Key to keeping a great babysitter: don’t haggle over money

It’s tough enough to find good childcare and even tougher to find one who’ll consistently want to stay in and look after your daughter on the same evenings you want to go out. Maybe you’re in a bind and required to attend a work function and need emergency childcare. Whatever the case, heed these very basic employment principles on compensation. Not only will your babysitter be happy to provide you the service, they’ll likely come back and help you out again and again.

Find out what the average and decent hourly wage is for a babysitter in your community and round up! Yes you want to pay competitively. I don’t mean rounding 50 cents to the nearest dollar, I mean rounding up a few dollars more. Nobody wants to be under paid and being paid at par doesn’t necessarily drive incentive and enthusiasm, either. If you cheap out on your babysitter, she might be topping up in other ways like raiding your refrigerator, being distracted on the phone or run up pay-per-view movie(s). When you pay someone well, it tells them you value them and their service. They will reciprocate and likely be more attentive, creative and understanding when it comes to your child.

Just like the real world, good steady pay, overtime pay, incentive pay and bonus pay goes a long, long way for employee loyalty.

Try not to be late coming home, either. Your agreement was a particular amount at a particular time. Chances are that she’s made some plans after your return. So if you really must be late, pay her the rounded up hour and then some. Call it overtime pay. It’s law in the working world. Conversely, if you are early, don’t cut her hours. Paid what was agreed and make sure you have cash. Your sitter doesn’t take credit cards, checks, or IOUs. She takes cold hard cash — upon delivery!

Assuming that you’ve given your babysitter some tools for her to do her job, she knows what acceptable and unacceptable activities with your child are. That means, not going outside of the house — not even to the corner store.  It also means no more swimming or hot tubs if you have them. At the age of 7, your daughter probably knows how to manage a shower. But if not, decide ahead of time about bath routines. And you should also feel comfortable enough to discuss how to deal with bad behavior. You are not there; the babysitter is. Having a child undermine the babysitter usually doesn’t end well. So make sure the sitter has the same general philosophy and approach as you and that you are comfortable with her enforcing the same boundaries on your child.

Finally, your babysitter is there to look after your child. That should be their 100% focus. Don’t give them other chores to do like put the laundry in the dryer, dishes or clean the cat litter. Your child is going to treat the sitter a little like children might treat a substitute teacher in class: they will try to get away with stuff. So your sitter does not need distractions; she needs to be at the top of her game! Besides, if the sitter is busy doing chores, who’s minding your child?

If your sitter does wind up acting like Nanny McPhee where upon your return, you’ve discovered that your child’s asleep, the toys are put away and there’s an unshelled bowl of pistachios awaiting your return, then line her pocket with a bit more cash. Just like the real world, good steady pay, overtime pay, incentive pay and bonus pay goes a long, long way for employee loyalty.