Childcare over summer

[KAYLI'S DAD]

We have never needed childcare for the summer but we are this year so we dont know what is reasonable for it. We have 2 girls that are 12 and 8. We mainly just want them to be doing things instead of just sitting in the house watching electronics. We have a pool and a membership to a local pool that they can all use as well. We have friends who pay a college girl $250 a week and the girl we met with told us $400 a week. Does this seem out of line? Thanks for any input.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

We have never needed childcare for the summer but we are this year so we dont know what is reasonable for it. We have 2 girls that are 12 and 8. We mainly just want them to be doing things instead of just sitting in the house watching electronics. We have a pool and a membership to a local pool that they can all use as well. We have friends who pay a college girl $250 a week and the girl we met with told us $400 a week. Does this seem out of line? Thanks for any input.

From my knowledge, that doesn’t seem crazy for watching two kids full time. If you put them in camps during the day, you would be looking at $200-300 per child per week. If the person will be crafting activities for the kids each day and shuttling them around to a pool or other things, then I think it isn’t necessarily unreasonable. But child care costs vary widely by area. My area has higher than average costs.

 

[1st*toright]

How many hours are we talking about? $400 would be less than minimum wage if its 40 hours a week.

 

[wendow]

I think the $400 a week is low but like a PP mentioned, childcare costs vary widely by region. Where we live, summer nannies are very in demand. My next door neighbor pays hers $15/hour. If you hired a younger girl to just hang out at home with your kids, you’d expect to pay a min of $10/hr. Once you move to expecting someone to drive your kids to activities, min would be $12/hr. Again, these costs vary a lot so maybe interview some more potentials but $400 seems fair to me.

 

[KAYLI'S DAD]

How many hours are we talking about? $400 would be less than minimum wage if its 40 hours a week.

About 40-45. I was thinking the same thing. It does come out to 8.xx something an hour. I was just shocked that it was almost double what our friends pay.

 

[HulaHoopy]

Last year I paid $14 an hour (we pay per hour because it varies at times due to our schedule). My nanny is responsible for feeding breakfast and lunch (although my oldest two are pretty self sufficient there) She does monitor the snacks, limits electronics usage and keeps the youngest entertained. They do a lot of baking and craft projects. She also has to keep an eye on the dog (let her and out) and sometimes the neighbor kids are over so she keeps an eye on them too.

 

[firefly_ris]

It's hard to get a good gauge from a board like this because cost of living varies wildly from all over the country (and Canada, and abroad).... an unrelated example being someone asked what a good $$ amount for a wedding gift is and people were throwing out numbers like $500 and $600, meanwhile my mortgage is $900 and so throwing $600 at someone for getting married would be unfathomable to me, ha.

That said, $400 isn't too unreasonable I don't think, depending on what minimum wage in your area is, and if this person will be using gas, wear and tear on their car to transport them places, etc... you might get a cheaper rate with a weekly YMCA type thing, but depends on what you're looking for I guess.

 

[mjkacmom]

Dd22 gets paid $20 an hour for babysitting, but it’s not regular and the kids can be handfuls (one consists of two young boys with one on the spectrum, the other five kids, the youngest is two). Dd18 sits for those families, and also another family with two young boys where she only gets $10 an hour. She does it because she’s pretty busy and can’t get a regular part time job, but several of her friends refuse to go back there (they can be tough). All of the jobs include driving them places, picking up, taking to practices and birthday parties...

 

[Shughart]

It will depend heavily on your area. Just because one friend pays one girl $250 a week does not mean $400 a week is high. Talk to other parents in the area. You did say you have never needed childcare in the summer. Price local park district camps for comparison as well. Also consider the fact that you want someone driving your kids around in their own vehicle, so your kids have a fun summer, instead of your kids at home in the house all day everyday. Also how old the sitter is and whether they may be CPR certified might come into play. Definitely shop around and compare prices. Don't wait too long. Most school get out soon. Ours get out next month. Sitters go quick.

 

[mommajo143]

It depends on where you live I think.
I would call local childcare center & inquire what they charge for summer care. Your kids’s are old enough they really only need supervision not actual care. We pay $50/day plus provide $ for gas & activities. My DH is a nurse so our sitter works a rotating schedule. My boys are 8 & 12. I am of the opinion it’s a cash job - if they want to provide info for me to write off the cost of childcare on my taxes then I would be willing to pay more.

 

[mmbrad02]

I also agree that it depends on the area. We are in small town Kentucky and in the same position, looking for childcare for our 8 year old daughter for summer. For us, $200 a week is a lot; we are looking at about $150 a week plus paying for any outings they do. Full time daycare here runs about $100 a week, and there is one summer camp that is highly sought after that is only $60 a week!

One thought was that, if they worked fast food or something, its a lot of sporadic schedules, including evenings and weekends. Our daughter is well behaved but loves to play and would want the sitter to play with her. it's 8-5 sort of work, M-F.

 

[barkley]

It will depend heavily on your area. Just because one friend pays one girl $250 a week does not mean $400 a week is high. Talk to other parents in the area. You did say you have never needed childcare in the summer. Price local park district camps for comparison as well. Also consider the fact that you want someone driving your kids around in their own vehicle, so your kids have a fun summer, instead of your kids at home in the house all day everyday. Also how old the sitter is and whether they may be CPR certified might come into play. Definitely shop around and compare prices. Don't wait too long. Most school get out soon. Ours get out next month. Sitters go quick.

i agree with this b/c it does vary so much depending on where you live.

we paid at or near (plus extra for offsite activities) what you're being quoted when our kids were that age-which was over 10 years ago. granted, that was for a 'summer program' associated with a local school but we opted to pay that much b/c we wanted/needed summer care that didn't fall through if a single provider fell ill/was forced to take a day off (no backup provider), off site activities w/appropriately insured transportation (god forbid an accident-if an insurance company finds out a provider is using the car for an unreported/uninsured 'business' activity it can deny coverage-or so our then insurance company advised us), and first and foremost-red cross/cpr/life guard trained & certified (school had a pool-if i had one of my own any private provider would need to be similarly trained/certified).

straight on in home daycare/babysitting (short term for summer or during school breaks) back then ran $10 an hour for 2 kids if you were going w/someone more responsible than a high school kid b/c it was a short-term job.

 

[scard192]

seems pretty reasonable. Here is Massachusetts my daughter puts her 2 girls in Y camp for ~ $300 per week per kid.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I live in Louisiana and pay $135 a week for summer camp. I guess I get a good deal!

 

[DisneyHardin]

I also agree that it depends on the area. We are in small town Kentucky and in the same position, looking for childcare for our 8 year old daughter for summer. For us, $200 a week is a lot; we are looking at about $150 a week plus paying for any outings they do. Full time daycare here runs about $100 a week, and there is one summer camp that is highly sought after that is only $60 a week!

One thought was that, if they worked fast food or something, its a lot of sporadic schedules, including evenings and weekends. Our daughter is well behaved but loves to play and would want the sitter to play with her. it's 8-5 sort of work, M-F.

I'm from small town Kentucky too. I was a summer nanny 5 or 6 years when I was in college and first started teaching for a family with 3 kids - they paid me $175/week about 15 years ago. So, I would say $150/week for just one kid now is very in line for small town KY - I hope you are able to find someone that fits your needs.

 

[smallsy]

My friend uses a nanny for her 3 during the summer and pays about $400/week. This is our first year needing summer care too but we only need it for DS6 since the twins are still in year round preschool. We’re doing YMCA camps since there are lots of fun ones and they offer extended stay for working parents. The regular camp is $120/week and ~$160 for the themed ones like cooking, art, and sports. For 1 kid we found the camps to be much more affordable, not to mention we don’t have to worry about a nanny calling in sick.

 

[EveDallas]

We have never needed childcare for the summer but we are this year so we dont know what is reasonable for it. We have 2 girls that are 12 and 8. We mainly just want them to be doing things instead of just sitting in the house watching electronics. We have a pool and a membership to a local pool that they can all use as well. We have friends who pay a college girl $250 a week and the girl we met with told us $400 a week. Does this seem out of line? Thanks for any input.

Care for two kids full time during the week? Yeah, $400 sounds completely reasonable.

 

[Owlpost23]

This is not an area you want to nickel and dime.Best you can afford.

 

[la79al]

It really does depend on the area. I personally couldn't imagine paying or charging $400 a week, especially for an 8 and 12 year old. Keep looking around. Maybe find a stay at home mom willing to take on a couple more. Or even a teacher looking to pick up a little something over the summer.

 

[rchampagne]

Our kids (13, 10) attend a summer camp from 7:30 - 4:30. The combined price for both is around $500 each week.
We're in Massachusetts.