Paying a babysitter for a weekend

[Tiffylv]

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[danygirl]

A daycare teacher probably makes 15/hour so multiply by the number if hours.

I would say around $500

Have you asked her what she wants? You don't want to under pay her and lose your sitter.

Is her work ok with this? When I was teaching preschool my neighbors child was in my class. I was told that if I gave her a ride to school I had to tell her mom that I was doing this as a friend and not in any way as a part of the school. If she is going to take him at daycare Fri and bring him back Mon and be responsible for him until you return Mon night they might not like it

 

[Alesia]

How much do you normally pay her per hour?

 

[nugov2]

I would say $400. She has to take him to school and activities. I don't think you could do an hourly wage as @ $15 an hour x 60 hours is $900. That seems a little high. I would ask her what she thinks would be fair, but I wouldn't pay less than $400 and probably not more than $500. I also would take into account how easy/difficult he is to get to bed/stay in bed. If he is in bed at 8 and sleeps until 7 that makes the job a lot easier vs a child who is up late and doesn't sleep well. If that is the case, I'd probably be more in the $500-$550.

 

[sksjasams]

How much did you pay her for the times she babysat overnight?
That would give us an idea of what she might be expecting.

To me, $400 sounds like a good balance between reasonable and generous.

BTW, daycare teachers here make $10/hr, so that does vary regionally.

 

[zoemurr]

A daycare teacher probably makes 15/hour so multiply by the number if hours.

I would say around $500

Have you asked her what she wants? You don't want to under pay her and lose your sitter.

Is her work ok with this? When I was teaching preschool my neighbors child was in my class. I was told that if I gave her a ride to school I had to tell her mom that I was doing this as a friend and not in any way as a part of the school. If she is going to take him at daycare Fri and bring him back Mon and be responsible for him until you return Mon night they might not like it

$15 an hour? Preschool teachers here w/master's degrees barely get $12. Day care workers closer to minimum wage.

I agree with what you usually pay her per hour, and then maybe 1/2 pay for sleeping hours?

 

[SharonZ]

I would give her $500.

 

[TravelMommy]

$300-$450 range. ??? I am curious how much this would cost, if you wouldn't mind, will you post what you decide on.

 

[SEA333]

I'm looking for opinions on what to pay a babysitter for a weekend. Let me start off by saying I'm fairly new to the babysitting game. I am a single mom to a 7 year old son. He has ADHD and can be hard to handle sometimes. For a long time I did not have a sitter that I trusted, but last year he started to get close with a teacher at his daycare. She is very good with him and now sits for us fairly often. I have had her sit overnight before, but I was wondering what others think is a fair wage for the whole weekend while I have to go out of tone for work. It would be from Friday at 6:00pm until Monday at 7:30am (when he goes to school, I would be back in time to pick him up from school).

He does have basketball practice for an hour on Saturday, but that's the only thing. The rest of the time I don't care if she takes him on errands she needs to run or anything like that. I would stock the fridge/freezer before I go and leave money for probably one meal out. I don't expect any extra cleaning other than any mess, dishes, etc that they make/use. No pets or anything like that to take care of.

Has anyone done this before? Any advice welcome. Thanks!

I would ask her what she would charge for the weekend. This question comes up on this board every now and then, and I personally think that paying by the hour based on your normal rate is very overinflated (and I live in a pretty high cost of living area). I have worked as a preschool teacher before and babysat some of the children. I would never charge a family what I would charge per hour, for a whole weekend. That is ridiculous to me. (others disagree, and that is fine...it's the parents choice whether to pay it or not).

I would probably charge $250 for the weekend, especially if I had free reign to take the child wherever I needed to go, and you paid for all meals and outings. Honestly, even $250 makes me feel kind of bad to charge. Now that I think about it, if a parent ever asked me to keep their child for the weekend, and they paid for everything their child needed for that weekend, I would probably do it for free. Do you have any objection to him going to *her* house for the weekend if she suggests it? I couldn't imagine charging someone for having their kid over to my house for two days.

 

[StitchBuddy]

I would ask her what she thought was fair, if she says $200 add $50 to it. Generally, that's the going rate around here.

 

[marmalade]

I would ask her what she would charge for the weekend. This question comes up on this board every now and then, and I personally think that paying by the hour based on your normal rate is very overinflated (and I live in a pretty high cost of living area). I have worked as a preschool teacher before and babysat some of the children. I would never charge a family what I would charge per hour, for a whole weekend. That is ridiculous to me. (others disagree, and that is fine...it's the parents choice whether to pay it or not).

I would probably charge $250 for the weekend, especially if I had free reign to take the child wherever I needed to go, and you paid for all meals and outings. Honestly, even $250 makes me feel kind of bad to charge. Now that I think about it, if a parent ever asked me to keep their child for the weekend, and they paid for everything their child needed for that weekend, I would probably do it for free. Do you have any objection to him going to *her* house for the weekend if she suggests it? I couldn't imagine charging someone for having their kid over to my house for two days.

That's how I feel too, I couldn't imagine charging that much to watch a child for the weekend.

 

[Tiffylv]

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[TwoMisfits]

If you give $200 overnight, I'd give at least $500/weekend. You want to keep your sitter happy and helping you out. Some things are priceless with a special needs child, and one is getting someone they feel comfortable and confident with who is not named "mommy"...I speak from experience (my poor neighbor, also a daycare provider, got $12/hour from me a few years ago when my son was in his "scream" phase - it took a 4-6 "sits" (roughly 4-6 months, since we used her once a month) with her being spectacular with him for him to get used to her and then once he was, he begged for her to come and only her. She was worth every penny then and every penny now b/c he likes her and that is rare...So, this is not something I'd look to try to get too budgety with...

 

[Tiffylv]

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[happily single]

Wow. When I have an overnight sitter I pay $80 a night. When i do an overnight shift for a special needs young adult I make $120.

 

[robinb]

Holy moly.....I think I may have been overpaying for overnights if people are thinking $200 or even no charge for an entire weekend. I have been paying $200 to spend the night. Which thinking of the hours (6pm-7:30am) is really only 3-4 hours that he's awake. Of course I realize she's responsible for him while he's asleep too, but still that's only 13.5 hours. He's a great sleeper. He is usually pretty easy to put to bed....will throw a fit once in awhile. He stays asleep until morning but is an early riser. He also takes a nap during the day.

I'm a total novice when it comes to these things. When she first started sitting for us I asked her what she wanted hourly and she said $10. I normally do that plus pay for an extra hour or two. It's important to me that she feels happy while she takes care of my boy. The first time I needed her overnight it was last minute and I just threw out $200 and she agreed, so we stuck with that the other times. I was honestly thinking maybe $800 for the weekend and thinking that might be too little in comparison with what I've paid in the past. Of course I was going to ask her if the number I thought of was okay, but maybe now I'll just ask her what she wants?

Also, it would definitely be at my house. I've offered to have her watch him at her house before and she's declined saying she has a roommate and no toys for him. It is also a-ok with daycare, I cleared that before she even started sitting for us.

I'm curious why you would pay $200 for 13.5 hours of work when she charges $10 per hour . Unfortunately, you have set the expectation of $200 per overnight so you are stuck paying a lot for the weekend of 61.5 hours. $500 is $10 per how while he's awake and $5 per hour while he's asleep.

 

[LiloH]

In the past we have paid the standard rate for waking hours (roughly 8am-8pm) and then a flat $100 for the other twelve "sleeping" hours. We live near a large city in the northeast so that ends up being between $250 and $300 per day depending on the sitter.

 

[danygirl]

$15 an hour? Preschool teachers here w/master's degrees barely get $12. Day care workers closer to minimum wage. I agree with what you usually pay her per hour, and then maybe 1/2 pay for sleeping hours?

I made over $15 / hour as a preschool teacher, our aids made more than 15

 

[Tiffylv]

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[aprilgail2]

$15 an hour? Preschool teachers here w/master's degrees barely get $12. Day care workers closer to minimum wage.

I agree with what you usually pay her per hour, and then maybe 1/2 pay for sleeping hours?

My daughter at 14 was getting 15 an hour to babysit!
I think 500 for that many days is a fair price.