The Mint!

This site is amazing for women of all ages. Consolidate all your financial accounts in one place and then analyze your habits. So smart!

Momnod’s first match!

Kate’s sister is friend’s with Stephanie.  Kate and Stephanie live less than a mile away from eachother.  Kate and Stephanie connected on momnod and Stephanie is going to babysit for Kate next week . An amazing 24 year-old gets to watch the most darling baby in the world and aparticular new mom can leave her daughter with a woman she really really trusts.

Yey! 

The wiki how of babysitting

This site might actually help a newbie babysitter or mom.

“Here’s step 1: Check your calendar to make sure you are available when asked to babysit. This will help avoid the frustration of a last minute change of plans due to poor planning. Find out what time you will be needed, night or day, and again check to make sure you are available. If not, you can ask the person if you can babysit another time, or babysit another child. All of us can’t babysit at the right time, whether you go to school, whether working, whether busy or you have a kid to take care of yourself.”

Babysitting rate calculator?

Sittercity has a calculator which is great except they don’t explain their methodology. They ask for a zip code, number of kids and years of experience belonging to the sitter.

Let’s assume you’ve got 2+ kids and this person has been on and off babysitting since they were 12. Here’s what I think is the market rate for good help by age and driver’s license (note the bump).

Babsyitter rates by AGE

11-13 $7.50/hr

13-16 $8.50/hr

16-18 $10/hr

18-22 $12.50

22+ = $13+

That’s assuming your in an area with a slightly higher cost of living like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles etc.

Great MSN article on the Cost of Childcare

This MSN article discusses the insane cost of childcare in the US today.  Come on, it’s basically paying rent on your kids until they go to high school and 4 years later you really get to pay. (Especially with the financial aid you’ll be enjoying as a dual-income home)

 “With child care for infants running as high as $14,650 a year and care for a 4-year-old in a licensed center as high as $10,920, child-care costs have outpaced what the average family spends on food, according to the National Association of Child Care Resources and Referral Agencies.”

-The child-care crisis   msn.com

When both parents work, families need someone to mind the kids. But with costs as high as $14,650 a year, day care can swallow most of one parent’s wages. 

MomsRising – Militant, but useful

Momsrising is a website dedicated to empowering women as mothers, consumers, professionals and citizens..  They’ve sucessfully organized and mobilized women against companies that are guilty of disriminating against mothers as employees, poisonous pacifiers etc.

They have great Open Flexible work area on their website that can help any woman looking for a family firendly career understand what she needs to look for in a job and an employer.

  

“Open, Flexible Work” is the term we use in the MOTHER agenda to refer to workplace practices that accommodate both work and family needs. Flexible work arrangements give parents the ability to work more flexibly, regardless of the person’s level in the organization. Factory workers, middle managers, and executive level employees all need to be able to structure their work lives in a way that allows them to meet both business and family needs.

Daycare Stat

A study of child care in four states found “child care at most centers in the U.S. is poor to mediocre,” with 12% providing care that could harm “children’s health, safety, and development.”  – Source: momsrising (why don’t they site their source?)

Babysitting according to Wikipedia

I love Wikipedia because it is so elementary that it actually surprises me with some of the topics it will define.  The babysitting entry has some interesting hourly stats, but I’m pretty sure $15 an hour is rock bottom in New York.  Read the excerpt below and check out the entry wiki entry here.

Babysitting is the practice of temporarily caring for a child on behalf of the child’s parents. Babysitting is most commonly performed as an odd job by teenagersfor extra money, stereotypically, but not necessarily, girls. Babysitting can be quite lucrative in some countries, but rates vary considerably according to the location. According to Runzheimer International’s Mobility Report, average hourly rates in September 2005 in the United States of America are $6.04. In New York City, the average is $11.08, whereas in Portland, Oregon, the average is $2.90.[1]