OT: Babysitter fees

[inloveindisney]

How much do you all pay for the local teenager to babysit for a few hours, say while you go to a movie/dinner?

 

[daisyduck123]

My DD13 gets about $8.00/hour for the 9yo she watches next-door.

 

[Davidsmommy]

I was just thinking about this! I know that other times it has been posted it has varied widely.

My best friend/neighbor has a daughter who is 13. We are the first people she has ever babysat for. I started her out in the summer when I was home working, and would run out for a half hour or so. She has done well, so she now babysits for an hour and a half on Thursdays (I have yoga, dh has karate) and for other outings. She is sitting tomorrow night so we can go to dinner with her parents. Most of the time, though, her mom is home (across teh street) if she felt she needed help.

Anyway, I usually pay her $5 an hour, but I always round up. Like, last night I had a meeting and dh was out of town, and she was here about 2 hours and 15 minutes. I paid her $15. She seems ok with it. Her mom just took a job at the local school and makes $7 an hour (before taxes) in the cafeteria, so I think she thinks I pay too much. I would never pay less than $10 for a job, even if I was just an hour (it seems silly for her to leave the house for $5, you know?)

Most sitters we have had ask $5 per hour. I imagine as she gets older I will pay her more - especially to keep her as our primary sitter (right across the street is great!). But, I think it is low based on what I have read on the internet!

I have 2 kids, 7 and 3, and she mainly watches the 3 year old. (She often sits when I have to run David somewhere). I always feed the kids, bathe them, and have them in their pjs, so she basically reads, plays, and watches tv with them. I imagine the duties will be more as she gets older too.

 

[Jen414]

We pay $10/hour. That's pretty much the standard rate around here, I think.

 

[powellrj]

I would ask around where you live. On the DIS, the going rate is anywhere from $3- $15 depending on where you live! Paying sitters and the going rate for wedding gifts are wildly different depending on where you live, I have found out since being on the DIS!

 

[Momto3Disneyprinces]

Teenagers babysit?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can we ship a few to my neighborhood.....I wanted a sitter for one night last year, and couldn't find any teenagers who sit. And, my friends with kids in the neighborhood told me, their sitter doesn't like to have her name given out, because she is already swamped.

 

[gonemousin']

We pay $10/hour. That's pretty much the standard rate around here, I think.

That's what I pay - $10/hour for two kids (7 &4). It's the going rate in my area too.

And I agree with Momto3disneyprinces, finding a teenage babysitter in my area is a HUGE challenge, so once I found one (actually two - sisters, which works out great when one is busy, the other usually isn't) I made sure to make it worth their while. They play with my kids, feed them dinner (if we're going out for dinner), put them to bed and clean up after the mess so we don't come home to a trashed house - so in my mind, they're 100% worth every bit of that $10/hr!

 

[Jen414]

I would ask around where you live. On the DIS, the going rate is anywhere from $3- $15 depending on where you live! Paying sitters and the going rate for wedding gifts are wildly different depending on where you live, I have found out since being on the DIS!

We live in the Boston area. Luckily, before I had the girls, I was a high school cheering coach so I used those girls for a while. I teach 5th grade in the town next to mine. The kids in my first class are now seniors, so I now use former students.

 

[Tinkerbell2002]

I have a 5 year old and a 1 year old and I pay $10/hour in PA.

 

[perdidochas]

How much do you all pay for the local teenager to babysit for a few hours, say while you go to a movie/dinner?

We usually start at about $6 an hour, and round up. 4 hrs would be $30 or so.

The key is getting a 14 yr old girl for babysitting. Why? Then you have about 2 yrs of use. Once they get 16, most get other jobs, and are no longer useful for babysitting.

Right now, we have a good situation. We have a 16 yr old (meaning she can drive) who has seen how hard her sister's work at waitressing (and see the taxes they pay), so babysitting is good for her. In addition, sometimes her sisters are available when she isn't.

 

[Aliceacc]

$10 per hour.

This year we had to find new sitters; the ones who became like sisters to my kids went off to college in Rhode Island.

Fortunately, we now have 3 we can call. Not that we go out much, but we're both teachers... there have been nights when we both have had parent conferences, or both had to proctor on the same Saturday.

 

[inloveindisney]

Well, this seems crazy. I think you are right about asking around. I only pay 25.00 a day for my daytime babysitter who watches my baby for 8 hours! And that is about the typical going rate. If I have to pay 10.00 an hour to go to the movies, I'll just stay home. That seems like a lot to me. Oh, and I live on the outskirts of Charlotte, nc, which I would think put me in a higher pay range, but I just think that's too high! Seems so odd htat it would vary so much from one area to the next.

 

[tinkandpan]

Our younger sitters (16 or so ) will about 10 or 12 for an hour. Our other sitters (in their early 20's) get 12-15 for my 2 kids ds6 and dd2

 

[earthfaries]

I babysit in my home and have different rates for different needs. I charge $10.00 and hour, with a minimum of 2 hours for drop ins and nights/weekends. For my full times I charge $150.00 a week, and for part times with at least 12 hours a week I charge $5.00 an hour. The going rate for daycare around here is about $125. -$130.00, so it's just a little more for that personal care~ I only watch 2 children at a time. As for the hourly rate, that is the going rate around here. My sister is a nanny and makes $12.00 an hour.
Hopes this helps

 

[blessedby3]

Well, this seems crazy. I think you are right about asking around. I only pay 25.00 a day for my daytime babysitter who watches my baby for 8 hours! And that is about the typical going rate. If I have to pay 10.00 an hour to go to the movies, I'll just stay home. That seems like a lot to me. Oh, and I live on the outskirts of Charlotte, nc, which I would think put me in a higher pay range, but I just think that's too high! Seems so odd htat it would vary so much from one area to the next.

Home daycare providers get the worst pay ever for the most important job- watching precious children!
When you average out your child care providers pay it comes out to about $3 per hour. How many working parents would work for $3 per hour? I did in home daycare for years and was grossly underpaid! My DD17 gets $6-$10 per hour for evening sitting. She also watched kids this summer for 7-8 hours at a time and made the same amount. She would get $70 or so for 8 hours. This was her summer job. She came out better than working at the mall because no taxes came out!

 

[gonemousin']

Well, this seems crazy. I think you are right about asking around. I only pay 25.00 a day for my daytime babysitter who watches my baby for 8 hours! And that is about the typical going rate. If I have to pay 10.00 an hour to go to the movies, I'll just stay home. That seems like a lot to me. Oh, and I live on the outskirts of Charlotte, nc, which I would think put me in a higher pay range, but I just think that's too high! Seems so odd htat it would vary so much from one area to the next.

It's hard to compare daycare hourly rates to babysitter hourly rates. A babysitter is a once in a great while thing and generally only for 3-5 hours an evening. Most kids in my area wouldn't bother giving up a night with their friends for only $15-20. It's just not going to happen, whether I like it or not. I'm fairly particular about finding a specific type of sitter for my kids - one who's willing to interact with them, as opposed to being on the phone and/or watching TV, one who will follow my feeding & bedtime instructions, and one who goes above and beyond to leave my house in the condition it was when we left (I don't require this, but I do think of it as a respect thing). So, no, I personally don't think it's unreasonable to pay $10/hr for quality childcare for a short duration of time. If I were to pay a daycare provider, I wouldn't expect to pay $10/hour - more like $5-7/hr or a set daily fee because more then likely, the daycare provider has other children in her care and isn't 100% focused on just my child.

Given all that - I can totally understand why families find babysitters so expensive. My DH & I set aside a cash budget for sitters each week so that it's easier to swallow the expense when we plan an occasional night out.

 

[SereneOne]

I hired a 13yo with babysitting training from our church. She watched my daughter for $6 an hour, but I was in the house. I was studying and wanted to do so in peace. So she played with her. I fed her (she is tube fed) and made sure that there where snacks that the teen liked at my house. I would hire her for about five hours at a time. She watched Disney channel, play dress up and do play makeup, play board games, imaginary play (kitchen and school and such), dance and do arts and crafts. I think at 13, she had fun playing too! lol

 

[Aliceacc]

I hired a 13yo with babysitting training from our church. She watched my daughter for $6 an hour, but I was in the house. I was studying and wanted to do so in peace. So she played with her. I fed her (she is tube fed) and made sure that there where snacks that the teen liked at my house. I would hire her for about five hours at a time. She watched Disney channel, play dress up and do play makeup, play board games, imaginary play (kitchen and school and such), dance and do arts and crafts. I think at 13, she had fun playing too! lol

During the years I was a SAHM I did a LOT of tutoring in my dining room. The girls across the street acted as my "mother's helpers" watching my kids upstairs while I tutored downstairs. I think they were about 12 when they started (remember, I was in the house) and they became the world's BEST babysitters. They were making $7.50 an hour in 2000 when it was just my 2 older kids; after #3 came along they got a raise.

 

[mommy2aprincess4]

we pay our sitter $10/hr. We had a very hard time finding a sitter that we trusted and liked (searched for 3 years), finally decided we'd wait until one of the girls at our church that we adore and so does DD was old enough to babysit. She's now 15 and babysits for us. She's even offered to take a babysitting and CPR class if we want her to. We trust her, know her parents, and DD loves her so we feel paying her well is the best way to hold on to her