I Refused to Babysit My Cousin’s Kids for 3 Days at $15 per Hour & Quoted My Price

• A woman's cousin asked her if she could hire her as a babysitter for her children for three days. She felt $15 an hour was a good rate to offer.
• She turned down her cousin's rate and demanded $35 an hour because she felt that was what she deserved.
• To her surprise, her cousin's husband slammed her, saying a 24-year-old girl's time was not worth that much.

A woman took to Reddit to share the story of how her cousin wanted to hire her as a babysitter for $15 an hour and how she requested $35. She felt the reaction of her cousin's husband was uncalled for.

The woman is a software engineer by profession. She has a full-time job but also does some freelance work during her spare time.

She's the type of woman to accept freelance jobs whenever she has free time because she'd rather do something productive than sit idly. Over Christmas vacation, she went home to her parents' house. Her cousin was staying over at the time with her three young children.

She Used Her Free Time to Earn Money

Each morning during her visit, the woman allocated time for her freelance work. It was the best thing to do because her parents lived in a rural town and any fun activity was an hour's drive away.

One day, her cousin asked if she could babysit her children for three straight days. They wanted someone to look after their children so they could hang out with other adults.

The woman mentioned she'd be doing freelance work, but her cousin insisted they could pay. She agreed, for as long as the rates were close to what she was being paid to freelance.

When her cousin asked how much, she felt $60 was too much, but she didn't want to offer her babysitting services for too low as well. She admitted that babysitting three kids for three days was a lot more work than what she did as a freelance coder. So, she set her rate at $35.

Her cousin and her cousin's husband went berserk as they thought $35 was a ridiculous amount for babysitting. Her cousin went so far as to say she was entitled and selfish and that she felt as if she was being taken advantage of because she had no option.

The Woman Tried to Reason Out With Her Cousins

The woman tried to explain that this was below what she'd be making if she were to work on her freelance project, and she'd have to put down her work to focus on the three kids.

"Her husband then got mad at me, saying that I was a 24-year-old girl…that my time [was] not worth that much and it [was] childish to say that it was," she added. Her cousin-in-law called her names, and she was instantly fed up.

She told them to find another babysitter, as they clearly couldn't agree on a rate. While she was satisfied with how things played out, her mother insisted she was being offensive.

People on Reddit made sure to give the woman the assurance she needed. They said she wasn't being unreasonable; in fact, her rates were completely valid.

"NTA. 3 kids all day, for 3 straight days? Even real babysitters would charge more than 15 for 3 kids. Obviously, they wanted you to do it as a favor and got upset that you treated it as an actual job," one user wrote. Another echoed:

"$15 for 3 kids is absolutely insulting and taking advantage of a family member."

"I babysit occasionally for a few families, and my charge is 15$ per hour per child. If I know the family well, I’ll do 30$ an hour no matter how many kids they have. No one has ever bat an eyelash at my rate," one fellow babysitter shared.

Ultimately, Reddit was on the woman's side. They felt her cousins were being extremely rude to her for no reason, and they had no right to call her names.

What do you think of the woman's situation? Do you think she was being reasonable, or should she have accepted the babysitting gig for $15 an hour?

While some cousins become friends for life, there are others who just don't meet eye to eye. In another story, a dad had to put a lock on her daughter's room after her cousins kept taking her things.