Editor’s Note: For the rest of the summer, The Dispatch is profiling some of the area’s youngest entrepreneurs. Do you know a child earning money in a unique way? Let us know by emailing [email protected].
When Allison Krieger started her baby and pet-sitting business, Alley Kat, in 2018, she was looking for something to raise some walking around money.
But now, she has turned that side hustle into a legitimate job and is putting half her earnings away into a retirement account while keeping the rest to save up for daily expenses while attending the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science in August, she said.
“(Babysitting) genuinely interested me because my mom would sometimes babysit for her friends when I was little, I would go with her and I always liked it,” Krieger said. “… I started the Roth IRA like a year ago. I give (half) to my dad and he puts it in there because I know if I see that money, I’ll be like, ‘Oh, shopping.’ So, I don’t look at that.
“Kids my age, they’ll get a job and then girls start shopping, and then the boys, like my boyfriend, go out and buy video games because we want to buy things, not because we’re trying to save,” she added. “But I was always raised to save my money.”
Krieger said she runs Alley Kat year round, but she does most of her business during the summer from June through early August, servicing about 10 babysitting clients per month and holding down five to 10 pet-sitting gigs. She sees about half of that when she is in school.
Combined, she earns between $300 and $500 per month. She charges $15 an hour to watch children or pets, though that rate can increase to $25 if a pet requires more attention.
“In the summer, everyone’s going on vacations, and instead of doing it just at night, it can be an all-day (service),” Krieger said. “I’ve had a week where the parents are working and they have me come over to babysit during the day because the kids aren’t at school.”
Krieger has also taken classes on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and babysitting, learning everything from making baby formula to saving a child from choking or drowning.
Her services include preparing meals for children, watching over them at home and even bringing toys to play with. For pet-sitting, Krieger walks, feeds and spends quality time with the animals.
Over the last four years in the business, Krieger said she has gone beyond the enjoyment of working with children and has gained leadership and stress management skills with her job. She also said she has gotten a rare opportunity to see how other families and people work, which she found educational.
But even though Krieger said she enjoys the work, she knows she will have to slow it down as she begins her first semester at MSMS.
“During school, you really cannot have a job unless you’re working the weekends, and since the weekends are going to be the main time I spend with my family, I don’t want to be doing that,” she said. “During the summer, I’ll apply for other jobs like at a restaurant to make more money since I won’t be (babysitting) during the school year. I think I would still babysit, but it would be more of a side thing instead of what I mainly do.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 42 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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