Babysitters

She wasn't a good babysitter.

that is crazy. My daughter babysits and gets $6.50 an hour they are 2 and 3 years old. Of course they are sleeping most of the time she is there. She cleans up everything they get out and cleans up the kitchen after their dinner. Which she feeds them.
You need to find a better baby sitter. Do you have a highschool or a college close you can hang up notices there or call a local church to see if they know of anyone. I would not want her back. Of course being 9 and 10 you would think they would have picked up some by themselves.
I would tell the babysitter no being on my computer you play with the kids.

It was my friend that was here! I guess I should have expected it, as her house is always a diaster and she doesn't even pick up after herself. I am going to call some friends and see if they have neices or even nephews, or friends that have kids. Unfortunately, talking to some of the parents at the school, that's the going rate, and babysitters are so hard to come by in my area (parents here don't make their kids earn their money, they just hand it to them), other parents are not willing to give up their sitters numbers!

I babysat whenI was in high school, I had proper training in CPR and I knew to clean up after myself. I would let the parents decide how much to pay me, I found I would get paid better than I would have charged. My mom is a financial advisor so she would let her clients know that I babysat, it was a pretty good business I had going in Highschool. I even had a family like me so much they hired me as a nanny to accompany them on a winter vacation skiiing.

As far as my kids go, I was switching back and fort btwn 2 of my nieces who were the same age and I found out from my then 5 year old that one of them would make him stay in his room in the dark regardless of the time, and in one instance told him "I don't care what your mom said I'm the boss" needless to say that was the last time we used her, the other niece turned out to be a Godsend, she is now the only paid babysitter we have. We pay typically $25 for the night for all three kids, more if it is going to be a long evening. I don't mind a mess as long as it's not excessivly messy, I try to have dinner made or let them order pizza, but I do leave the parental controls on on the computer and the tv.

There are agencies that provide adult babysitters that won't leave your house dirty. Most of them require the sitters to bring their own food. You can offer and they can accept food, just not expect it. However, the charge for the sitter is usually a minimum of 3 or 4 hours and they add an agency fee.
The best thing about agencies is that if a sitter doesn't do a good job, you just don't accept that person again. Can't do that with a friend.

You are so right Elizabeth. I have to find a teenager that charges less.