Earning Money for Christmas

We wanted our kids to buy presents for each other with money that they had earned - AND we didn't want it to be stupid presents form the dollar store that break in a day.  We told them about the "new" plan and that they were expected to earn and save the money - we talked about HOW they wanted to do that.  We discussed several ideas - but in the end they came up with a babysitting night.  At first I thought it was a cop-out and I would do all the work.  In the end we made a deal - they had to distribute the flyers, clean the house before the kids got there, play actively with the kids the whole time (even the babies and toddlers), and the clean up after they left - then we could do it.  I was in charge of dinner.

Here was their flyer:

Need a night off??

The Herbert "children" are hosting a

Babysitting Night

to earn money for Christmas

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This Friday, December 2nd

Drop off /pick up anytime between 5:00 - 9:00

$2.00 per child for the whole night

$3.00 per child if you want me to feed them dinner (mac and cheese)

or you pack a dinner and we can feed it to them for free J

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Please RSVP by Friday at 3:00 pm

Jamie 801-633-5715/jamieherbert84@gmail.com

When each family came one of my kids wrote their names on our white board and took any special equipment (diapers, sippy cups, dinner etc) and wrote down information.

It was a crazy busy night.  We ended up having about 20 kids (not including mine).  They made 60 dollars!  It took over an hour to clean up - so they didn't' get to bed until about 10:30 - so if we did it again (which they are already asking to) I would end it at 8:00.  But all in all it went great - the kids really did "babysit" and not just play - I had to keep reminding them - like "who is watching Alayna - she is walking around with a marker with no lid!"  It was an easy way for the kids to make some real money in one night - with also doing a lot of work.