Babysitting is one of those things that you’re absolutely going to need from time to time as a parent . It can also be fraught territory: how do you vet a babysitter? How much should you pay them? What’s the plan if something goes wrong?
Likewise, viewing things from the babysitter’s perspective, things can get dicey — particularly when parents refuse to pay.
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Babysitting isn’t easy.
It’s kind of wild that babysitting is typically a low-paying job performed by inexperienced teenagers, even though they’re safeguarding something that’s very near and dear to parents: their kids. Ideally, babysitters and parents can find a good match in each other. But things don’t always go ideally.
A Twitter user shared the story of his niece getting a raw deal.
Shane, who goes by @_robotshane on Twitter, shared this tweet . It sounds like his niece truly went above and beyond, because watching seven kids for nine hours is a big job.
He cleared up a few things.
After hearing that the family was using a religious ceremony as an excuse, Shane was understandably upset. It sounds like the family was just being cheap, but used the cover of church to make their cheapness seem reasonable.
Twitter was not having it.
Plenty of different religions have rules for what you are and aren’t allowed to do, and who you are and aren’t allowed to pay, on certain days. But did this family really think their babysitter would be good with just not getting paid?
This isn’t a negotiation.
Equal pay for equal work is literally enshrined as a labor right. It means that unless Shane’s niece was willfully volunteering, she needs to be paid for the work she did. This isn’t something with much wiggle room.
They raise a good point.
We don’t want to blame the victim here, but this is an important reminder anytime you’re planning on doing work: get a full understanding of what’s expected of you, and what you can expect to be paid, before you do the work.
This is a fair point.
Things are shifting, but society is still stuck in a place where women bear a disproportionate share of childcare duties . This is made abundantly clear when women are expected to do this work, for free, before they even have kids of their own.
We have an update.
Shane provided this update, in response to the many people who wanted to donate money to his niece. He just needed to check with his niece’s parents to make sure it was okay that she get the money.
Generous Twitter users made sure his niece got paid.
Yes, it would be nice if the family she was babysitting for had the decency to pay her for what she did, but at least she did get paid in the end.
It’s not a bad payday.
Shane shared this screengrab, showing that the fund had gone past the $1,300 mark. That should be a nice nest egg for his 15-year-old niece. Hopefully she does something fun with it and never babysits for that family again.
What do you think?
It can be tough for both babysitters and parents to build trust and arrive at an understanding, but most of the time, things work out. Let us know about any babysitting stories you have, and share your thoughts on this story, in the comments.
