Give Child Labor A Chance (Just Kidding…Sort Of)

Maybe I’m just bitter, but why do babysitters today earn so much?

Back in the dark ages when cable TV was a novelty and it was socially acceptable to have a middle schooler babysit your kids, I was the go-to sitter in my North Carolina neighborhood. Going rate: $1 an hour for one child, $1.50 for two, and $2 an hour when Mrs. Cattie and her three sons (none of whom needed a second hand to tell how old they were) moved two doors away.

For that jealousy inducing sum, I corralled the charges, cooked their meals, cleaned up the kitchen afterward (and before if the mom had left in a hurry), and tidied the living room after bathing the boys, brushing teeth, reading Curious George, and putting the kids to bed.

So it kills me to pay a teenager (Living at home! Not paying rent or a mortgage! Or buying her own groceries!) $16 an hour to watch my six- and nine-year-old do homework while I work or attend a PTA meeting. And most of them don’t even know to put the plates in the dishwasher after dinner.

Sure, I like my boys, and it sure would stink if anything bad happened to them, but I wasn’t convinced I needed a voting-age, CPR-trained, tax-paying American to watch them for two hours while I worked, went to the dentist, or attended a PTA meeting.

So last summer, I paid a ninth grade neighbor $7 an hour to watch my two sons. I had been impressed at how he explained the importance of good decision making to his younger sister (probably phrased better than most grownups could’ve coached), and I knew that he could take the boys downstairs to his mom in case of stomach ache or nuclear issues.

He brought paper airplanes for the boys to make and Star Wars movies for them to watch. He prepared popcorn and generally made the boys want to bar the door when it was time for me to take over. (He didn’t put the dirty bowls in the dishwasher, but that was OK. Women six years older and $10 more expensive didn’t do that either.)

When I told friends about my babysitting insight, most looked as if I deserved to be arrested for leaving someone so young in charge of my kids. Curious, I called Child Welfare and asked at what age a child can be left in charge of others. There actually is no law on the books—unless something goes wrong, and then parents could be on the hook for child endangerment.

Still, if your children are somewhat self-sufficient, you might consider asking a responsible younger teenager to watch the kids on date night. They can stick a frozen pizza in the oven as well as you can, help the kids with their homework (probably better than you can), and will be infinitely more entertaining and energetic than you. Expect to pay $8 to $10 an hour—about half what high school seniors, college students, and professional sitters charge.

If you’re queasy about leaving a 15-year-old in charge, remember who watched you Saturday nights when your parents were out and you pleaded with the babysitter for just 15 more minutes of Love Boat before it was lights out.

Hillary Chura lives in Manhattan with her husband and their two sons.