How much do you pay........

[Laurajean1014]

$5 - $8 an hour. Although, I haven't needed a babysitter in a while.

DS is 9 and we love bringing him everywhere!

 

[RADOPT]

I don't know whether to be insulted or not about the whole 'I'm glad you didn't live in our neighbourhood' thing... what are you saying?

Just that I would not have had many clothes for school if my neighbors used only nannies or family members. I started buying most of my school clothes with my own money when I started babysitting my neighbor's children the children. It paid for clothes, movies, school dances, etc - things the household budget did not have much room for.

Sorry - I did not mean it to be insulting. I should have said it differently.

Our neighborhold was tightly knit back then - not so much now.

 

[BostonTink85]

I usually get $8-10 an hour, most of the families have 2-3 kids and none are under 5. They are pretty easy, on weekdays I get them at the bus stop and help them with homework and on the weekends/friday nights I get them dinner and put them to bed. I've been babysitting since the beginning of high school (in college now) so I guess what I make is pretty normal, it really depends on the family though.

 

[VSL]

That's OK (misunderstanding on my part too!)

I guess the school uniform thing helps over here, and places like 'George' at ASDA (a member of the WalMart family I believe) provide decent clothes for cheap prices (ie, jeans for £10 [$18.31], strappy tops for £1.50 [$2.75]). Maybe pocket-money is more prevalent over here too?

Maybe our benefits system is more lenient than the US one too?

(I'm trying to think about how some of my friends managed now!)

I do think it's really cool though so be able to have that kind of trust within your local area - we just don't seem to have much of that in Britain.

 

[BostonTink85]

VSL I think that it's trust between friends also. What I mean is most of the people I babysit for have been through word of mouth. Like a person who I babysat for for a long time told another person my name and that is how I got most of the families I babysit for. I dont' know many people who would just have a random person watch their kids, they usually get names from friends.

 

[sln88]

my DD is 16, gets paid $3/hr for 1, and $4/hr for 2. Sometimes people try to pay her more and I feel funny about it and tell her she should tell that that is too much- I guess not.
Many moons ago I babysat for my nephew. 50 cents an hour. She gave me extra for cleaning and extra cooking tho.

 

[grlpwrd]

I pay my sitter about $10 - $15 an hour for 4 kids, but it's not a regular thing.

 

[Miss Kelly]

I pay my sitter about $10 - $15 an hour for 4 kids, but it's not a regular thing.

I think that is the thing. I would love to get $10-15 an hour, and I might could get that much if it was only a once a month or less thing. I keep a 3 year old and two (twin) 7 year olds and get approximately $8 an hour, sometimes less, sometimes more. I keep them at least 2 days a week, all day. I don't think anyone could or would pay $15 an hour x 9 hours x 2 days every week. I wish! I work for a dentist and I know they can afford to pay me well (and they do). And it is not like I don't have experience either. I worked at a daycare for more than 6 years before taking on this job.

Oh well. I'll be finished with college soon and hopefully will be getting paid a lot more then.