Paying Daycare While at a Show? Dilemma (Long)

[KristinS]

Okay, I've been really fortunate the past 6 months in that my DH works nights so I've never had to get a sitter or anything when I do a show, except for the occasional schedule conflict when I've been able to find a friend to watch my 3 year old.

Here's my dilemma - my DH has a really great opportunity for a promotion but it would require him to have permanent hours of 4pm-midnight Tuesday thru Saturday.

How am I supposed to work with that? I mean, obviously I can try to talk people into having either a weekend morning/afternoon show, and monday night show, but is that enough?

It seems like just when I decide I want to put my all into my PC business (my only paid job - I'm a SAHM the rest of the time).

I don't have any family close by that I could drop my daughter off to, and have kind of a flaky neighbor that's not reliable. Is it worth finding a sitter to do a show? Seems cost-prohibitive for me to do that.

For those of you in similar situations, what do you do? Should I just give up now?!?

 

[JAE]

No, don't give up! Do Monday shows and host coach like crazy. I don't do Sunday's but you can do what works for you. Many people do Sunday's. Saturday mornings and early afternoons work for many people, too. Someone in my cluster has three shows this Saturday! You could possibly do multiple shows on Saturday's, and pay a babysitter, occasionally. When you tell people what your schedule is, they take what they get. It seems to work better when you don't have a wide open schedule. Your limited schedule will create an urgency in your potential hosts.

 

[candiejayne]

I'm assuming with the promption comes a raise, right? Maybe you could call the local high school and see if they do daycare classes for students, and see if they would be willing to pass your information along to some students saying you need an evening sitter. I'm sure they would work for $15-20 a night. Guess you'd have to weigh it out and see if that money would cost more then it would be worth. I'm sure it would be worth it though. If the high school thing doesnt work, maybe a church would be willing to give you information to someone they know who's looking for a little extra cash on the side. I know it's a long shot, but you just might find a teenager (maybe even one with a car to come to you) who could handle the job!

I hate bittersweet obstacles. I hope things work out for you!

 

[babywings76]

I'm paying for babysitting this month. Before I booked November I asked my husband what his hours were. He said he could be home for any night I wanted. So, I booked it up like crazy. Then at the end of October, he had a staff member quit. So he works late every night now. I'm using my parents (and am going to give them a gift card to a restaurant, because they won't take cash from me) but I hate taking up so much of their time, so I have a sitter (teenager from across the street) coming for my Tues. night show. I am figuring that even with the expense, my shows are high enough in sales, it's worth it. Each show is unpredictable in it's sales, but luckily I'm getting good ones right now. But I haven't figured out what my "hourly wage" earned is yet with this factored in.

 

[chefann]

I agree - schedule Mondays as your primary show night, and then focus on weekend daytime shows. If you do want to build your business bigger, then find a local sitter with whom you can set up a regular schedule - every other Thursday, for example (nobody says it has to be every week, and those 2 added shows a month can make a huge difference). And then if you don't have a show on a sitter night, keep them scheduled and use the time to make uninterrupted phone calls or other tasks that are difficult with the kiddos around. Remember that as your sales go up in a month, so does your commission rate. So the percentage of each night's earnings that go to pay the sitter actually go down. And if you know that you're paying a sitter whether you have an actual show or not, that's a great motivator to get a show on the calendar.

 

[candiejayne]

I schedule my shows late enough that if my BF cant make it home for the school bus, then I have time to run pick him up and figure something out LOL, we are lucky though, we have my parents and my grandma, and his parents, his brother and a set of grandparents that are all willing to take him anytime we need them too. I guess I figure that someone can watch him for a bit until my BF can get there. We've also got 3 sets of neighbors who would be glad to help (one is a PC consultant herself!).

 

[Nanisu]

When my kids were little we had a babysitting co-op at church. Everyone paid $10 and we all got 40 tickets. Each ticket was worth 1/2 an hour of time. So if I wanted to go somewhere and needed a sitter and was gone for 2 hours, I paid 4 tickets per kid. We all kept track of each other and when someone needed tickets we just put the word out (this was back before the internet so we did it by phone, now it would be a cinch with email) that we were available. My kids loved it, because other kids got to come over, and I didn't pay for sitting at all for like their first 5 or 6 years (then we left that church). When I needed more tickets I just let the group know. And then when I needed a sitter I would just call someone on the list. It was pretty easy, and we made lots of friends. My kids are 23 and 20 and they still are friends with some of the kids we co-opped with. They had a blast when they were little.

Is there someone that is friends with your daughter that you can trade sitting with?

 

[DebbieJ]

Monday nights and Saturday brunch are your new show times. You can do this!

 

[pcsharon1]

My hubby is an active duty army recruiter. He works 12-14 hour days 5-6 days a week. He always works 6 days a week but he normally can make it home for a show on Friday or Saturday - but that's it, he isn't home until 8:30pm at the earliest Monday-Thursday. I don't like to do Sunday shows but I do try to schedule one every other month or so, but I only offer Friday or Saturday. And it's rare that I do a show on both nights because getting him home for one night is rare enough. We also don't have family nearby and really don't know anyone that has teenagers to babysit. My son is getting ready to turn 2 and has only been left with someone who wasn't his grandmother one time. I am going to try to find someone in the new year for the occassional mid-week show but I simply tell people during my show that one of the things I love about my PC job is that I can schedule it around my family and I never have to leave my baby with a sitter. I go on to say that because of that I only do shows on Friday and Saturday evening and I would love to do one with them.

Hope that helps!

 

[koima]

I'm planning on hiring a neighborhood teenager for part time babysitting between the time I leave for shows and when DH gets home.

If that wasn't an option, I think I'd focus more on fundraisers, Pamper Your Business, moms groups that meet during the day, and really focus my shows on Monday nights and Saturdays and Sunday days.

 

[pamperedlinda]

I hire babysitters all the time. My husband's schedule changes form month to month so I never know if he'll be home when I schedule a show. I have several sitters that I can rely on. Considering that I pay them @ $30 and I make @ $175 for each show - it's well worth it to me.

 

[heather223]

Another suggestion- is there another mom that you could swap babysitting with so you wouldn't have to pay. For example, on Tuesdays you watch her child and on Thursdays she watches yours.....

 

[KristinS]

Wow. You guys ROCK!!! I was so bummed this morning, thinking I was just going to have to do a "hobby consultant" thing (I couldn't quit altogether - I love it too much!), and you've all given me so many options. I'm so thankful for this group of supportive people. I live out in the middle of nowhere, so with no neighbors, etc. that option's out. Also, I do have friends who own a daycare, but it's so far out of the way (like 20 miles) it doesn't make sense to do that.I really think I'm just going to offer the Saturday or Sunday Brunch/Monday night option. What I don't want to do is sacrifice both my DH's nights off, as I'm sure I'll hardly get to see him when/if he gets this job. Oh, and maybe try to emphasize PYB or lunch at work shows too.Thanks again, ladies, for all great suggestions!

 

[Jenni]

I make $100 to $150 a show... $20 to $25 on a babysitter would not stop me from doing a show. Sometimes "Mommy guilt" stops me but not the cost of a sitter. No money in the world is worth Mommy guilt. Do whats best for you and your family!

 

[etteluap70PC]

Ask arround about sitters if you want to offer 1 more night a week. I offer tues & thurs as my show nights. If someone gives me a great reason for wanting a weekend show (my DH works weekends) I will offer to do it if 1 of my sitters is avail. I limit this to a max of 2 weekend shows a month.

When I was new to my area I found my first sitters thru hosts. If they had teenagers I would ask if they knew of anyone who did babysitting. Now I did not ask all my hosts this, but if I had gotten to know them and liked thair parenting style chances are the friends of their kids they would reccomend would be good kids with involved parents. At least that has been my experience.

 

[jcsmilez]

People love my brunch shows, Saturday AM is a great time to do a show. Sounds like a great plan to make Saturday/Sunday brunch and Monday nights your show times. That is three solid show times which if you fill would still be 12 shows a month! If you wanted to open up another night a week once a month or on a special occasion, don't forget that the money you pay for your babysitter is tax deductible and you could also have her put together host packets, stamp catalogs etc. if she is there while your little one is sleeping.

 

[KatieBeth]

One of the reasons I signed up for PC is that I could schedule my shows around my family's schedule... the problem is that my family's schedule can change in the blink of an eye. One suggestion that I have is to have a couple of "kid friendly" shows. Invite your guests to bring a child to the show and teach the children how to make something fun and yummy. Then, having your own child there wouldn't be unprofessional, and it would be a great learning experience for him/her. I'm not saying that you should do this for every show, but maybe when the schedule changes far enough in advance for you to call the host and see if you can switch things up a bit. We are an Active Duty Army family, and one of my husband's favorite sayings in our lifestyle is, "It's more fun to ride the wave than it is to fight it."

 

[nikked]

Another option would be to see if someone in your cluster would swap babysitting with you for shows. At one point, we had a couple of gals in our cluster that did this, and it worked well. You just have to keep track so no one is taken advantage of.