Apparently, I'm severely under paying

[Anonymous 1]

One day, I randomly offered my daughter to pay her to walk our dogs $10 per dog, per walk. I figured she would walk them separately because they aren't well leash trained and two of them are pretty annoying to walk. I explained that she would have to pick up the dog poop and that since each dog poops at least once, I would expect her to come home with at least 4 bags of dog poop each time she walked them, therefore, I would know if she just weren't picking it up. I also told her that I only expected her to go around our street which is a big circle and takes about 10 minutes to walk around completely with the dogs. It's a short walk.

I didn't expect her to take me up on it because in the afternoons, she is always really tired from school. But, surprisingly, she did. She's taking them on longer walks, and takes them in groups of 2, several days per week. I've already had to pay her over $100 since she started.

I decided to look into dog walkers for this summer because we're going to be gone a lot and she is supposed to get an actual part time job. They are quoting me $27 per 45 minute walk, per dog!

So is this abuse of child labor? Am I a horrible mother?

[carterscutie85]

Your daughter isn't a professional who would be able to recognize dog's behavior, control them in a bad situation, etc. It's fine to pay her less. My neighbor asked my son to help her move some stuff. I was going to make him do it for free but she insisted on giving him $10. A professional would have charged much more.

[Baconqueen13]

Lame post is lame

[Anonymous 1]

Lame post is lame

Your sense of humor is like a F***ing board of sheet rock.

[Baconqueen13]

Lame post is lame

Your sense of humor is like a F***ing board of sheet rock.

I didn't know sheet rock was capable of F***ing, clearly you enjoy it, but I won't kink shame.

[Pjmm]

Lame post is lame

What exactly is wrong with it? She’s asking a legit question. And I’d say as long as daughter is cool with the price I wouldn’t worry.

[Baconqueen13]

Lame post is lame

What exactly is wrong with it? She’s asking a legit question. And I’d say as long as daughter is cool with the price I wouldn’t worry.

I don't think it's a legit question. It's a "I'm bored so let me try to drive up drama regarding chores and paying my kid to do them" but whatever. I think it's lame and my opinion is valid even if others disagree.

[Deleted User 1977]

Your post is NOT lame. It's refreshing to read something that isn't political, religious, or based off of the latest social controversy.

How old is your daughter and how many times a day does she walk (unless I've missed this in your op) the dog's?

[Traci_Momof2]

You're actually over-paying her if I'm reading it right. You offered $10 per dog per walk. You required a minimum of 10 minutes per walk. So you are paying $10 for 10 minutes. That's more than $27 for 45 minutes. The fact that your DD is choosing to do more than 10 minutes is irrelevant.

Math aside, it's ok to pay people what they are willing to be paid. When my kids were young and we hired the highschooler next door to babysit for date nights and such, we asked her how much she charged. She said "whatever you want to pay is fine with me". So we did $7 or $8 an hour for the two kids (this would be back around 2010). Was it lower than others paid? Perhaps. But she was fine with it and we were fine with it so I don't see the problem.
Now when the whole family leaves town for a few days or a couple weeks, we use one of my son's high school friends to do the dog-sitting at our house. Just one dog, and we don't require them to stay at our house all day but they often choose to because they like the quiet (their own house is noisy and chaotic). Again we asked what they charge and they said "whatever is fine" so we pay them $20 per overnight. So like this last time we left on a Wednesday afternoon and came back Saturday afternoon so we paid them $60 total. Less than other dog sitters? Perhaps. But they are fine with it and they get benefits too like our quiet house, including staying overnight if they want to which they do sometimes.

When you are not dealing with 1099 or W2 wages and the pertaining laws, payment is fine if both parties are fine with it. It doesn't have to meet standards or comparisons, it just has to meet both parties expectations.

[LiveWhatULove]

I recently discussed paying children to watch younger siblings (voluntarily) on a parenting sub, and a couple of Redditors were adamant it was abuse. And majority commented it better be higher than minimum wage.

So I obviously have completely lost track the social norms on this subject. At worst, I might br abusing my kids, as they have to walk the dog, do house chores, and watch younger siblings on occasion forFREE!!