Would you keep babysitting?

Tweet

I recently got a full time babysitting job. I loved it at first but it quickly went downhill. First of all, My pay was set no matter how long I had the baby. I had the child for almost 40 hours every week. My pay was $200 every two weeks, which is only $100 a week. There were days that I had the baby 10-12 hours a day and about once a week I would keep the baby all night. I never really counted the entire night into the hours per week. So I was basically making $2.50 a hour most weeks, the most I ever really made was about $3/hour. Most babysitters around my area make at least $5/hour. The mother wanted me to give the child ONLY juice, healthy foods, and snacks. She also wanted me to take her outside everyday and put bug spray on her when we went outside. The mother wanted me to get the baby into a routine, and I had to basically ask for permission to let the baby take a nap. The baby is about two and a half. She wanted me to teach her alphabet, and numbers on a regular basis. She wanted me to potty train and only put diapers on the baby when she is sleeping. One time when she was being bad her mother called me the next day and told me that we need to communicate because she hadn't been acting like that. I was putting the baby in time out when she was being bad, which is what the mother wanted me to do. The mothers schedule was not a good schedule to begin with. She works a lot of 6 am to 2:30 pm shifts, and has to close one night a week and also works every other weekend, and closes one weekend a month. Well I understand that is her schedule but there A LOT of mornings I got up and she would text me at 5 to 5:30 am and tell me she was going to be late and bring the baby at 8 and work until 4:30. She also was late a lot of times getting the baby and one time I finally said something, she got mad and said she can't always be on time and that she needs to know if that is going to be a problem. I understand being late every now and then or 15 minutes late, but not hours late. In one month she either changed her schedule or was late 12 times! I finally quit and gave her a two weeks notice. She only provided snacks one time over a 3 month time period. She made a lot of comments to me that she only wanted the baby to have juice, that she loves toaster strudels, and that she wants her to eat healthy. One of the main reasons I quit is because she was always changing her schedule and being late. I am a college student and cannot have her changing her schedule all the time on me or always being late. I have to plan out my college work. Plus it is not fair to me that I have to put up with someone changing their schedule or being late all the time. Another reason I quit is because it was beginning to be an everyday thing that she told me that she wanted me to do something new, or reminded me of something. I think she is expecting way too much, for too little bit of money. Everyone around me that has seen what she is expecting and doing agrees with me. At first I felt bad for quitting but now I don't. I just hope she doesn't keep doing this to babysitters. Babysitters need to know a schedule whether they are in college, have another job, or just so that they know what their hours are. No one wants to get up that early only to get a text that she is going to be late. Babysitters shouldn't be treated like this and I understand being late some but not all the time and not hours late.