How much do you pay babysitters?

[Tigger113]

How much do you pay babysitters?
My Daughter is payed $10 and hour for 2 kids.
I was just wondering.

 

[RangerPooh]

Good question. I'm trying to figure out what's an appropriate amount to pay someone to watch my daughter. I told a co-worker that we were considering the $6.50-$9 an hour range and she said that I was WAY too high and that it's more around $3 an hour. That just seems too low. So what does everyone else pay per hour for someone to watch a toddler?

 

[lady9]

I think the going rate for babysitters depends on a few things. First, the age of the sitter. We pay our college sitter more than our high school sitters. It also varies by the area of the country you live in. In the midwest, sitters are paid less than in the NY, NJ, MA area. I went to college in the midwest and was paid about $4.00 an hour for 4 kids. My friend from NJ laughed and said she would get about $15 for that many kids and this was back in the '90's. We live in OH and pay our college sitter about $8-9 an hour and our high school sitters about $6-7 for 2 kids. Our 1 high school sitter has joked that she will cancel other jobs to sit for us because we do pay a bit more than other families she sits for.

 

[las3888]

I think the going rate for babysitters depends on a few things. First, the age of the sitter. We pay our college sitter more than our high school sitters. It also varies by the area of the country you live in. In the midwest, sitters are paid less than in the NY, NJ, MA area. I went to college in the midwest and was paid about $4.00 an hour for 4 kids. My friend from NJ laughed and said she would get about $15 for that many kids and this was back in the '90's. We live in OH and pay our college sitter about $8-9 an hour and our high school sitters about $6-7 for 2 kids. Our 1 high school sitter has joked that she will cancel other jobs to sit for us because we do pay a bit more than other families she sits for.

Be careful what you call the midwest! My sister pays well over $10 per hour for high school aged babysitter for her 2 kids. Babysitters are WAY expensive in parts of the Chicago area.

 

[adisneymama]

We have a set of twin 13 yo's that babysit our 4 yo DD. They either come together or if one is sick etc only one will come. Either way, they charge $5/hr total but I usually make them brownies or cookies and give them a little bit of a tip. They are wonderful and very mature.

 

[Tigger113]

Good question. I'm trying to figure out what's an appropriate amount to pay someone to watch my daughter. I told a co-worker that we were considering the $6.50-$9 an hour range and she said that I was WAY too high and that it's more around $3 an hour. That just seems too low. So what does everyone else pay per hour for someone to watch a toddler?

$3 is way to low. Toddlers are a lot of work so I would say $7-8.

My kids wouldn't even do it for less than $7-8 for one kid.

 

[mom2taylorandemily]

We live in Virginia, and I pay $5.00 an hour. We have 2 kids, aged 9 & 6. Both girls and pretty easy to care for, but we always provide dinner, desert and I always round up to the next hour, so the sitter will get a tip too. I think $3.00 is too low to pay a sitter and especially for a toddler. But $10.00 is way high for this area.

 

[crazywig]

we usually pay $10hr for dh's 16 yr old cousin to sit for a 4 yr old and a 21m old.

 

[Hannathy]

My DD averages about $5. an hour for 1 or 2 older kids I would say at least $5. per hour for a toddler. No one around here would pay $10. an hour unless they had 7 kids!

 

[wrldpossibility]

We pay $10/hour for three kids, and we pay better than most in our area. Our sitter is 15, and we have to drive her to and from our house, so I guess I would pay an older sitter more. We are in Oregon. I think most sitters here charge $5/hour, with a few dollars/hour tacked on for additional children. My oldest is more of a help than anything, so my sitter charges much less for him.

 

[RangerPooh]

It's nice to know what a ballpark figure is for a babysitter. I knew that $3 was WAY too low. Since the sitter is college aged I will definately consider the higher amounts mentioned in prior posts when we discuss cost. Thank you.

 

[emma'smom]

We live in Ohio and I pay my college students 8.00/hr. I think my pay is pretty average for the area. I do usually "round up" so they walk away with a bit more than 8.00/hr (8.25 maybe). I have two children who are 4 and 16months.

 

[MichelleChell]

I am 32 and I still babysit for 1 family. I charge $10 an hr. $5 is way to low in my opinion even for a high school kid. I made that when I was 15 and that wsa yrs ago. I also worked for a babysitting and the starting rate is $10 an hr with a 4 hr min.

 

[princesspiglet]

When I was a teenager, (early 90's) I babysat for the same family 2 Fridays a month from 7-midnight for 3 years. I had 3 kids, starting age of 6, 8, 9. I made $50 for the night, so if I broke it down to hourly, it would be about $10 for all three kids. Back then, that was great money! Athena has only stayed with a sitter once in her 4 years and we paid her $10 an hour....(it was only 3 weeks ago) and I thought it was reasonable. The sitter made her dinner, gave her a bath and read her stories, etc....she was worth way more, but she wouldn't take more that $10 an hour. She actually said that it was very fun and she would do it again for free!

 

[scouthawkk]

Before our sitter went off to college, we paid her $10 an hour. A little more if we were going to be out really late or if it was last minute. Her mother had a fit when she came home the first night with that much money. But our ds (now 3 1/2) was a handful, and very active. Wanted to play constantly (still does) and made big messes, that she ALWAYS cleaned up after she put him to bed. Heck, sometimes we came home to a house that was cleaner then when we left!

Now we can't find anyone other than my in-laws that are willing to sit. Not that ds is problematic, but the kids in our neighborhood don't seem to want to earn money. No ambition, I guess. We actually stopped one teenage girl out front of our house (that we knew lived at the other end of the street) to see if she was interested. She said she was, took our name and number, gave us hers...but when we called to have her come over, she never returned our calls. So now we have to coordinate with my mother-in-law's very busy social schedule just to go out for dinner by ourselves. Needless to say, we don't get out much!

 

[sara74]

The 17 year old across the street from us wants $8 an hour and all she does is watch TV with the kids, lay on my couch with her shoes on and not use a coaster! Oh, and she doesn't like our dog who she is not afraid of but just doesn't like, so she locks the dog in the garage. The teachers from our daycare center get $10 an hour and do art projects with the kids, clean up the dishes they use and read stories to them!

Guess who we use to babysit...

$10 an hour is a bargain for how wonderful our teachers are! They are so great!

 

[newtowdw1]

We use a combination of a holistic/zen approach...

First, did he/she drive themselves, or did we transport?
How long were the kids awake while the sitter was there?
Did the sitter have a friend or not?
Did the sitter make dinner or did we provide?
Is this an active, fun sitter, or a dull, bossy sitter?
Were the kids difficult or okay--they're never easy, take after their dad!

We love our sitters, and have the opportunity to choose whomever we want as we both teach highschool. We're really fussy about who we ask to sit, too. We generally won't use anyone not in high school, and prefer sophomores and up. Our favorites are the star couple, cheerleader and linebacker.

For our kids 5 and 9, who are normal-not-angel kids, we usually pay around 20-30 for an evening. We usually need a sitter around 4:00 pm and are home by 9:00pm. No sitter has ever refused to come back, and last Friday I could have had 4 sitters (we went with two, one for each child, and they took the kids and a picnic to the park, got the kids to bed, and created the picnic, they transported themselves). We gave each $20. We have taken the rising cost of gas into account, and pay a little more for kids who drive.

Keep in mind that Binghamton NY is very economically depressed, and we can't pay our sitters more per hour than their parents make! Also, our daily, licensed in-home care giver gets $20/day (7:30 to 3:15ish), so feel odd giving a high school kid more.

 

[Merriwind]

We have a college sitter and she gets $8-10/hour. She insists on only eight from us, because we only have one child and DD8 really needs a companion more than a babysitter at this point. They usually just play games while I'm out.

 

[kidpluto]

i babysit for a couple of families in my town, some right next store and some across town, usually i get paid about $10 an hour but i dont have a going rate, i usually just let the parents of the kids that i am babysitting decided, sometimes though if i babysitt for a long time the parents will just round off whatever they think is right, so if you have more then one child probably pay a little more then if you did have just one child and also make a price according to the age of your children and how they interact. Some kids might not get along at all and the sitter might have to be a referee for the whole night,, so sometimes you might want to just add a little extra for this sitter. although usually whatever you are comfortable paying the babysitter the sitter is fine receiving it, the sitters who dont mind how much they are paid are the ones who are babysitting becuase they like the kids and this sitter will probably be a good one so its up to you but probably the best price would be the going rate in your neighborhood.

 

[cinjam]

We live in NJ & pay $10/hr for two kids (age 5 and 2)