What to pay a baby sitter?

[cheap traveler]

I'm about to face the same issue (OP's, not the rest)

First non-family babysitter is coming on Thursday, for a 9hour day! She is about to turn 15, and we haven't talked pay yet! I was going to have her over (again) this weekend, but we got so busy that it didn't happen. I plan to ask her how much when I see her, or I might call her mom (only phone they have is the mom's cell) early this week. I payed my last teenager $7/hr, but she is like family, so IDK if she was giving me a break, but she also has a strong sense of entitlement, so I think that might even thing out

On the off-topic comments - my sister and I started staying home together when we were 8&9, only when no other option was available. I started to get payed to babysit at the age of 10, and had a few regulars by 13. My dds are 9 and 6.5. I left them home long enough for me to run to the store (3 miles away) and pick up eggs. These little excursions will start to get more frequent, because they can't learn independence from a book. I won't leave my 9 year old in charge, because she will abuse the power, and daylight hours only. I know my sister and I were scared half to death when we had to stay home alone at night, even at 15!

 

[tfiga1]

We pay our baby sitter $8.00 an hour. Normally she charges $5 for the 1st kid and $4 for each additional kid, but as our children are 13 and 11 we get a discount. Also before I get flamed about how ridiculous I am to hire a babysitter for a teenager, I would like to clarify it is for evenings and it makes me feel comfortable going out. Although my children are responsible they fight a lot and I feel better knowing that there is someone in the evening to make sure the fighting does not get out of hand.

 

[abcboys]

Where in the Midwest are you finding those prices? We live in a suburb of Des Moines, which is pretty much the definition of the Midwest, and we've never had a sitter charge less than $10 per hour (and $12-$14 seems to be the norm). These are college-age women or slightly older (we cannot find any high school age sitters, as they are all far too busy on the weekends as far as we can tell).

I agree with your second point, about starting to ease kids into responsibility, and we are doing the same with our older daughter. But putting her in charge of her younger, special-needs brother, isn't likely to happen any time soon.

Small town southern IL. No suburbs, just a bunch of small towns. Don't know if that makes a difference or not. This is for most teenagers 13-16.

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

Small town southern IL. No suburbs, just a bunch of small towns. Don't know if that makes a difference or not. This is for most teenagers 13-16.

I'd bet it has more to do with urban/suburban versus small town/rural differences, as well as with the availability of teens to sit. We'd love to find a neighborhood teenager to have on call, but every single one either has a "real job" in retail or is so active in sports & activities that they are just not available for sitting, leaving us dependent on adults (we have most luck hiring the teachers at our son's Montessori School but have also hired a few new teachers who are active substitutes at our daughter's elementary school). I'm sure the age of the sitter has a lot to do with it, along with supply/demand working very much against us!

 

[anelson81993]

Where in the Midwest are you finding those prices? We live in a suburb of Des Moines, which is pretty much the definition of the Midwest, and we've never had a sitter charge less than $10 per hour (and $12-$14 seems to be the norm). These are college-age women or slightly older (we cannot find any high school age sitters, as they are all far too busy on the weekends as far as we can tell).

I agree with your second point, about starting to ease kids into responsibility, and we are doing the same with our older daughter. But putting her in charge of her younger, special-needs brother, isn't likely to happen any time soon.

That's crazy! My family is in a suburb of Des Moines, too--I go to school at Iowa State. My high school-age sister babysits all the time, would rather do that than most anything else on the weekend (she's not really involved in extracurriculars, and is still too young for a part-time job, for another month at least), and I babysat for a couple years before going off to my current job.