<p>When I was a teen I watched 2 children regularly for a couple. The dishes were very often piled up. They hired cleaning services for their home. I never felt that cleaning their home, or washing their dishes was my job. I took care of their children and they never requested anything else. They were most generous in paying me, but as NSM suggests, I never knew when they would get home. They were very nice people, but not very organized in their personal life.</p>
<p>Oh, I’d like to add that this is a former teacher (sophomore year-- I’m currently a senior). I currently don’t have him, so grades won’t be affected, and an awkward situation can be avoided.</p>
<p>I appreciate all of your input so far. Someone mentioned cleaning up after the kids went to bed. I do that every time I babysit at night, as the kids go to bed around 8:30, and I’m basically paid to do nothing. I was always nervous about the dishwasher, so any pans I use I just hand wash and put back where I got them from. They just never say anything when they come home and the house is a little bit better than I found it, so I don’t know if they are annoyed or they think the oldest D cleaned it up (yeah, right).</p>
<p>If they keep hiring you they must be satisfied with your work. (Or desperate! :D)</p>
<p>I’m wondering what people think about this: would you be upset if you came home–say after 11–and found that the kids were in bed, everything was fine, but the babysitter had fallen asleep on the couch? I used to have a terrible time staying awake when I babysat…I was always afraid that I would fall asleep!</p>
<p>^Ooh, what a perfect question! I have to admit, after chasing a 6 and 2 yr. old around since the morning, by eleven I’m struggling to keep my eyelids open.</p>
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<p>Hmm, that is a tough one. I think you raise a point that parents ought to discuss with babysitters in advance. I might say something like this: “I understand that you may get sleepy after chasing Junior around all night, so I don’t mind if you take a nap, but here are the rules: Don’t have music or television on, to ensure that you hear Junior if he cries or gets up while you’re asleep. Make sure the doors and windows are locked. Sleep nearby, not off in the West Wing, to ensure that you hear him and that he can find you. And no sleeping pills or cold medicine that might make you difficult to rouse! Otherwise, have a nice nap.”</p>
<p>That’s my initial thought, but after thinking about this for a while, I might change my mind. Thanks for bringing it up!</p>
<p>D1 only babysat once, that experience was enough so she would never do it again. Our neighbor asked her to babysit their 2 kids because they were going out to dinner. D1 told them that she had to get home by 12 because she had early ballet class next morning. When she showed up, there were 5 kids. Another couple’s babysitter cancelled the last minute. D1 was a good sport about it. But when they didn’t come home at 12, she called. The father was annoyed that they had to leave the party early. On top of that, they only paid her $10/hour. D1 did pick up kids’ room(s), and clean the dishes kids used because I told her it was the right thing to do. </p>
<p>When we used to have sitters, if we were going to be late, I fully expected sitter to fall asleep. I felt better than to have her stay up late because we were late. We always came home when we said we would. If we were going to be late, we would call to see if it was ok with the sitter.</p>
<p>I don’t see a problem with falling asleep. Parents sleep at night and are still responsible for their kids.</p>