How much do you pay your teen babysitter?

[luvdzne]

My dd13 was asked by the neighbor to watch her 2 kids (5 & 7)today and tomorrow as she didn't have daycare. It is from 7:00am to 5:30pm. She wasn't sure how to charge her, so she said $7 an hr. It came out to $75 each day. That sounds like a lot. Most kids around here do charge anywhere between $5 and $7 an hour, but normally it is only for a few hours at a time. How much do you pay a sitter or how much does your teen charge?

 

[pfp258]

My 14 year old daughter babysits often and receives about $7-$10 an hour.

 

[Trena]

My mother runs a home day care, M-F 7:30 to 5:30 and charges $95 a week for one child. I know that isn't the same situation, but she would love to get paid $75 a day for 2 kids!!

 

[luvdzne]

My 14 year old daughter babysits often and receives about $7-$10 an hour.

Would she charge the full amount for a full day like that or would she charge a "discount" fee?

The reason I'm asking is because she was fine when dd told her how much she charges. However this morning she mentioned to my dd that she talked to her x-husband and he said that $150 was a lot for 2 days and more than day care. DD was left feeling guilty. Now it is for 21 hours during those 2 days and possibly day care charges differently, but she asked dd last minute and the reason was she didn't have anyone else. She didn't want to pay the day care for these 2 days, not sure why but I got the feeling she dropped the day care for what ever reason.

I know I would never pay a babysitter $150 for 2 days but then again I'm a SAHM.

 

[luvdzne]

My mother runs a home day care, M-F 7:30 to 5:30 and charges $95 a week for one child. I know that isn't the same situation, but she would love to get paid $75 a day for 2 kids!!

Kind of not the same thing. DD is providing babysitting, not a day care service. If it were me, and I have done daycare for family, I charged $75 a week, and probally would have charge a little less. DD normally charges by the hour so she didn't know how to even charge for this.

 

[wishtdream]

$35 per day per child for workday care. $7-$12 per hor for evening sitters. This is for an adult sitter.

 

[JLKennedy]

I would (as the parent needing the service) suggest the daily rate of my daycare. My son is 3 (will be 4 end of Oct.). His daycare runs me $179 per week (full-time rate), divide that by 5 days, and the MOST I would pay is $35.80 per day which is $3.41 per hour. She did a favor for the neighbor, but my bets would be that at the rate she was paid, she won't be asked to babysit again, you'd make more money calling out of work and using sick/personal time (if you have it).

Before my son went to daycare, he was at a sitters and I paid her $130 per week (and $50 extra when DD9 was there for 5 days/wk during summer) and that would break down to $26 per day or $2.48 per hour. I pay more for daycare since it's a learning experience, babysitting (IMO) isn't.

 

[mom4graceandlogan]

I don't think you can compare it to in home childcare. While one person may pay child care $35.00 a day, the provider is watching more than one child and is getting paid for each child. So if you pay a daycare provider $3.50 an hour but one person is watching 4 kids in their home, they are making $3.50 per child per hour. Granted more work is involved per child. Going rate in our area is $7-10 for teenage babysitters. I think your daughter is kind of young to be charging on the high end of whatever is normal in your area. I have personally never used a sitter under 16( an a mature sixteen at that). There is alot to be said for a sitter that is available at the last minute and will come to your home, a convenience factor that I think should cost more. I paid my sitter $13.00 an hour this summer and last year.( a SAHM and former pre-school teacher). I only work part time 2 days a week and my schedule changes every week. I needed to pay enough to ensure that she would be available when needed. She quit her preschool job and worked just for me. Luckily I make enough to make it cost effective still for me) Now that being said, we never hire sitters for going out or social occassions. We either try to find family or swap with friends. Last time we went to the movies and got a sitter at $10.00 an hour it cost us $75.00 bucks just to go to the movies, get popcorn and come home. Now we do netflix. I can justify an expensive sitter for work, but have a hard time paying if I am not bringing in more than I am paying.

 

[mjkacmom]

I pay $10 an hour for a night sitter, but I would expect to pay less per hour for a whole day gig. Your dd is definately on the young end of the babysitting spectrum. I think $50 a day is fair - less than $7 an hour, more than a daycare facility.

 

[Darcy03231]

DS (15) just babysit for one child for two days for a co-worker. He earned $65 for the two days and they weren't full days. 1st day was 8-5 and second day was 8-3.

 

[ceecee]

This depends so much on your location. Around here a teen would never get $7.00 an hour. I work 2 days a week and my adult babysitter gets $2.50 an hour (at her home), she only charges $2.00 but she gives them really good lunches and a snack.

 

[iheartdisney]

WOW! $150 for two days seems a little insane!
I had a summer gig when I was a teen, babysitting 3 kids (5,3, and 18 months) and I got $20 for a 10 hour day. I know inflation hasn't risen THAT high in 10 years!

 

[tmccullough]

My daughter makes $10 an hour for 3 kids for 2 different families and we live in a small town. In fact, the families are so grateful to have her babysit because unlike a lot of teens, she actually plays with them and enjoys being with them instead of hanging on a cell phone all day and letting the kids do their own thing. She will be sitting for the one family next weekend for 9 hours and she will still be paid the hourly rate. However, if she were sitting for 2 days, I think I personally, as her mother, would talk to my daughter along with the family and come up with an agreed upon amount - I think $100 would be plenty because I figure she wouldn't make that flipping burgers after taxes,etc. and if she wants to be asked to sit again, the family will appreciate that she met them half way. I would also make sure that my daughter wouldn't be taken advantage in anyway with regards to maybe the family cutting back on paying her for future short jobs... trust me from experience (I have 4 daughters), sometimes people will be tight and try to cheat the sitter at the end of the night.

 

[jessily]

When I started babysitting around age 12 I was making $3/hour usually to watch multiple children. Later in HS I made $7-10/hour. Throughout college I made around $12/hour for weekend evenings to watch 2 young children. I think it depends a lot on the ages of the children, the number of children and how much work is actually involved. If the children were older and basically self sufficient and I was just supervising, playing games, swimming, etc. with them I didn't mind making a little less. Watching an infant and 2 toddlers which was my long term job throughout HS I made a little more. It has been a few years since I last babysat though so I'm not sure what the going rate is today.

 

[momejay]

My 14 year old is a mother's helper for a mom that has 3 children under the age of 3 & is expecting twins. (They adopted 2 children thinking they weren't able to have their own & surprize.) Anyway...My daughter makes $25 a day. She works from 8AM until 4PM. She cleans house, does dishes, changes diapers, walks the dog...Now the mom is there to handle the major disaster situations, & they can't afford much more.
For a 5 year old & a 7 year old, seems like a lot to have to pay. Is that only for watching the children or is she expected to do other things?
I think she is asking too much, but it depends on what is expected of her.

 

[4Seasons]

My 14 year old daughter babysits often and receives about $7-$10 an hour.

That's typically what my 15 year old daughter gets. She's "safe sitter" certified by our Parks N Recreation dept (first aid and CPR) and she does an awesome job playing with the kids. No one ever has a problem paying her that much.
I'd say if it were 2 full days maybe they can negotiate a bit, but I wouldn't do it for the regular rate a daycare provider charges.

 

[PastorsWife]

if all she's supposed to be doing is making sure the house doesn't burn down and the kids aren't soiled, "minimum wage" is too much.

Think about what other things she'd be able to do for around minimum. flipping burgers is NOT fun. Bussing tables. not fun.

Babysitting is easy. If she wants minimum wage, I think she needs to be working the whole time. Laundry, dishes, cleaning kid's room w/ kid, etc. Just like YOU or I would be doing if we were there.

And, if she's charging you $7 an hour, she's really making $10 an hour, because she isn't paying taxes. I think that if you are going to pay her that much, you should have her SSN and report it on your child care section of your taxes, so that you can write it off.

See if you can find a grandma or friend w/ kids who wouldn't mind watching your kids for the day. frankly, if you offered me $5 an hour to have my kid's friend over I'd jump at the chance.

 

[luvdzne]

Thank you all for your input. DD will be 14 in a little over a month. The kids are keeping her hopping, definatly no sitting around watching TV or on her cell phone. They worked her so hard yesterday she came home and was half dead. She didn't even want to hang out with her friends, which is rare.

A little more on how she ended up babysitting......My younger daughter was playing with the girls the other day. They came running over to me and said I had to watch them for the next 2 days because their mom didn't have anyone else to watch them. Well I thought it was their way of not wanting to go to day care or grandma's and wanting to play with dd. So I told them that I had to talk to their mom, thinking that was the end of it. Well the mom came out to go to work and I heard the kids telling mom that I wouldn't babysit I had to talk to her first. I guess the mom was having the girls ask me. Now they have only lived here about a month and really I have only ever said hi in passing. Well the mom came over and said that she didn't have anyone and she needed me to watch the girls, that she would pay me. She said she didn't want to pay the day care for those 2 days and that the girls were going to be at their dads for the next two weeks and then school starts. I had things already planned to do so I told her my DD12 may be able to do it. The way she went about it was I'm a SAHM and she didn't want to start another month at the daycare so I should be able to do it last minute.

DD went over an talked to her and told her what she charges an hour and how much it would be, she said "great". It wasn't till yesterday morning she brought up to dd how expensive it was. I told dd it was up to her if she wants to lower her rate in hopes of babysitting again.

 

[fall08CP]

I babysit in highschool at age 18 and I was paid 9/hr when they sleeping and 11/hour when they were awake, plus she would have food for me to cook that I was allowed to eat if I was there during mealtimes and on the weekends she would take me and the two kiddos (1+3) out for lunch- pay for our lunch plus get paid as work time. Guess I had a good gig going! For Christmas she would double my check.
Now this may seem high but she picked her own prices and the families in my area are really well off. I had to go away to college or else I would have loved to keep that job forever!

 

[spima3]

DD almost 14 and her friends have recently started babysitting. These are often last minute gigs due to working parents not having summer daycare.
Her one friend babysits steady two full work days from 7 am until 4:30 pm. She has a 9 yr old and a 7 yr old who is a huge discipline problem. Mine won't even do it. Her friend is paid $80 for the week; knowing the little girl, it isn't enough!