Boogieman Insurance: Why babysitters need to earn the same wage at night

A long-time trend among Park Slope parents is to pay babysitters less to watch their sleeping kids. They hire their regular sitter to arrive after the teeth are brushed and the stories read, paying her slightly less than usual. Or, they hire a less expensive sitter exclusively for nighttime gigs. Either way, this is uncool. Parents need to understand they are paying for the sitter’s time, not her level (or the kid’s level) of exertion. I was a babysitter in park slope for five years, until I had my own baby. A family once asked me to lower my rates at night. Another family said that they were "splurging" on my pricey nighttime sitting.

The local barista does not get paid less when there are fewer customers, so why do parents feel it is appropriate to pay their sitters less when their little customer is sleeping? Sure, tight-fisted parents out there might say that Miska down at The Coffee Klatch has income that is substantially supplemented by tips, so fewer customers equals less cash in his skinny jeans pockets. They are right, and the minute that little Dante or Chanteuse can jam a dollar in a sippy cup for every great push on the swing, or a particularly rousing rendition of “The Wheels on the Bus” that argument works perfectly. Or maybe these parents equate childcare costs with insurance premiums. If Story or Chandler scuba dives or base-jumps then the sitters rates go up, in which case there should be an itemized list of activities, their safety levels and the corresponding monetary figure.

Or maybe parents love their children just a little less when they are sleeping.  

Respecting the value of someone else’s time is the real issue. Sure everyone wants to save money, but if the cheap sitter isn’t good enough for the daytime gigs are they ever really good enough? And while your evening sitter may just be playing Wii and eating all your cereal, if shit goes down, be that a high fever or a bad dream, she is there and prepared. And that is what you are paying for.