SpideyVille
Walking out the Desert
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2008
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So a few years ago when I was temporarily dropped out of college for a semester, I started to babysit my brother's son because he had just transferred to an elementary school next to my house. My brother lived pretty far away and since I was free, he figured that it would be best for me to pick him up and sometimes even take him to school since my mother was usually at work. He would pay me $100 every two weeks for staying with his kid for a few hours until he got out of work. At the time, that seemed like a lot for me since I didn't really have many expenses to worry about.
But after I started getting more involved with things at school and other things, it became harder for me to do it on my own, so my mom took over. Then, my brother moved closer to the neighborhood because his daughter was now going to be enrolled in the school too. He would pay my mom $200 and me $50 every two weeks, until he realized that I was barely picking them up once or twice a week. But now, ever since he moved closer, it has become my mother's responsibility to take care of them during the summer since she only works at a school during the school year. In the past year, I've also become more available during the summer, so me and my mother alternate, with me taking over either for a few hours or even a whole day whenever she has somewhere else to be.
Lately, however, my mother has been becoming more sick in terms of both physical and in terms of stress, since the income my brother has been giving her goes directly towards paying bills and suing whatever is left over to buy food for the kids since my brother doesn't provide any. Every now and then she pays me $10 or $20 dollars whenever he decides to pay her (which is often days or weeks after he gets paid). But since I've been doing more of the work lately, I've told my mom that it is unfair, especially since he told her he was going to pay me separately for my extra share of the work since I stood with them for a couple of days when they had no school and when my mom had to work.
Now for the summer, his wife wants to enroll the kids in swimming classes that meets three times a week, which I like because it keeps them more active than they are at our house, but it requires me having to take a long walk to a park early in the morning to pick them up, and then take care of them for a few hours before having to take them back to school for a few hours until he gets home. Since my mom is unwilling to make the walk, I told him I would because I know me and my mom could still use the money.
But my question is, am I or my mom supposed to be getting paid more now, or is my brother's excuse that we're "family" and should be doing the favor for free okay? Keep in mind, we have basically been raising his kids while the parents are at work, and have been somewhat tied down by the fact that we have to make ourselves available to take care of his kids. On the other end of the spectrum, my sister, who is raising two kids alone in California has told me that if I go live with her when I finish school at the end of the year, she'd pay me what she pays her babysitter which is about $500 every 2 weeks, so she could go back to college and get her degree.
But after I started getting more involved with things at school and other things, it became harder for me to do it on my own, so my mom took over. Then, my brother moved closer to the neighborhood because his daughter was now going to be enrolled in the school too. He would pay my mom $200 and me $50 every two weeks, until he realized that I was barely picking them up once or twice a week. But now, ever since he moved closer, it has become my mother's responsibility to take care of them during the summer since she only works at a school during the school year. In the past year, I've also become more available during the summer, so me and my mother alternate, with me taking over either for a few hours or even a whole day whenever she has somewhere else to be.
Lately, however, my mother has been becoming more sick in terms of both physical and in terms of stress, since the income my brother has been giving her goes directly towards paying bills and suing whatever is left over to buy food for the kids since my brother doesn't provide any. Every now and then she pays me $10 or $20 dollars whenever he decides to pay her (which is often days or weeks after he gets paid). But since I've been doing more of the work lately, I've told my mom that it is unfair, especially since he told her he was going to pay me separately for my extra share of the work since I stood with them for a couple of days when they had no school and when my mom had to work.
Now for the summer, his wife wants to enroll the kids in swimming classes that meets three times a week, which I like because it keeps them more active than they are at our house, but it requires me having to take a long walk to a park early in the morning to pick them up, and then take care of them for a few hours before having to take them back to school for a few hours until he gets home. Since my mom is unwilling to make the walk, I told him I would because I know me and my mom could still use the money.
But my question is, am I or my mom supposed to be getting paid more now, or is my brother's excuse that we're "family" and should be doing the favor for free okay? Keep in mind, we have basically been raising his kids while the parents are at work, and have been somewhat tied down by the fact that we have to make ourselves available to take care of his kids. On the other end of the spectrum, my sister, who is raising two kids alone in California has told me that if I go live with her when I finish school at the end of the year, she'd pay me what she pays her babysitter which is about $500 every 2 weeks, so she could go back to college and get her degree.
