Do You Cancel on Your Babysitter/nanny?

I never had day care but we did have date night weekly set up with a high school or college student.

In the event we had to cancel, we insisted on paying. She blocked that night for us and could have had another job possibly.

Not offering to pay is tacky and classless...... You deserve to be paid because you made special arrangements for that specific time.

I recommend you call a local babysitting service, perhaps one that advertises through a hotel....ask them their policies and copy those with whatever modifications you deem appropriate.

I used to use one service in Phoenix, only about 2x year and they had a strict cancellation policy, which I don't recall anymore.

Anytime you hire yourself out for a fee for service type of job, you must have a protective cancellation policy...because you have made a commitment to be there and available and have had to turn other customers away.

So yes, start a cancellation policy immediately. And if you travel further than 10-15 minutes away, I'd start adding a travel fee too. But keep it reasonable, as I have turned certain businesses down. One electrician wanted to charge me $100 just to drive to my home in an area he normally services.

Also, I remember answering your post about the last minute voice lesson cancellation...so this seems to be a common theme for you....so even more important you are crystal clear, upfront what your rates are for everything....baby sitting, voice lessons, cancellations, driving far out, etc.

When I was babysitting if the parents canceled they canceled and I didn't get paid for it. If they canceled often or at the last minute I stopped sitting for them. If this is a standing sitting date I'd discuss with the parents. If this is just an occasional job I'd let it go. When I was working an hourly position at a hotel I would sometimes get called off and I wouldn't get paid for it. Personally, I feel like the parents gave you plenty of notice of cancellation.

In college I used to have to get up at 5am, uncover my car from a blanket of snow, drive 30 minutes to a standing babysitting job and often the parent would then tell me that she didn't need me that morning. I asked her several times to call me ahead of time but she didn't. Ugh I wanted to choke her!!! Not to mention I didn't get paid for getting all the way there for her to call me off. I can understand your frustration.

Maybe your best course of action is to have a conversation or set a contract with each set of parents and discuss your terms at the time you set your job. If a lot of people are doing this to you it's just wrong and you should have some recourse. This is your livelihood.

I am a nanny. I work for the same family m-f same hours each day. I get texts and phone calls with little to no notice saying hey don't rush (I am literally on their street) or you can come in later today or you can be off today. i live half hour away so sometimes I am already on the way. I get paid the same though regardless of whether I work 1 day or 5 unless I take off. I would not put up with that if it is your regular job and you have time set aside each week for them. Just tell them you can't do it anymore unless you are paid for the time you set aside. However if it is just an hourly we need you once in a while thing then your probably going to be out of luck.

A regular daycare/child care provide typically has a contract and you do have to pay regardless of if you use them that day or not. But a regular daycare/child care provider is different from an occassional babysitter. I think reasonable notice should be given if your services are not needed. Leaving a VM 10 minutes before is unacceptable. Notifying you around 9 pm that they don't need you in the morning is not completely last minute but it is short notice. I think that if you expect to get paid when last minute cancelling occurs, you should have a standard agreement with some general rules...such as cancellations with less than 24 hours requires payment (or at least half you fee).

You have to set YOUR rates and policies accordingly. I would tell them that they get X # of cancellations in a years time. If they exceed that, then you will either drop them from your service or they must pay in advance via credit card. There are many ways for you to take credit cards.

OR, you can do what I do. Have them agree to X # of days per month. I have one mom that only commits to 2 days per month. She pays me if she doesn't use them. She is welcome to change the days if she chooses. I just need to know that I'll get at least that.

Maybe you need to draft a cancelation policy and do babysitting through a contractural agreement? I can't believe the way you are being treated-I think people need to cancel 24 hours in advance, pay you for your gas if you are not notified and show up at their homes, and pay a reduced fee for not canceling in time.

Is there a service (i.e. Sittercity) in your area with whom you could become affiliated ?

i would let them kno\w when they schedules a date with you that you need 24 or even 48 hourse notice (you choose the time frame) if they cancel or you will charge them a fee...it can be half of what you were going to get or perhaps a flat rate for anyone like the dr.'s do of about 24 bux each cancellation made too late. this will make them serious when they schedule you and think twice before cancelling for anything but an emergancy. personally though if it were an emergancy i'd let it slide (car broke down, kids sick, ect.)

Depends on why I need to cancel personally. If I use you on the rare night out and I need to cancel because my child just puked everywhere, then probably not. The situation has changed and I can no longer go out. If I contract with you to provide care mon thru friday and I still need to cancel, then yes I would pay you. And yes I do pay when my kids are sick and cannot go to daycare...I also pay still when my normal babysitter is sick....

Hi, Dancer:
Yes, you need a contract with all your mamas and/or daddy's.
Include your hourly rate.
Needing 24 hours notice., if not 24 hours notice given, there will be an convenience fee of __________ .

Have him/her sign the contract so if they cancel out and not pay anything, you can take them to court. I know it may be a menial amount but they need to be held accountable for their broken contract.

Good luck.
D.

I wouldn't pay an hourly babysitter if I cancelled. But when I do cancel, I have to know that the risk that I am taking is that she won't sit for me again. If a babysitter asked me to sign a contract, I would politely say no thank you and find someone else. But then again, I have only ever cancelled once, and that was because the kids were sick....It is true that you pay a daycare, but the hourly rate on a daycare is much much lower than what I'd pay an hourly sitter.

We usually use family, but we have someone come every 2 weeks to clean the house and if we need to reschedule, we talk to her when we see her and find a mutually agreeable timeframe. She does the same for us. We give her as much notice as we can about a change, because it's a regular thing.

If it were an irregular thing, I would be apologetic but call my sitter as far in advance as I could. It might be the night before because plans changed (and sometimes for people "plans changed" means "we got into a fight and I really don't want to admit it").

I think if you turn down other jobs for these jobs, it is acceptable to have a contract with specifications about how to cancel, by when, and any fees incurred.

I think canceling 20 minutes before a job is rude.

If I kept DD home from daycare, I still paid them. They still paid their employees, put the lights on, opened the doors. I wasn't just paying for that day, I was insuring that they'd be open tomorrow.

People who do this to you often should be crossed off your client list.

If it is an hourly babysitter then yes, things come up and I only get hourly babysitters for me time stuff. Now if it was a daily you watch my children kind of thing then no, for whatever days a week I schedule they will be paid.

I have a daycare provider that does half days for my son. Her contract has me pay her on Monday for the week (we pay two weeks at a time) and that is regardless of whether we are there or not.

I have a morning sitter who comes to my house NORMALLY at 615 am and gets the older two on the bus and drops the youngest off at the other sitter's house by 845. I change her hours ALL THE TIME. If my husband has to work at a different location, he leaves at 7, so she comes then. I am off every other Friday so I don't need her then. I pay her for Mon-Fri from 615-845, regardless of whether we use her or shorten her hours. I expect her to be available to me for those hours, making it so she can't have another job during that time. She is WAY overpaid because we never use her for all of the time we have asked her, but I can't thank her enough for what she does for us. The least I can do is pay her for the 12.5 hours per week, even if she only works 2 (that happened last week!).

That is crazy for them to do that to you and you should have a cancellation policy or they still owe.