What do you pay your baby sitter?

[kitn]

I pay my babysitter a flat rate of $30.00 and if it is more than 5 hours I go up to $35.00 I never pay her more than $35.00 even though she watches them overnight sometimes, but also I do pay her $30.00 for 2 hours quite frequently. I want to make it worth her while so I pay her the $30.00 but I just cant afford more then $35.00 (usually I am at work when it is more than 3 hours). She never complains and I think it avarges out for her.

 

[SamSam]

Wow!! I think it's great to pay baby sitters so well.....but here in the Mid-West(at least where we live); most people pay their young sitters $2 an hour per child. I'm old enough to remember starting out at 35 cents an hour and then going up to a whopping 50 cents an hour.

 

[Sarangel]

We don't pay anything for babysitting our DD (1). We swap with another couple in our neighborhood for nights out who have a DS (1). They go out & we watch their DS, we go out and they watch our DD. Everyone saves $$.

That being said, I think rates vary tremendusly based on where you live. Here in CA, our neice makes $10/hr sitting.

 

[Anne34]

We live in the Chicago suburbs and we pay anywhere from $6-10/hour. It depends on what they have to do -- feed kids, etc or just watch them for a while and put them to bed. (I grew up in Wisconsin and only made $1.00/hour babysitting and this was late 70's/early 80's)

We don't go out a lot because it costs $30-40 for the babysitter and then another $50 for dinner/movie. Thank goodness my oldest has just turned 11 and we are starting to let her stay with the other two (6 & 9)for an hour or so.

 

[disney4us2002]

Isn't kind of ironic that several have posted that their 11 yo's are starting to babysit and others state what they pay for their 10 yo's to be watched?

I have an 11 yr old and I leave him alone from time to time for not more than a few hours but I cannot see him babysitting. I've been away from social work for a while but we used to get asked the age to be left alone and the age allowed to babysit and in '99 the legal answer was 8 to be alone (that doesn't account for disabilities that would prohibit being alone) and 13 to be responsible for children under age 7.

 

[brtls5]

I pay a 1.50 an hour per child. I have 3 children, so I pay 4.50/hour. I thought that added up!!! It's sometimes hard to get parents to pay that price too. I cannot imagine paying 10 dollars or more an hour. WOW! That's more than I make at any job I have or have had. How do people afford to go out? I'm wondering if that the income in these places are higher than what we have around here? I should go into babysitting!

 

[tanyacj]

I have 2 kids 7 and 5 and thank God I have them both in daycare for $4.50/hr ($3/hr plus $1.50 for each additional kid) and that includes the meals they are there for. I only make $12/hr and that is high for my field around here. I'd be severely in the red after taxes with this $10/hr thing.

 

[newtowdw1]

Originally posted by brtls5
I pay a 1.50 an hour per child. I have 3 children, so I pay 4.50/hour. I thought that added up!!! It's sometimes hard to get parents to pay that price too. I cannot imagine paying 10 dollars or more an hour. WOW! That's more than I make at any job I have or have had. How do people afford to go out? I'm wondering if that the income in these places are higher than what we have around here? I should go into babysitting!

That's what DH just said when I read him these posts. We both teach high school, so have wonderful responsible sitters available. We don't pay hourly. We pay through a holistic formula (hmmm, how much ...?) based on how long, how bad (the kids probably were ) how much effort. For example, a long day, with two meals, and playing outside is more effort than a pizza dinner, videos and tucking in. We've never gone over $25 to $30. Good gracious, DS daily sitter only charges $17/day!

Our students fight over who will sit for our kids, and we usually don't employ the ones we currently teach.

 

[MATTERHORN]

In high school in the mid 90's I got paid $10 an hour for one child, and I babysat for them every weekend and some weekdays. It was great and if people asked them why they paid so much, they would say "We love her and want to keep her coming back" I was their exclusive babysitter for over 3 years, I would cancel plans if they called and they could totally rely on me. I never charged anyone a certain rate wither, I just always said "whatever you feel is fair" So I was lucky, but so were they because how can you lowball someone that loves and cares for your kids while you are away. Someone said, how do you afford to go out? Well if we can't afford to pay the $12 an hour for our two kids, then we don't go out! And we really only go out about once every six months or so! I think a good solid reliable babysitter is worth their
weight in gold when you think about what happens and what is out there nowadays.


Andrea

To the poster that said her DD makes $2 an hour for 3 kids, If that happened when I babysat, I would have been insulted!!!

 

[BethR]

Originally posted by brtls5
I should go into babysitting!

MY thoughts EXACTLY!!!

 

[mermaidwannabe]

In my neighborhood, it's $5/hr for one child and it goes up from there. Usually $6/hr for 2 kids and for 3 kids $7. We almost always order pizza for them too. It's $10/hr for 3 kids at the drop-off daycare. It seems like a lot to me. I think the swapping idea is great but we don't ever want to spend our time doing it...we'd rather pay.

 

[brtls5]

I live in the wrong state. Our hs and jr high girls taht babysit would probably fall on the floor dead if I paid them over 10 dollars an hour. I should add too that to go to a nice restaurant, it's a 45 minute to an hour drive one way. So just to get there and back I would be all ready out 1 1/2 to 2 hours. That's just travel time! Just to go to dinner I could easily have to pay for 4 hours. That's without going anywhere else. Im glad I live where I do. LOLOL

 

[canwegosoon]

I just wanted to post that out sitter is just out of college, and she has been with us for 3 years (she started at $9 and went up to $10). I had interviewed several other college girls , but could not get a reference of theirs to call me back. So we have only one great sitter. By the way Nanny's here make a ton of money too.