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[baltassoc]

In the Baltimore-Washington corridor 'burbs, we pay about $7-8 an hour (rounded up usually to the nearest multiple of 10) for a high school freshman to sit two little ones in the evening. Grazing is expected, but she usually eats dinner with her family before we are even home from work. No way she's touching my computer, but she has run of the digital cable, DVD collection, CDs (right, like she's going to listen to the complete works of U2 and REM) and Playstation. She seems to like the Playstation.

We also have a couple of underemployed college graduates (they are "artists"), both of whom have prior experience working at excellent daycares, whom we pay $10-11 an hour to watch the kids during the day sometimes. Both are on Atkins (which seems to be working for both, BTW), so they tend to bring their own food, but we don't really care if they raid the pantry (except the one who keeps putting back the empty peanut butter jar back on the shelf - just toss it and get another out of the basement pantry). Both of these women tend to use their daycare/art experience to engage the kids, so they end up making hand turkeys and easter eggs and construction paper jack-o-lanterns.

No, you can't have their names.

Edited to add that the high schooler lives two doors down, so transport time really isn't an issue, and the clock starts for the older women when they get to our doorstep.