Mothers Unite!

In the latest issue of our town magazine there is an article about babysitting. It mentions this website http://www.sittercity.com/rate_calculator.html which give you an approximate rate per hour base on zip code, age, number of children and number of years experience. Among my friends I pay on the top end, at least $10/hour. We always round up; if it has been 3 hours and 40 minutes we just pay $40. Except for last time we had a sitter, without thinking Travis gave her 4 twenties rather than 4 tens...yikes, that was an expensive night! I actually have one friend who won't give me the names of her sitters because she thinks we pay too much and doesn't want the competition. Based on this website, I should be paying my sitter $12.25/hour. Ouch! I remember when I used to baby-sit for $2/hour. I don't think wages have gone up by 6 times in the last 15 years, have they? I know that makes me sound ancient! I think we, as parents need to ban together and stop this price gouging. If we all stop paying these exorbitant rates they won’t be able to demand such high rates. I am so tired of mothers always trying to out do each other! Mothers unite! I just hope my sitter doesn't read this article…