I do childcare for 1 family for my main job...have questions on etiquette...

[Marie Q]

...for both parties? The lady I do childcare for calls me anytime between 6-10 p.m. the night prior to tell me when to be there the next day. That is the only advance notice I'm given as to whether she will need me the following day or not. Her husband comes home at any time so I can often be there at 5:30 a.m. and if her husband arrives 2 hrs. later, that's all I get paid for waking up at 4 a.m. & preparing for work. Is there some site that tells the etiquette for babysitters and the persons who hire them? I care about the children and I will be graduating & looking for employment elsewhere but she complains about how she goes through babysitters and it's hard on the children. Even if it upsets her, I thought of sending her a paper on etiquette (on both sides) through e-mail or in her house just to possibly make it so the children don't go through so many changes in such a short time. What do you think? I won't care what she thinks of me I just truly care about the children.

[Gracielacey]

Well first off...when you start doing daycare for children, you should require that you are paid for a certain amount of hours per week, regardless of if the child was in your care or not...Basically they pay you to "reserve your time" and this is standard process in the daycare world.

Its obvious why she goes through so many DC providers - she can't commit to X amount of hours per week. She needs to, or she will never find a good sitter for her children.

You can choose to tell her that you expect a certain number of hours per week, or you can go on like you are..