The Script · 18 chapters · 2026 edition

Say the number.Keep the family.

You knew the number. You said a smaller one.

You worked it out in the car on the way over. Then the door opened, everyone was friendly, and you heard yourself say “oh, whatever’s easiest.”

That one sentence has cost you more than every lowball rate you have ever been quoted. And you will say it again on Saturday.

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There is a second thing, offered at checkout. The Paperwork: nine fillable documents, six of them carrying your name at the top rather than ours. One tickbox, +$10. See the nine ↓

$19 once, against $1,820 a year.

That is what a $7 gap costs over a year at five hours a week. The book is about nine days of it. Run the free calculator first if you want your own figure instead of the example.

Add up last month

Not the big stuff. The small things you decided not to mention.

The two times they came home forty minutes late.You said it was fine both times.$29

The third child who was there when you arrived.Nobody mentioned a third child.$25

The hour after bedtime you spent on their kitchen.It looked bad. You did it anyway.$22

The Friday booking cancelled at 4pm.You had turned down another one.$110

The rate you have not raised since 2023.Spread across four weeks.$180

One monthOf not saying anything.$366

You did not lose a single one of those. You just never said anything. That is the whole difference, and it happens again every week you keep sitting.

You looked up the going rate.

You found a number. It was probably close to right. It did not help at 11:40 in a hallway with your coat on, because the problem was never that you lacked information.

You decided that next time you would just say it.

Next time came. Someone was holding a wallet and being kind to you and asking about the kids, and you said the small number again.

You raised it once and it went badly.

It was so uncomfortable that you have not tried since. Now the rate is frozen at whatever you were charging the year you got nervous.

You meant to put your rates in writing.

The message is still in drafts. It has been rewritten four times. Every version reads as either rude or apologetic.

Two sitters, same street

Same certificate, same two years, same three families. One of them gets $28 an hour and a text on Tuesday asking if she is free on the 14th. The other gets $19 and finds out about the third child when she arrives.

Nothing separates them except what one of them says out loud, and what she hands over on paper.

You are about four sentences from being the first one.

So what is the number, then

Free, on the calculator, in about a minute. We are not holding it hostage. Here is where it comes from.

$22.00

National base for one child in 2026, built from rates actually paid on completed bookings across thirty US metros, adjusted for what a dollar buys where you live.

51 + 30

Every state and thirty metro areas, each floored at the local minimum wage so the number is never below what is legal.

11 of 20

Modifiers that are our own estimates rather than published data. We say which. Nobody else does.

Getting the number takes a minute. Saying it is the part that has taken you three years.

Knowing the number is the easy half

Every single thing standing between you and a proper rate is a sentence you have to say to another human being. Usually someone you like. Often standing in their hallway with your coat on.

That is a skill, and nobody has ever taught it to you. Not your parents, not the family, not the safety course. You were handed a number and left to work out the rest in real time, on the spot, while being polite.

So this is a book of sentences

The Script is eighteen chapters of the exact words: what to send, what to say, and what to do when it goes sideways. Built from roughly four hundred real complaints by sitters and nannies about money, gathered from Reddit, parenting forums, YouTube comments and review threads.

Not theory. Not “know your worth.” The actual messages, ready to copy.

Chapter fourteen, in full

Here is one of them.

Raising your rate on a family you already sit for came up thirty-five times in the research, and it is the one nobody can write for themselves. This is it exactly as it appears in the book, names and all.

Hi Sarah,

Just a heads up that from March 1st my rate will be going to $24 an hour. I review it once a year and this is the first change since last March.

Nothing else changes and I am not going anywhere. I love sitting for Maya and Tom.

Anything booked before March 1st stays at the current rate.

Thanks!
Anna

Why it is built that way. The date is in the future, so it is an announcement and not a request. “I review it once a year” makes it a policy instead of a favor being asked for. “I am not going anywhere” is the sentence that keeps the family, because losing you is what they are actually worried about. The grace period on anything already booked removes the only fair objection. And no justification is offered anywhere, because a justification is a thing they can argue with.

There are seventeen more chapters like that one.

Part one · Your number

01The floor is not the target: why minimum wage is the worst advice in this industry
02Finding your real local rate, and why published averages run low
03The rate formula: base plus modifiers, with six worked examples
04The experience ladder: what actually moves your rate, and what doesn’t

Part two · The modifiers

05More children: what the second one is really worth, and what to do when a third turns up
06Overnights and sleeping hours: the most confused area in the whole job
07Nights, holidays and short notice: what each one is worth, and the one to skip
08What the job is: what’s included, what costs extra, and how to say so

Part three · Saying it

09Quoting a new family: the text, and the in-person version
10“How much do we owe you?”: the doorway, where most of it is lost
11Friends, family and the discount trap

Part four · Protecting it

12The rate card: one page that turns every quote into a lookup
13Getting it in writing: the agreement and the cancellation policy, in plain language
14Raising your rate: the message, word for word, and what actually happens
15Keeping the money: what you actually made, mileage, and tax briefly and carefully

Part five · Growing it

16Better families: what a good client looks like, and the ones to let go of
17Regulars: what one is actually worth, the discount and its limits, guaranteed hours
18What to do this week: twelve things, in order, starting today

What actually changes

Not confidence in the abstract. Six specific moments, and the words for each one.

They ask what you charge.You say the number, plainly, and stop talking. No apology, no hedge, no trailing off.
They come home an hour late.You have already said what happens after the agreed time, so it is arithmetic, not a favor.
You are owed $180.You send the message on day three instead of drafting it for two weeks.
A family you like is underpaying you.You raise it without turning it into a negotiation, and keep the family.
Three kids instead of two.You quote the difference before you arrive rather than absorbing it on the night.
They ask you to stay over.You know what sleeping hours are worth and can explain it in one sentence.

Why the 2026 edition has a shelf life

Minimum wages change in eighteen US jurisdictions on 1 January, thirteen of them tied to inflation and not yet announced. Florida moves on 30 September. Every rate in here is a 2026 figure, and some of them stop being true on those dates. We re-pull the data before each change and send the new edition to everyone who has bought, at no cost and with nothing to renew. Buy now and January arrives in your inbox.

Offered at checkout · +$10

And then there is the paperwork

Saying the number is half of it. The other half is what you hand over afterwards, and most sitters are working with nothing at all. Nine fillable PDFs, six of which go to the family with your name at the top, not ours.

01Babysitting agreementThe working agreement, signed by both of you. Twenty-three fields.
02InvoiceOne booking or a month of them. Adds itself up.
03My ratesYour rate card. Fill it in once, send it whenever anyone asks.
04Cancellation policyGoes out with the first booking, so it is never a conversation.
05New family formThe forty-one questions to ask before a first job.
06Booking messagesFour texts with the blanks left for you. Sitter-only.
07Raising your rateThe hardest message of the lot, written out. Sitter-only.
08About meOne page for a family who has not met you yet.
09Income and mileage trackerThirty-three bookings. Totals itself. Sitter-only.

Why your name and not our logo. A document with somebody else’s branding on it looks like a template you downloaded. One with your name on it looks like you run a business. That is most of the reason families start treating the rate as a rate rather than a favor.

You do not buy it here. It appears as one tickbox when you check out for The Script, unticked, at $10. Skip it and nothing changes.

Who it’s for

Yes

You sit regularly and suspect you’re underpaid
You’ve been on the same rate for over a year
You freeze when someone asks what you charge
You’re owed money by a family right now
You’re starting out and want to begin properly

Probably not

You sit occasionally for one family and are happy with it
You want a nanny contract and payroll setup, which is a different product, coming later
You want someone to tell you a number and nothing else. The calculator is free, use that

The Script

Eighteen chapters. Instant download, PDF.

$19

About two hours of sitting. Once.

Get the words · $19

Secure checkout · instant access · 60-day money-back guarantee

Raise your rate once, or don’t pay for this. Use the scripts on one family. If your rate hasn’t gone up within 60 days, email me and I’ll refund you in full, and you keep everything.

Where this came from

No origin story, because there isn’t one worth telling. The Script was not written by someone remembering what babysitting was like.

It was built by reading roughly four hundred real complaints about money: Reddit threads, parenting forums, YouTube comments, and reviews of every babysitting book currently in print. Then counting which problems came up most.

What came up most

85×Nobody can find out what the going rate actually is
55×Saying the number out loud, to people you like
38×Charging friends and family
35×Raising a rate on a family you already have
34×Chasing money you are already owed
30×Parents coming home late

Every one of those got a chapter, weighted by how often it came up. The overnight chapter is long because nobody agrees what an overnight is worth. The chapter on charging relatives exists because thirty-eight separate people described the same miserable conversation.

So the credential is not that someone was a great babysitter. It is that four hundred sitters and nannies described exactly where the money goes missing, in their own words, and this is the answer to each one.

Before you ask

Can’t I find this free online?

You can find the number free. We give it away on the calculator. What isn’t out there is the script for telling a family you’ve sat for three years that you’re going up $6. Free advice stops exactly where the awkward part starts.

I’m sixteen. Is this for me?

Yes. Start at chapter two. There’s a track further in for career nannies that you can ignore.

What if the family says no?

Chapter fourteen covers it: the version where you hold your rate, and the version where you walk. Most don’t say no. The ones who do were never going to pay you properly.

Is the tax chapter actual advice?

No. It’s plain-English general information about how sitters usually get paid and what changes when the money gets regular. Rules vary by state and by situation. It tells you what to look into, not what to file.

What format?

A PDF, delivered by email the moment you buy. Reads well on a phone, and prints if you want it on paper.

What if it’s not for me?

Sixty days, full refund, keep the book. I’d rather you had it than argued about $19.

Not ready? Work out what you should be charging. That part is free and always will be.