DNL #1 - How Much Do You Pay a Babysitter?

(This is part of my five part Date Night Lessons series dedicated to our first date night in like, a really freaking long time).

So, we got an invitation in the mail for the 70th birthday party of a man that my friends and I hold very dear to our hearts. Gary Crocker, my good friend Liz's dad, was going to be honored for the big 7-0 and of course, we wouldn't miss it for the world. The party was going to be in Arlington, VA at a Knights of Columbus.

We spoke to two of our friends, Heather and Mark, about trying out a restaurant they kept raving about in Arlington called Ray's the Steaks before heading over to the party. Heather said she would handle reservations and also took on the responsibility of finding a baby-sitter for our four kids (two of ours, two of theirs) who would take care of the children at Heather and Mark's house.

I said, "Sure, handle it!" because I am lazy about that stuff and I am always looking for an easy way out of doing work.

So Heather and I spoke about what to pay the baby-sitter. Now, just for the record, we are both notorious "overtippers." Heather was a waitress during college, so that's where her desire to take care of those in the service industry comes from. I am not sure where my need to overtip comes from, but I definitely feel the need to take care of anybody who drives me in a taxi, serves me food, cuts my hair or carries my luggage for me. I feel terribly guilty that they had to deal with me for even a brief period of time and so I tip them to say, "Hey sorry about that!" because that's how I roll.

So, when it comes to someone spending a Saturday night taking care of our children, we put a high premium on their time.

Add to that, if you're going to spend your Saturday night taking care of my hellion, I mean, Shaila, then I think you should be given a teeny bit extra.

So Heather called me once she secured the babysitter, who was a teacher from her children's daycare. She told me the rate. It sounded good to me. I am bad with math, as well as money, so I was like "Cool!" because that is usually what I just say.

So when I came home, I mentioned to John that we would be paying the baby-sitter $X an hour to watch all four children.

"Are you f%$%ing kidding me!??" he asked.

"No. She is very, very good." I explained. I could see him doing the math. But I realized some might consider it to be an exorbitant rate at this point.

"Do you realize how much we will be paying her by the time the night is over?" he asked.

"I haven't done the math yet." If you haven't guessed I really, really hate math.

At this point I got mad and started yelling at him, saying didn't he think I was worth it and how could he put a dollar value on the care of his children and whatnot and he just let it go. But not before saying,

"I hope she at least juggles or has some cool talent. I want to feel like I am getting my money's worth."

Suffice to say, the baby-sitter did not juggle. But she was nice. Maybe not $X/hour nice. But she was sweet. So I felt ok about it.

Lessons learned?
John will be the one responsible for hiring a baby-sitter going forward because I don't want to hear him complain about how I spend too much money before the date even starts. That is not a good sign and means he will be paying extra attention to how expensive the bottle of wine is.

Stay Tuned for DNL #2 - How to Roll When Someone "Comps" You