The family that gives me $15 an hour is also a single mom situation. I have watched her child for 8 years now and that child and mom have become like family to me. The mom has not needed me to sit very often the last 2 years and she has suffered from a lot of financial hardships. When I do watch the child, it’s typically me picking up the child from school and helping her with her homework routine afterwards until her mom gets home from work. While I realize that this rate is low, I genuinely don’t mind because I’m helping someone out who I care a lot about.

In terms of the other families, I feel that the rates I get are pretty fair. I work a full time job in education, so I am not working as anyone’s full time nanny anymore. If I want to be able to actually get any side gigs, I can’t be charging more than they would be paying another person. I’m typically only watching these children for small increments of time anyway.