teaching and baby sitting = how much to charge

[kulahola]

Hi!!
Occasionally, parents want to use the piano lesson as a baby sitting time and have a dinner out while i am teaching and after staying with the kid alone....

how much should i charge ? seems a bit exaggerate to charge the baby sitting time at the same rate as the teaching time ??

Should i not charge anything extra ? what do you think ?

[falling4ever3]

My teacher teaches me right after school before my mom gets off of work so I am there with her for about an hour alone. She does not charge any extra for this, and I don't think you should either unless behavior problems arise (or the kid is say under 7), but hey, who am I? just a student...

sry this is the only help I can offer...

- falling4ever3

[Hmoll]

Hi!!
Occasionally, parents want to use the piano lesson as a baby sitting time and have a dinner out while i am teaching and after staying with the kid alone....

how much should i charge ? seems a bit exaggerate to charge the baby sitting time at the same rate as the teaching time ??

Should i not charge anything extra ? what do you think ?

Put it this way: If they dropped their kids off to their $300/hr.  lawyer while they went for dinner, what would the lawyer charge? My guess would be $300/ hr.

You have an hourly rate because your time is worth something. You could be teaching another student instead of babysitting a kid. Charge the full rate. Also, from a professional standpont, you may want to examine having a policy that does not allow you to baby sit kids. It creates a more posistive reflection on you and the function of piano teachers.

[kulahola]

Thank you, Hmoll.

I dont know what i will do, the mother always acts as if we were friends but i want to keep a distance with my pupils. And they will go out from 7 pm to 11pm on a Friday evening, so i also think i have to charge, maybe not like 4 hours teaching but still something.

Of course if a student stays one more hour while i am teaching another one, it is only good (i like when my pupils listen to each otehr) but this time it is different.

[Hmoll]

If they are indeed friends, it's a little tricky. If they are acting like friends, and taking advantage of you, that's something else.
I would make myself unavailable for Fri. evenings. Tell them you have an appointment 1/2 hour after their child's lesson ends.

From your posts, I can tell that you take your teaching and piano very seriously.  The parents of your students should take you seriously and respect you as well. I don't know the other party involved, but it sounds like that's not happening here.

[Khartwig]

Honesty is the best policy.  
I would suggest charging your hourly lesson rate.

[monk]

I would advise the parents:

Don't pay kulahola anything and change the teacher.

She can't teach and is a dictator. The baby sitting time would be traumatic for the child.

(See thread "How do you answer stupid parent's questions".)

Best Wishes,
Monk

[kulahola]

Indeed you are right in one thing: to be a good pianist, you need a little dictator inside of you. To learn how to play is not a democratic process.

Kids are always very happy to stay in my place. When it s not lesson time, I am not so serious about things and I am quite a normal and funny person.