OT- How much is the going rate for a babysitter?

[kydisneyfans]

We pay $3.00 an hour too for our DS-9 and the parents of the high schooler that watches him tell us that we are paying too much. I usually make the evening pay $20.00.

Usually we do a kid swap now. He will stay with a friend one night when we go out and the friend comes here when his parents go out. Our church does kids night out often to give the parents 3-4 hours away while the kids have fun at the church.

 

[disfan07]

I am currently a babysitter now.....I am 19 and in college
I babysit for 2 different families on a pretty regular basis
1 family have 3 girls ages 4, 7 and 9
the other family has 3 boys ages 1, 7 and 10 and a girl whos 4
and i babysit for my boss occassionaly whos not too much older than me adn we are also friends so i babysit her 6 month old daugther for $7/hr

My rates usually go as....
1-3 kids: $10/hr
4-5 kids: $12/hr

I an very close to all 3 of thses families....basically i am like the 3 rd parent when i am there babysitting
depending on the time of day i do....
lunches, dinners, bedtimes, naptimes, playing outside, in the basement, etc.


i also work in a preschool daycare 5 hrs a day so i have 7 yrs of experience with kids and i am also infant adn child CPR first aid certified

 

[mjkacmom]

I think you need to at least pay minimum wage! It sounds like this girl is a friend as well as a sitter for you. So she is probably doing you a favor. If I paid that little I wouldn't be able to find a sitter!
Not to mention what that says about how much your children's safety is worth to you! When I worked in a childcare center- I was in charge of 4 toddlers and got paid $12 an hour. Is it any different if they come to your home to watch your children? If anything they should be paid more to drive over and work in the evening hours!
How can you say that is worth as little as $3.00 an hour?? That's insulting.
-Sarah

I agree. I was paid $1 as a teen, and when I was in my early 20's, (almost 20 years ago), I was paid $6 an hour to watch 1 four year old (I was going to school full time for my MA in education). I've been paying $8 - $10 an hour for the past 10 years or so. Your sitter is doing you a favor! Yes, we don't go out much, because yes, babysitters are expensive.

 

[jensen]

I pay $20 an evening (about $4/hour) for my regular sitter who is 16. When we go out, we usually leave at about 7:30 or 8:00... the kids (ages 8 & 5) are fed and bathed and in their jammies... she watches TV with them and has to tuck them in by 9:00... then she uses the computer, talks on the phone or watches movies all night... I think I pay her fairly for what she has to do.

In comparison, I pay a flat weekly rate for preschool that comes out to about $2.65/hour at the most expensive preschool/daycare center in town.

If she was preparing meals and cleaning up, playing games or simply doing more with the kids, I'd be inclined to pay more...

 

[kristinanderic]

I live near St Louis and have two kids 10 months and 3 years. We left the kids with the sitter about 7pm and returned at 1 am. I gave her $30.

The baby went to bed at 8:00pm and the older one around 9pm. So basically after they are sleeping she just lounges around and watches tv and eats my food. I think $30 was plenty for that.

BTW the sitter was a college student and was 19.

 

[mjkacmom]

I live near St Louis and have two kids 10 months and 3 years. We left the kids with the sitter about 7pm and returned at 1 am. I gave her $30.

The baby went to bed at 8:00pm and the older one around 9pm. So basically after they are sleeping she just lounges around and watches tv and eats my food. I think $30 was plenty for that.

BTW the sitter was a college student and was 19.

Does she sit for you regularly? I would've payed her twice that. A baby and a preschooler? And even if she was just watching TV, that's late, and I'm sure she would've rather been sleeping. Honestly, I don't know anyone who would pay even a 13 year old less than $8 an hour, and most tip up. Most of the time, sitters are there when the kids are just sleeping, since night time is when most need sitters. It's rare for me to have sitters feed and get the kids ready for bed - they're bathed, fed, and jammied before she gets here, and my little ones always went to bed by 8. When I had babies, we'd go out after the babies were asleep already.

 

[genius118899]

This sounds kind of bad, but when I babysat, my rate depended on how much trouble the children were! I knew all the families through my mom before I sat, so I knew what the kids were like. If the kids were going to be slugging each other all night, it was a bit more expensive than the ones who just want to sit down and play board games.

 

[kristinanderic]

Does she sit for you regularly? I would've payed her twice that. A baby and a preschooler? And even if she was just watching TV, that's late, and I'm sure she would've rather been sleeping. Honestly, I don't know anyone who would pay even a 13 year old less than $8 an hour, and most tip up. Most of the time, sitters are there when the kids are just sleeping, since night time is when most need sitters. It's rare for me to have sitters feed and get the kids ready for bed - they're bathed, fed, and jammied before she gets here, and my little ones always went to bed by 8. When I had babies, we'd go out after the babies were asleep already.

You would have paid her twice that...but you also have 5 kids. I have two. She is a friend of mine and it was more a favor then a job.

 

[megthewonderful]

We have three kids, ages 5, 4, and 19 months. We pay our sitter $10 an hour. If we are going out during a meal, we either have leftovers in the fridge, a pizza being delivered, or pasta almost ready on the stove. We have never asked her to give them a bath or put them to bed yet. We're in NH and that seems to be what a lot of our friends pay their sitters as well. My sitter has taken the Red Cross Babysitting course, so I feel she is worth even more than $10 an hour, but I'm not going to tell her that!

 

[mjantz]

I have a friend who gives me the 'Friend rate' so I pay $5/hour (I usually do a generous rounding up) when its her. For a non-friend, I'd pay $10/hour.

 

[mjkacmom]

You would have paid her twice that...but you also have 5 kids. I have two. She is a friend of mine and it was more a favor then a job.

Well, I guess a friend is different. I've paid $10 when I only had one, and as it is now, when we have a sitter, dd12 is in charge of putting the 3 youngest to bed, so the sitter doesn't even have to do that (dd10 puts himself to bed). I make sure I overpay one of my bf's dd's, since we're close, and I know what a sacrifice it is for a teen to babysit on a Saturday night, instead of going out with friends.

 

[RyJMom]

I'm in Texas. If it is just my 2 boys (10 and 7) we pay $8-$9 an hour. Alot of times we will get together with another couple and share a babysitter. Our best friends have 3 kids and for all 5 together we pay about $15 an hour. We have dinner ready and don't expect baths or anything major. We don't use a sitter too often because it is pretty expensive. By the time we pay the sitter, dinner and a movie it really adds up. Makes me wish we had family close by.