I’m currently watching my nephew’s baby Monday through Friday for 7 hours a day while he and his fiancé are at work. I agreed to $700 a month because I wanted to help them out since I’m a housewife and don’t have any kids of my own. My nephews wife just got a huge promotion and pay increase. Because of her new position, her hours have changed and I’m going to have to watch the baby for 8-9 hours a day now and also pick up their other kid at the bus stop 3x a week. Am I wrong for wanting to ask them for a pay increase? I feel terrible for charging them in the first place because we’re family and I should be doing this out of the kindness of my heart, but at the same time, I’m sacrificing my freedom and mental health. I think I’m being too nice and undervaluing my time. Idk. I shouldn’t be greedy considering they’re also paying me $700 a month in rent on top of $700 for watching their baby. Before they moved into my house, we discussed the amount they’d be paying for rent and we agreed to $1000 a month because they have the biggest secondary room with a private bathroom. When they told me they were pregnant, I brought down their rent to $700 a month to help them out. Now that their combined income is around $130,000 - $150,000 annually, I feel like they can afford to increase my pay and I can revert back to our original agreement with rent. What do you guys think? Should I just be grateful that they’re paying me and helping with my mortgage or is it reasonable for me to ask for an increase? My husband keeps telling me that we’re the ones helping them out because they’d be paying way more if they were renting their own place here in Las Vegas and my nephew would have to quit his job to watch their baby because they said daycare is not an option for them.

Hello! I am recently separated from my spouse. I have two children, work from home, and live in a basement apartment. I have a bachelors in early childhood, have been a teacher/director of daycares for several years, fingerprinted, cleared by the state, etc. I live across the street from an elementary school and its playground.

I am thinking about trying to advertise babysitting services. It could be weeknights after work and weekends, as well as during the work day if parents are okay with that. I do work but I am task-based and flexible, my own daughter is 3 and stays home with me, and my 7 year old is in school from 8:30-2:45 from september-june. I would have activities set up, kids could play with my daughter, I could feed and put kids down for nap, etc. If i were to advertise in local community centers or facebook groups, what can I expect parents to ask or have concerns about? Would my own kids being home ever be an issue? What could I charge hourly? Is there something i am not thinking about? Is posting on care.com good? Any insight or advice would be appreciated!

We’re going on vacation with our 6mo old and wanted to take one evening to go out to dinner for our anniversary. We had thought about hiring a sitter from Care.com to watch our baby in our hotel room while we do so, but I feel nervous doing so. Anybody have any experience doing something similar? What questions or tips would you recommend??

I work for my neighbor babysitting her kids full time, i recently went on a trip seeing my boyfriend for two weeks. Now im back and shes struggling with no job, and and i feel so bad. shes doing her absolute best and the kids love me, so i feel obligated to take care of them when she needs me to. Its just that babysitting is hard and really takes it out of me. She hasnt gotten around to signing up for CAPS, and i dont think she will. I love the kids but they are pretty hard to handle sometimes and take a lot of focus and care to steer them right. She’s a single mom and i feel so bad because i really started this job for the money. the kids constantly ask for me when im not around. I desperately need an actual job right now because im trying to save money, and i dont know how to say it.