Titled: SuperMom hangs up her cape
"No capes!" -Edna Mode, The Incredibles
After a long and tiring afternoon yesterday, I realized I'm not going to be able to make it all summer without some sort of help. Greg's commute schedule is going to be early Monday morning (pre-dawn) through Thursday evening, home Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. While he's been gone similar amounts before, he usually ends up with a week to work from home every so often. Not happening this time around.
And during the school year it isn't bad. Only having Kyle and Kelly in the afternoon is a nice breather. I do understand why some people freak when I say I have 5 kids. It can be a bit um, tough at times. Somedays they all entertain each other wonderfully and I'm just cafeteria lady serving up meals. Other days it's one constant fight, tease, annoyance after another between them until they are all sent to separate rooms and my patience is stretched to the breaking point.
So here's where you come in. I know some of you have (or had) "Mommy Helpers" or nannies or whatever part time. I have a girl in mind that I'm going to ask first. She's watched the kids 3 times before and everyone seems to get along well. I'm thinking 4 hours twice a week, like Tues/Thurs afternoons 12-4pm. I'll probably stick around one of those afternoons to mow the lawn or scrub the showers or get the house ready for the market. But I'm unsure what to offer her. We've been paying her about $10 an hour ($2 per kids per hour) but that's been short periods of time (three hours or less). It's also been short notice as well so I felt like she deserved a little extra.
Is it cheap of me to think that I could pay her less than $80 a week because it will be steady money for her and also yeah, I am cheap, I hate to pay that much. (I don't place a high value on my sanity obviously.) Greg thinks $50 is fair because at a regular job, she'd probably make $6 an hour (actually less after taxes). So I guess my question is how much do your pay or if you have a teenage daughter currently doing this now, how much does she charge?
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