After school babysitter

[waverly]

How much do you pay your after school babysitter? The kids are rebelling on aftercare.

After care is $170 a week. I would like a babysitter to be about the same or less- not sure if that is the range.

5 days a week from 3:30-5, possibly 3:30-5:30.

[sdlaura]

We pay our babysitters $20 an hour. But, that’s for 3 kids 7 and under, plus our only babysitters have been preschool teachers with college degrees. I would pay younger babysitters less, and would also pay less for fewer/older kids.

Our aftercare is cheap enough (220 a month per kid not including a small sibling discount) that I think it will make sense even for 3 kids. We use it about 14 hours per week/56 hours per month. 3 kids at aftercare would be about $650, and that would only work out to $12 an hour for a babysitter. Plus aftercare doesn’t get sick or need time off

[librarychica]

We pay college students $15 an hour for after school or date night. I will say, I had a terrible time finding someone this year for after school , the first year we tried this. Few people want to commit for such few hours a day but most/all days of the week. I ended up letting my sitter go and now have a mishmash going on — our former nanny brings her son one day, H takes off early, my dad helps out, etc.

[waverly]

Yeah I kind of thought this person would be hard to find. I have a couple people I can ask but yeah I think coordinating will definitely make my life harder.

They don’t have major issues, they just want to ride the bus home and be home earlier than 5. It gets so it’s always dark when I pick them up. Kids don’t listen at aftercare and everyone gets in trouble even if my kids are behaving themselves. Let’s be honest DD is behaving DS isn’t 😂.

[shakinros]

My kid is not a fan of aftercare either. DH was working less so far this year and picking her up 2x/week but he’s back up to f/t hours now. I’m dreading the search for an after school sitter but also dreading repeated calls from the aftercare teachers if I make DD go every day!

[waverly]

shakinros , what does the aftercare call about? It got so every time I picked him up the one 19 year old girl would be like so, DS.... could you please talk to him? And I am like FFS. But we got past that stage both with him maturing and with them having personnel changes. DS says there are 2 mean teachers, but now there is only 1. I think he is probably accurate there, he doesn't think anyone is mean at the park district run summer camp.

ETA- I could ask our babysitter.  She nannies for a family until 3:15 and could potentially get here, but she only committed to the nanny job until December anyway, so it would only buy us 2-3 months if she decides to change jobs.

[waverly]

I looked into another aftercare, but I don't think the school will pick up at one location (our house) and then drop off at the aftercare.

Our current aftercare is onsite, so no issues with busing.

Is there a way to make aftercare more enjoyable for the kids? I could try sending an e-mail or meeting with them?

[Deleted]

Sept 26, 2019 10:16:04 GMT -5 waverly said:

I looked into another aftercare, but I don't think the school will pick up at one location (our house) and then drop off at the aftercare.

Our current aftercare is onsite, so no issues with busing.

Is there a way to make aftercare more enjoyable for the kids? I could try sending an e-mail or meeting with them?

My kids haven’t really enjoyed after care since about 1st/2nd grade. And they are constantly telling me allllll the things that my 7 year old DS is doing wrong (he has behavioral issues we are still trying to address), but it seems like the rules are changing constantly so it’s just annoying. We’ve just pushed through until we didn’t need it any longer (middle school). I don’t think there’s a way to make it more enjoyable. The kids are probably all tired from being in school all day and then it’s just more directions and more rules at after care, when they could really desperately use some unstructured playtime (I understand why that can’t and doesn’t happen in aftercare though). You just have to push through until you don’t need it anymore.

[waverly]

@mrsgreeko , I know.  And I think I posted on here several pages back about the age to end aftercare.  At least I feel like I tried, but I get that it kind of sucks everywhere.  The kids are tired. The structure is far looser than the classroom so way more behavioral issues which means the teacher are "mean" in the words of my kids.  They probably have to be mean to keep the chaos under control.

It wasn't really any better at the daycare center.  My kids thought it was better because it was their daycare center, but it wasn't.  And they are twice the price and the busing issue there applies as well.

I think my neighbor takes the kids to the in home daycare, but there is no busing, so I imagine that they have to drive back early wait in the car line and then drive them over, which to me defeats the point of aftercare. Maybe it works if they work from home and have clients or phone calls that can't be interrupted but not for my 1/2 hour commute.

[186momx]

My DD also doesn't enjoy aftercare. She says it is too loud, you can never get a minute of peace and quiet, and any fun stuff starts after I pick her up.
We don't have onsite aftercare. Ad Club picks DD & the kids up in a van and transports them to their location. The other center after care is on the bus route so the kids get dropped off by the school bus. We also have a number of in-home daycare that you can try and get to do aftercare.
waverly, can you ask the school for a list of daycares that are in their zone?

[waverly]

186momx , I know which day cares are in town. There are only 2 day cares and 1 in home.

The school will only bus to and from the same location, so if I choose a daycare then I lose morning busing from our house because the school won't pick up from our house and drop off at daycare because it is 2 different locations.

In order for them to drop off at the daycare then they also need to pick up at the daycare. Which I could just meet the bus in the parking lot, but it is out of the way for me and a hassle to basically add a drop off back to my schedule.

Daycare 1- Is our old daycare. Their aftercare costs are crazy high, not sure why, but I think because they aren't really interested in doing it. They are the farthest away, and they charge $150 a kid per week, so it would be $300 a week.

Daycare 2- Is across the street from the school. It is a super busy street though, and I wouldn't want my kids to walk it. The school does drop off there which surprised me because they are so close and within their no busing area, but probably because it is a lot of kids and busy road. They are the same price as aftercare at $170 a week for 2 kids.

Aftercare 1- is onsite at the school. Benefits are I keep my morning busing, and the kids can go to extra curriculars onsite at the school. Aftercare will take them and pick them up from extra curriculars. I tried to sign them up for more extra curriculars so they could be at aftercare less. Price is $170 a week for 2 kids.

In Home- School does not provide busing, so not sure how parents get their kids there... I probably should inquire there, but I get a vibe that the woman doesn't really want to take in school age kids. Like she acts weird with existing ongoing clients getting care for school age kids. My neighbor is super reticent to give me info on it because I think the lady sort of picks her favorite and it's kind of a competition. It might be nicer, and a better price, but I don't know how I would get my kids there. I think everyone must trade off walking their kids over? Or the other mom maybe leaves work early and doesn't use aftercare?

We are in a small ish town so that is basically our only options.  There is aftercare at Montessori and Catholic schools, but again for existing students- no transportation.

I really wish our park district did it because according to my kids they have the better summer camp and the nicer counselors, and school would bus there.

I think I will mention Daycare 2 to the kids as an option, and let them choose between that and no extra curriculars (with my guidance).  I am leaning towards staying at aftercare and making it work because I don't want to add a drop off, and I don't want to drop the extra curriculars.

[phdmomma]

waverly, That's odd, our school will do two different locations. DS takes the bus from our stop in the morning to school, and takes a different bus to aftercare after school.

[waverly]

phdmomma , maybe I can push them a little bit on this.  When I look at the form, it looks like I can do it.

So I guess it would just be the extra curriculars, and maybe touring the other center.

[vasc]

I mean, on a scale of 1-10, how miserable are your kids at the current aftercare? Sure, I know it sucks to hear them complain about it, but I guess I’d focus my efforts on helping them tolerate the situation rather than bending myself over backwards to get them transported to a location that’s less convenient or more expensive.

[waverly]

I think they are fine ish let’s say a 6 if 1 is miserable. I think we would all love if they could ride the bus home and I could be here, but that’s not reality. I’m just exploring my options.

I think it helps them to know there are other options, and they can choose as well. We worked today on explaining to them the nature of aftercare- less structured, kids are tired and misbehave more so teachers have to be more strict. They pretended they didn’t understand, but I think they at least sort of do.

[covergirl82]

I don't think there is a way to make aftercare enjoyable if they are already very miserable. That is a big reason we decided to have the kids ride the bus home this year. They can ride the bus with friends, and then they get to relax once they get home. I hated that after care only gave them about 30 minutes of a break after school was done, and then had them running around. My kids need time to rest and relax, especially DS, because he is doing a sports practice at least every other night a week.

We pay babysitters $10/hr, but we're in a MCOL and my kids are super easy to take care of.

Could you have them ride the bus home and then have a babysitter meet them at the bus stop? That would cost a bit less due to less time. My neighbor does that.