The Script

You already know this feeling

“I don’t want to be ripped off, but I don’t want to be greedy.”
r/Babysitting

“It’s so nerve wracking that I keep chickening out.”
r/Nanny, on asking for a raise

“Every single week I have to chase up at least one family who hasn’t paid me.”
r/Nanny

“I couldn’t figure out how much money would be obnoxious.”
YouTube comment

“I don’t know how to approach this without sounding rude.”
r/Babysitting, owed $1,000

“How do I politely say that my rate has increased, and hope they still want to use me?”
r/Babysitting

Everyone tells you what the rate is

Search it and you will find a hundred pages of averages. Care.com has a number. So does every parenting blog. So does our own calculator, and it is free.

That is not where the money goes missing.

It goes missing in the four seconds after a parent says “how much do we owe you?” and you say a smaller number than the one in your head. It goes missing in the raise you have been meaning to ask for since 2023. It goes missing in the forty minutes they came home late, when you said “no worries at all.” It goes missing in a reminder text that has been sitting in drafts for two weeks because sending it feels rude.

None of that is a pricing problem.

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.

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

05Kids, ages and the per-child surcharge
06Overnights and sleeping hours — the most confused area in the whole job
07Holidays, late nights and last-minute
08Scope — 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

12Your four policies — minimum, cancellation, late pickup, guaranteed hours
13Getting paid on the night
14The dreaded reminder text — four escalating messages
15Cash, taxes and staying legal

Part five · Growing it

16Raising your rate on a family you already have — the hard one
17The annual increase as policy, so it is never a negotiation
18Turning certifications into money

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 — that’s a different product, coming later
You want someone to tell you a number and nothing else — the calculator is free, use that

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 $47.

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

The number isn’t the hard part.