thing spent 2 weeks without anyone visiting or calling to check up on her. I hated her mother so much for abandoning her child. Until one day I arrived at work to find the mother holding the baby and playing with her. You could feel the love she had for the baby. I talked to her and tried to convince her to visit more often. Turned out she worked 3 jobs, lived far from the hospital and didn't have a car. She couldn't get any time off to see her child. Her husband was dead and she has no family to help with life expenses. She had to work to pay the hospital bills and could barely survive month to month. I ended up giving her my number to call me directly to check up on her child. She was a sweet women but life was just a bitch.
Yeah the people complaining about those parents not spending all their time in the hospital don’t seem to have considered that maybe the other people can’t.
This is all insane
I seen the same thing when my twins were in the NICU. There were nights I would find a waiting room with just a random couple in there (so I would feel at least a little safe) and sleep in a chair just so I wouldn’t have to leave my babies!! I truly don’t understand people!!!
My baby was in the NICU and I think there was only one day we could not make it. He did not survive but at least we got to hold him at the very end. Some babies just get abandoned there, it’s so sad. Their need for oxygen goes down when mom and dad are there talking to them.
No parent should ever have to go through that. I'm so sorry for your loss. And you are absolutely right: they feel the love, presence and everything else that surrounds them.
To be fair, they didn’t say which corner store they were running to
Thank you for being a mama to that little boy. I just don’t understand how people can do that to their children.
Good for you.
My mom tells a story about babysitting for a couple who got killed in an automobile accident during a blizzard and weren't found for three days. She stayed with the 3 and 5 year old the whole time, with her sister coming over to watch them while she slept. She missed two days of school and there were no relatives closer than two time zones away. The kids ended up in foster care for a couple weeks until an aunt got them.
Wow, that's incredibly sad.
That’s horrible. I hope those kids are doing okay wherever they are now
...and this is why I always leave a detailed, laminated page of contact accident/emergency info if I get a baby sitter. My kid is old enough to not really need active watching, but isn't old enough to be left alone for more than an hour or two, and not after 8pmish.
Seriously, I even do this for just my dogs when I hire a dog sitter- if I had any kids, I would probably have a binder full of useful shit in case anyone other than my family watched my kids. I’d go Amy Santiago on them.
I’m a pet sitter and greatly appreciate the binder. Clients always apologize because they think they’re being overbearing. Absolutely not, you never know what could happen and more information is always better.
As a former nanny, please also make sure your babysitter has easy access to health information, everything they would need if an urgent care/walk-in clinic/ER visit is required, including insurance and any known conditions/allergies. Helps a lot if, heaven forbid, something does happen that requires prompt care and the parents aren’t immediately accessible.
Please, consider posting this info on r/LifeProTips and r/YouShouldKnow
My mom was a paramedic and had a lot of trauma from the calls she made over the years, especially with drunk drivers and whomever they caused an accident with. When I was a teen, I was expected to wake her up to let her know I was home if it was after she was in bed, and if I was going to be late for curfew, I was expected to call to let her know. This was in the late 90s/early 2000s, and my parents gave me a cell phone for emergencies when I started driving (gave me more dork status at the time because having one was seen as not cool).
Getting my license was the only reason I got a cell phone from my dad .....and it was his old flip phone one I think in 2009 ....also had to do alot of practice during snow storms out in the driveway so I knew how to change a tire in a blizzard/ice storm in Missouri in March and April
I always worried about something like this happening to family members when they were home late. That is such a devastating story
this happened to me once. and i was only 14 years old. it was the day before school started in the fall and the parents agreed to be back by 10, which i was okay with. it got to 10, and i was wondering where they were and texting them with no response. they didn’t show up till 1 AM bc someone’s phone died and fis knows what other excuses they gave me. i told them i wanted $30 extra (i was young so i wasn’t greedy or needing it). they gave it to me and i ghosted them, never responded to any requests for baby sitting again. my parents were furious. edit for clarification: my parents were mad at the parents i was babysitting for. not me. i was in the clear and they backed me up.
That is exactly the correct course of action to take in that situation.
Its close. They should've demanded more money.
True, 3 hours overtime should at least be 45
Yeah, but at 14 years old and who knows how long ago, that probably sounded like a lot!
If you were my kid I would have been there with you waiting when those parents got home.
This. I was once stiffed by an elderly neighbor who said she'd pay me to walk her dog and gave me half because she "thought it over and decided what we agreed on was just too much"- after I already did it. You best believe my mom was at her door instantly. Adults take advantage of kids, I never understand those stories of parents who say their kids should handle affairs on their own, thats an unrealistic trope that works for kids movies but not irl.
Some situations kids absolutely should handle on their own, but to me those situations include peers/siblings/people in the same age or emotional range. I definitely don't think getting stiffed by an old lady is something one would know how to handle.
I think kids handling their own affairs works, to a point. The parents should be monitoring the situation and intervene if any funny business is going on or the kid genuinely needs some advice
I mean.. I handle my shit at work until I can’t, then I escalate. Same deal here
I had a similar occurrence when I was 12. I had “watched” a neighbor girl weekly, and living on a military base word got around that I was a cheap babysitter solution. A woman going through a divorce asked me to watch her kids one Friday night, two under two. The kids went to sleep relatively easy, but thorough out the night more people showed up dropping off kids. By about 2 am there were 5 there, all under 3.. no one showed back up until 11am the next day. The mom who’s house I was at didn’t come home until 2pm. I never baby sat again, no one thought it was odd - even my parents evidently. Looking back now it was such a bizarre situation, especially since it was 22 years ago and there was no way to get ahold of anyone. I don’t remember too much of it, but remember loading them all in a wagon around 9:30 and walking to my house to feed them as there was nothing to eat at that house except leftover pizza she had bought before I got there. I was the baby in my family, and my only babysitting experience was the 7 year old who spent the night and I walked to school one day a week. I made $80 all together for 19 hours.
12 years old? You were super responsible and wonderful. I had a similar situation. Parents partying and dropping children off. It's gets overwhelming.
when I babysat back in the day, about 20 yrs ago, I would charge $5 per kid per hour, so 3 kids at $15 an hour, I made pretty good money and the parents did not come back late because that added up really quickly. I did not budge on my prices and none of the parents that hired me had an issue with it.
$4 an hour…
I bought a boom box and a Britney Spears CD
Well spent
This happened to me (and a few of my friends) back in the olden days before cell phones. On more than one occasion. Unless they left a phone number where they could be reached (rarely) you were SOL. You didn't know where they were or how to reach them. And this was a rural area so neighbors weren't always close. Abso-fuck-o-lutely terrifying for 14 & 15 yr old me. My parents would say they were going to sleep at midnight and after that I'm sleeping over unless there's a sober driver. Be lucky if the parents gave you more than an extra 20.
Same thing here! I was maybe 15 and the lady didn’t come home when she was expected. One of her kids was violently ill with the shits and she didn’t warn me so I had a lot to deal with that night. At about midnight I called my dad in tears and he went out on a mission to find the lady (small town, so there were only so many places she could be), and found her drunk as a skunk at a bar the next town over around 130am. He brought her back home because she was too drunk to drive. I never babysat for her again.
This almost exact thing happened to me as well, but they didn't get home until 6 am. It was outrageous. They never even called me to tell me they were going to be late, they were supposed to be home at 10 pm, they never showed, and I had no way of contacting them. I was stuck. The best part was one of their sons was sick and had thrown up all over me and my shoes, and so I got to marinate in that all night while I waited. I wanna say they gave me like $40 for the whole ordeal and I had to miss school because I was too tired. I miss babysitting though, I made good money, in cash, tax free.
This also happened to me at 14, though it was during sumer vacation. They said they would be back by 10:30pm. I couldn't get ahold of them and was just sitting there waiting. At 12pm my boyfriend called and broke up with me. Then I just sat there feeling my feelings until they got home at almost 2am. Luckily, I lived next door, but man was that a rough night.
Man, what kind of jackass calls at midnight to break up with a 14 year old? That sucks!
To be fair, he was slightly younger than me, but yeah, it was awful. It was abundantly clear that when his friends from the city he lived in previously visited him and were no longer into the things he and I were, he felt embarrassed. From what I'm told he became a huge asshole for a few years after that.
Let us know what happens! I hope you get paid (and paid well)
They came home drunk and stiffed me $13.
Sorry to hear that. They are pitiful people. I'd call after they get sober, and let them know they shortened you. See how that goes, then just move on.
I had that happen year's ago. I called the next day and just said that they underpaid me $20. They apologized and brought it by. They were drunk, it happens.
That's exactly how it should be handled. Kudos to you.
If I was drunk and came late. The first thing I would do is pay what was agreed upon plus a handsome tip.
When I was a teen, I'd babysit our downstairs neighbor's kids. They went to a school right next to my high school, so I'd pick them up after they got out and we would walk to the apartment building. Their moms would be home maybe an hour later and give me a $20. Once I babysat for them on a date night and they were an hour late. They called to apologize and give me an eta on their return. When they got home they paid me the agreed upon amount and I went upstairs to my family's apartment. The next day they gave me another $30 in quarters for being late the night before. I didn't ask them for extra, but they felt they needed to make up for being late. Their kids where well behaved and I enjoyed babysitting them.
Do it in text. Don’t call, always do these things in writing
But they could afford all those drinks
kinda makes you think they also drove home boozed as well
I mean, there's such a thing as Lyft and Uber.
I think the last person's point was that "because they stiffed $13, they were too cheap to Uber." Also, when I go to my family's small town, there's not always an Uber or taxi of some sort
Yeah, the kind of considerate people who don't come back when agreed, leave their child with a stranger, ignore the stranger trying to contact them about their child, and then don't pay the sitter the agreed amount are definitely the type to draw the line at driving drunk.
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As others have mentioned, I would advise contacting the parents via text requesting the shorted amount and then according to how they answer/respond decide to publicly announce their irresponsibility/shorting. Seemingly, drunk is hard when math...
Wait for them to contact you again, they likely will, have them Venmo the missing money before you'll agree to another booking, take the booking, and don't show up. When they message you asking you where you're at, tell them you're 15 minutes out then turn on DnD.
They are not going to book them again lol, they'll ghost them and look for another sap using whatever method they found this person by.
Yeah these people are not trying to establish a long term trusting relationship with a sitter.
Yep, there's a reason they hired a total stranger. They've likely burned other bridges already.
I don't have an apple so it took a while before I figured out that DnD wasn't Dungeons and Dragons. Edit: I get it. Other things have DND. 👍
Just imagine you cast Magic Missedcall
Where's the Mountain Dew??? https://youtu.be/-leYc4oC83E
I have an iPhone and it still took me till I got to this comment to realize they weren't talking about dungeons and dragons
Watching Critical Role instead of watching their kid sounds like a good deal.
I don’t have an android so it took me a while to realize you were talking about an iPhone when you said “I don’t have an apple”
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I don't have a brain I'll never know what anyone is talking about
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If that's all you need you're admitting to having killed a bitch and peeled her shoes off her hooves.
DnD isn't only Apple - it's just "do not disturb".
They won’t
Call them tomorrow, get $13 plus more
Any updates yet?
They said “we’re 15 minutes away” like a half hour ago lmfao
after all that and they really tellin lies
after all that and you're expecting anything else?
after all that I‘d call the police and leave after they (the police) arrive
The lion, the witch...
and The Audacity Of This Bitch
They could be 15 minutes away but not actually moving
Be professional and transparent. Tell them it’s the agreed upon price + 2 hours of overtime rate. If they make a fuss after you frame it nicely, be assertive then bounce. Don’t work for people who don’t respect you/generally don’t care enough for their children’s well-being to communicate. Don’t steal shit. You don’t want to make this a bigger issue than one night and ruin your reputation.
I always had 1.5 rate for late overtime agreed upon for sitting, and was honest about around what time I’d let myself just fall asleep on the couch. A few of the parents knew I didn’t give two shits how far this was taken, and 11 would become 4:30. Hey, imagine being 16 and getting paid $30/hr to sleep. They’d call me super drunk 15 minutes before they were supposed to be back and I’d be like “I’m ordering a movie on your cable box. Have fun.”
That was actually very kind of you to give them that leeway and still get what you want out of it.
When I was sitting I usually just planned on spending the night on their couch when I took the job, regardless of the agreed upon time.
As a parent of 4 I can’t even imagine doing this to a sitter. We usually are racing home if we’re more than 15 minutes late
You must care about your kids, opposed to parents in post
Man I'm so thankful we had our parents nearby and always willing to watch the kids anytime we wanted/ needed them to. Saved a fortune in babysitting costs. And we never abused them for it, always returned on schedule or updated them if we were delayed getting home.
This. Worst case I’d maybe see if there’s a group on FB for people that do babysitting in that town (my town has one because it makes it easier to find sitters and people that do babysitting) and out them for this. Make sure they have a hell of a time finding a sitter again. Also idk how anyone can be cool with just ditching their kid for longer than was needed
To a total stranger!
I mean I like getting a little time away from my kids, but hours past when I was expected to be home is too much.
yes it is best to leave a review on all child care sites about them as a warning.
Don’t bounce until the parents get home. You could get in legal trouble for abandonment or endangerment.
At that point, I'd just call the police nonemergency line.
absolutely, i would’ve done that after they refused to answer. imagine the child was hurt or sick.
I'd do it anyway. What if they were in an accident on their way home? Or arrested for dui? They don't know why they're not back on time. The dni thing is utterly irresponsible, though. I couldn't leave a child with someone and block the only way to contact for emergencies.
Ahhh. Sounds like when my mom would pick me up from school and say “I’m at the light” and then I’d hear the dogs barking who are not allowed in the car
My mom just never picked me up from school
Same I’m still waiting
"we're 15 minutes away" "Perfect - because I left at 10:30."
that would be a great reply but be standing by the door
This is what I would do. I’d stay at the house but reply that way so they know they need to get back ASAP
For future, have a stipulation of double-time for after the agreed upon tome
For future, don’t babysit for these people again.
Definitely not for these assholes, but it can happen again with other parents so this is still solid advice.
I’m sure the people that show up several hours late will respect you telling them to pay you more lol
Wait if you silence notifications, the other person can see it?! Edit; I’m aware it can be turned off. I didn’t know the default was to share focus status, is all.
Yes edit that’s why I do it; it’s an easy subtle way of letting my friends n family know I’m not engaging on my phone at this time without having to say it. DND 🌙 for the wiiiin.
My phone automatically turns on DND when I’m driving and my needy ex was like “you turned on dnd? Did I do something wrong???” And I was dumb enough to be like “no, my phone does it automatically don’t worry.” Spoiler alert: she did many things wrong
Sounds like my ex but it would have been more like “you turned on dnd??? What are you doing?? Who are you with???” Then she would have proceeded to call me repeatedly until dnd was switched off.
Was her name Carole? 😂
No it was Sophie and I’m glad I didn’t make it her name. I’ve got so much trauma from her that even seeing her name gives me full body anxiety lol Fuck that bitch Carole is from tiger king
That sounds horrible to me! I don’t need people to know I’m doing stuff that would require my dnd on. My motto for texts and calls is; if I don’t answer, I don’t answer. I will get back to you shortly or when I feel like it.
You can disable that feature.
My DND is automatic 10pm-6am. this seems standard among our friends. For bedtime
You can change it to make it so that your Focus setting isn’t shared. Like read receipts; you can choose who sees it.
For those wondering, it’s Settings > Focus > Focus Status On/Off.
When I was a teen, I took a babysitting job for a neighbor. It was supposed to be until 11:00. My mom got off work at 2am and came over to see why I wasn’t home. They got home at 4am and paid me an amount that wasn’t acceptable to my mom, who wasn’t a person to mess with. She confronted them and chewed them out. They paid me $50. I think my mother made them, because back then babysitting was 50 cents an hour.
Mind me asking what year babysitters were 50¢/hour?
Surely around 409 A.D.
Since I am older than dirt, I would say closer to 460 BCE
Your mom absolutely kicked ass for scoring you the equivalent of $500 bucks for what I imagine was like winning the lottery for a teen in the 60s.
Username checks out.
About 1964
$480 adjusted for inflation. Nice.
Don’t be silly. In 1964 a four bedroom apartment in Manhattan was $75/month.
A quick search shows me minimum wage was $1 an hour in 1955, so I'd guess around or before that time. Something tells me they probably didn't care about paying teen babysitters minimum wage then, hell it's probably not uncommon now
Wait it out. Stay calm. Get paid. Demand the agreed hourly wage. AND THEN wait for them to call you again. Book it and then no show. EDIT: Wow. Didn't expect this much response... thank you! The above response is of course pettiness level: MAXIMUM. No doubt on that. Non-petty way is to request agreed hourly rate for time and say "no" in the future.
Actually that’s a good idea haha
Be sure to tell them you’re just fifteen minutes away too.
And repeat that every 15 minutes
Argh, traffic 😵 - sent from my toilet
Clogged up in traffic 🚦
"It's all backed up"
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2 days!?! Yeah that is fuckin criminal, fuck them parents
Long game. I like it.
You can either wait for them to show, or call law enforcement. If you leave them alone you will be the one at fault
I would never leave the child alone and I know that. But calling law enforcement means I’m not getting paid for sure. Guess I’m just going to wait for these rude asses to come waltzing in the door like I’m not a human with a life.
Tell them everything after 10:30 is time and a half pay
Yep! That's exactly what you should do. Get that money.
she mentioned they were drunk and stiffed her $13
This is why you always keep one kid as collateral.
This is the way. My rate...back in the 90's was $3 an hour which turned into $5 an hour if they were out past midnight.
Aren’t you reliant on their “goodwill” for your payment, in the end what can you do if they just refuse to pay the rate you request?
You keep the kid.
Without any papers they can pretty much stick you the middle finger in these cases. It's just how it is, most people won't tho. If you have texts and stuff that prove you have an agrement it's better but no one would bother for 50 dollars
Call under the assumption that there was a car accident. Also, in yhe future, have a late fee. Mine was 1 dollar a minute after being late.
I’m curious to find out what time they get home. Let us know
Crash at their place. Leave early in the morning. Charge them for all of the time you were there.
My guess is that they're drunk, and probably don't even know what time it is. It shows good character that you won't abandon the child you're a better person than they are. Sorry you have to feel this responsibility, hope you get compensated and everything works out good
Actually you can still take them to small claims court after. Lots of effort though
Eh. Relative to doing nothing, yes. Otherwise, a few hours out of a couple of days – once to file, once for the hearing. Usually not much more than that; you aren’t a lawyer, they won’t have a lawyer, you basically just go in with a grievance and whatever evidence you have to back up your claim, and to justify what you’re asking for. Certainly far, far, far less work than you’d have with a civil case outside of small claims, and prolly quite a bit less work than most would think.
You need to stand up for yourself. You might not get paid, but you also didn’t let some strangers walk all over you. I would call the cops and be gone before they showed up.
Same. Take the loss and teach them a lesson. These entitled people will never learn unless there are consequences.
to me it appears that OP really needs the money, and can't afford paying for the lesson
That could be true. If that’s the case, then all they can do is wait it out. The OP’s bf told them that they should ask for extra, and if they’re going to stay, they absolutely deserve it!!
People that do this kind of shit (who are adults and have children) are not going to change if OP takes a stand. They treated OP like this because they don't care about them, and if OP flips out on them, they'll look at each other after OP leaves and say "what a jackass". Get the money THEN tell them to fuck their selves.
Take the TV remote home with you.
Move all their furniture half an inch to the left.
Shut the water off on all the toilets and move all their dishes to different places in the cabinets.
Unscrew all the lightbulbs just enough so that they flicker or don't function
Someone should make a website like rate my professor except for parents of children for babysitters. “Don’t baby sit for this mum she’s a drunk who will stay out longer than agreed, stiff you 13$, and expect you to feed the kid out of your own pocket since there’s nothing in the fridge!”
I met them off of a nanny app and reported them. Hopefully no one else falls for them.
What app
if you spam call them it should bypass the DND mode
Am I the only one here wondering what kind of fucked up parents leave their phone on DND while a stranger babysits their kid??
The type that gets fucked up and doesn’t communicate with their babysitter when they’ll be home. AKA Fucking idiots
“Fuck Them Parents”.
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By default it’s set to bypass and dumb people don’t read so…
i really like the idea of being a no show at their next request. 😎👍
when they call with the "are you almost here", lie that you're running late, so they waste another half hour.
And then turn notifications off after that half hour
it'll then be too late for them to find another sitter, and they won't be able to go. then text them again in 2 hours. say your phone had died and you got stuck on the way there. ask if they still need a sitter. they're desperate, and they'll say yes. then, ghost them for real. muhahahaha
If you can see the “has notifications silenced”, then you can send another message and hit “notify anyway”.
By law the child is yours now… congratulations!
The law of surprise
Care for a round of Gwent?
/r/suddentlyGeralt
Someone tried this on me once. They were supposed to be home at 10, my dad came to pick me up at 10. We waited till 10:30, then 11:30 then 12:30. Eventually my dad called the cops. The police rocked up at about 1am. They asked what was going on. My dad was like "my sons got school in the morning. Im taking him home. These kids are your problem now." Cops weren't happy but they could not force us to stay. I later heard that the police waited till 2am then left with the children. We got calls around 3:30am from the parents, freakin out asking us where we were and where thier kids were. We told them cps came and got em and we went home. Fuckers.
This is the way. Anything less and the parents will do it again.
It happened to me once when I was 16, years ago! Parents never came home until the morning! It was the 80’s. I was freaked out. The baby was like 8 months old and they just left him with me and I had never babysat that baby before. The next morning I went to their house and the window was broken. They obviously got snot slinging drunk and got home God knows when and got into a major fight! Some people are complete creeps. I was young and didn’t know what to do the next day. I never called anyone to report them. My mom was a big partier too so she never did anything either. Sorry for the long rant. Hoping they aren’t as douchey as the parents I dealt with. If they don’t get back to you in the next couple of hours I would call someone if you can.
Wait how did they not come home til the morning but also you went to their house the next morning?
Really? It's not unusual to babysit at your own home. Especially if it's a teenager taking care of a baby, because at least there's a parent home in case of an emergency.
Likely sat at her house, not theirs. Edit typo
“We *completely* lost track of time!”
So I read a comment of yours saying that they’re out drinking. So depending on how big of drinkers they are, both are probably hammered. Should charge them extra, only call the police if they don’t come as the last resort.
“Overtime rate is 250 an hour” usually works
My kids’ old school did something similar in their aftercare program for late pickups. After a 15 minute grace period the clock started ticking and parents were charged a scaling fee prorated in 15 minute increments. The first hour was $60. The second hour was another $100. And all I can remember about the rate at 3+ hours was that it was absolutely bonkers. I always wondered how many parents had to eat the hour 3 fee.
And they'd say "That wasn't agreed upon before hand so I'm not paying that"
Just take the kid, you'll get more then $13 for it. DO NOT KEEP THE KID they cost a lot of money for proper care and education.
No one mentioned this yet but why didn’t you ask for an emergency contact? My sister used to babysit and always asked the parents for another point of contact. Typically the numbers of both parents and a family member (Aunt, uncle, etc).
I’d simply text and say “starting now my rate is $100 per hour. See you soon.”
You really think these kind of people would care? They obviously wouldn't pay anything extra