Wednesday, April 25, 2012
New Job???
Starting May 1st, I will be adding to my already hectic job of being a wife, mother, cook, housekeeper, hooker! LOL I will be adding a baby into the mix of Luck Chaos. I will start watching Mark (My cousin's baby) for May, June, and July...and MAYBE some of August. Here's are the things I am worried about -
#1 Some days it's hard enough just watching the two I have. There is more that goes into being a stay at home mom than just "watching" them.
#2 For the month of May, I will be watching him from 7am - about 2pm...but Tuesdays and Thursday I will get the priveledge of loading up all three kids to take Logan to school and picking him up from school! YAY! Not excited about that.
#3 During the month of June I will be watching him from 7am - 6:30pm that's nearly 12 hours a day.
Here's my dilemma...I have no problem watching him, but its a LOT of work. He just turned 7 months old and he doesn't sleep during the day ( I may have to try to fix that)...he cat naps....20 minutes heres, 20 there. They offered to pay me $200 a month...and although they are family, and I should probably do it for free...I am taking the money...although I kind of feel like it should be more. Does that make me a bad or greedy person? The month of May I will be watching him for 7 hours a day...35 hours a week...that pretty much means I am making a $1.43 and hour, and when June rolls around I will be wathing him nearly 60 hours a week...meaning I am making about $0.87 an hour. I guess I am not sure how to feel...in a way I feel a little taken advantage of, but then I feel guilty for feeling that way, because they are family. Plus, I know they are trying to save some money because they are moving back to Corpus Christi at the end of July/early August. I also feel like I should be grateful, because no matter what it's still $200 more than we had. But I also think $2 an hour would be more fair to both of us. It wouldn't raise the amount for May too terribly..well - $80...but I guess I would even be willing to say That May could be $250...but June should be more since I will have him so much longer each day.
I have spent a few days thinkng on this and going back and forth, I have thought to just go with the $200 for May and ask for $300 for June and July since I will be keeping him longer hours, I have thought about setting a price per hour (but I think that may get too confusing), the problem is that I dont even KNOW how to go about asking for more money...but I really dont want to feel taken advantage of - and for all you mom's out there....keeping a baby happy is a JOB. They are my family, and I honestly have no problem watching him,and I am not trying to make a LOT of money, and I am not trying to take advantage of them either, I just dont want to end up resenting anyone because I am so tired all the time...I have enough problem with that as it is...being tired - not resenting someone. My initial thought was that I would just charge them half of what they paid for daycare...I figured that would be a win/win. I make a little money, and they save a little money...then I found out they were paying $900 in daycare...which would be $450 for me...and I didn't feel comfortably charging THAT much money...then again, that was also before I was told I would be watching him for 12 hours a day! LOL
Anyway...any advice on what I should do?? Am I being selfish...and seriously - tell me if I am? Should I ask for more money...maybe the $200 for May...$300 for June idea??? And how do you go about asking for more money from your family?
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3 comments:
Man, I don't know what to tell you since it's family. That said, don't get taken advantage of. Why are you watching him instead of the daycare? Is it just to save money? Or did one of them lose a job?
Basically She is a little irritated with the day care...parents aren't following rules and the daycare isn't enforcing them, they keep bringing sick kids so Mark keeps getting sick. Plus, she drops him off at 6:45 - 7, and picks him up at 2 but still has to pay for a full day, so they want to save some money. She says that the times that I have watched him he just seems different, she likes that he gets to interact with my kids because they are older. He does get really excited and even started crawling. When he sees me, he actually leans forward for me to hold him. I love the little guy!
In all honesty I was comfortable with $200 a month, until JR starting talking about all the stuff I would have to do, such as loading and unloading 3 kids twice a day...and then the long hours for June. He said it was up to me, but he felt like it was a lot of work for not much in return. After he said all that, I see his point, but I also want to help out. When she first offered, she said they were thinking $200 - $250...I am just going to talk to her and ask for the $250. I think that's pretty fair for both of us. It is a lot of work, but I will already be home anyway and he is past the infant stage so it wont be that difficult, plus Logan and Landry are good at entertaining each other, and in the long run...it's an extra $750 for us over the summer, I mean - I know $250/month isn't much for working a 60 hour week, but it will just take some rescheduling...obviously I wont be able to go to the grocery store with 3 kids, and running errands will be difficult...pretty much everything will be rough, I thought about taking them to the pool, but I am a little scared to take 3 kids by myself...even though you ave seen the pool...I may give it a try - who knows! I think I am just more afraid of getting into it and then being overwhelmed.
Anyway, I am just going to go with the $250 and see how it goes...if it does get overwhelming, I can just talk to her, but I dont think it will be bad...it's not like I've never done it before - it's just the 5 days a week that scares me! LOL Dana said it would give me great practice...I told her she had lost her mind! LOL I can't imagine having 3 kids at home...it's really given me new perpective! Mark is a really sweet baby, so I think it will be okay..I guess we will see!
All I can say is GOOD LUCK! I am sure you will do great. Kids LOVE YOU. All babies love you.
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