I am turning 48 this year and have three young sons of my own, but when I was a teenager I was asked to babysit a neighbor's three kids. As a 17-year old male, with other things to do, I didn't go looking for that job, but I accepted the "job" as an excercise in responsibility. (Besides, she promised me frozen pizza.)
Even to a teen in the early 1980s, the rate of pay - $1.00 per hour (no, that's not a typo) - seemed a bit slight, but who was I to argue? I knew what the job would entail: Putting three little girls to bed, watching TV, listening to albums, eating lots of that frozen pizza I mentioned earlier, etc. Then, at the end of the night, the woman would come home a bit tipsy (she was a waitress, and liked a few drinks after her shift), slap a $10 bill into my hand, and I walk home, through the yards, happy.
What happened in the past thirty years that has made it perfectly acceptable for a teen (or non-teen!) to "charge" - I still can't believe what I am about to type - $15.00 per hour, to watch my children? While I was kicking around Miami Beach in my 20s, working out my career throughout my 30s and working out my career and family into my 40s, those idiots who were raising kids through that period were slowly worn down and manipulated into believing that the fucking babysitter was worth more and more and more money!
Or was it that these "parents" just grew increasingly lazy and irresponsible, and the time they got to be away from their children grew more and and more and more valuable? Over 30 years, my $1.00 per hour (plus frozen pizza) has now morphed into an absolute joke to the 19-year old girl to whom I just handed a check made out to the sum of $210.00 for three afternoons of babysitting. (ie: Playing Wii, watching Spongebob Squarepants and microwaving 9 chicken nuggets and putting them on three plates.)
That's right. My wife and I pay this very nice girl - who came to us with zero experience, little imagination, no car, no cooking skills, and very little ambition or initiative - $10.00 per hour to watch our kids. Why? Primarily because everyone else we interviewed (with similar skill sets) wouldn't sit for less than $16.00 per hour!
What's really crazy to me is the fact that these people - my sitter included - have no shame in asking that much or in reaching for that check at the end of the shift. In my day, I felt like I was the one being a bit "played", but it was ok, because I got that pizza, got exposed to a record collection I otherwise would never have sought out...and, from time to time, a glimpse at a Playboy the husband subscribed to and kept in the bathroom.
I don't know where this is heading. I don't know what this unbalanced pay scale is teaching young sitters about what to expect for "salary" once they enter the real world, but I know for sure - whether she knows it now, or not - this summer will be looked back upon by our current sitter with amazement as she tells stories to her adult peers about how "sweet" it was, that summer of 2011, "making bank" for doin' nuthin'...just watchin' TV and texting all day long.
I can't wait till she goes off to college.
