What do you pay

[TLHB70]

What do you pay your babysitter? We have always used family -- grandparents or aunts/uncles -- for babysitting. We are usually only gone 3 to 4 hours, so it has really never been an issue. Our anniversary is this Saturday, and we want to do something special. Since we plan to be gone longer, we have lined up a "real babysitter." The girl is 17, a junior in high school, and drives. She will drive to our house to keep our girls while we are gone. We asked her what she charges, and she has told us that she will accept what we believe is fair. We need help to know what to pay her.
BTW, our girls are ages 10 and 7. They really are good girls and should not be a problem at all. They play well together.
Please help me with an amount.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

great question
i rarely use a sitter and when i do its my cousin
i susally give her like 55 a day for a whole day

 

[SDFgirl]

I usually got $10 an hour when I was babysitting, but I was in my 20's.

I would say anywhere from $8 to $9 per hour would be appropriate for a 17 year old.

Happy anniversary!

 

[golfgal]

Paying babysitters is a very regional thing. Around here teenage babysitters get between $1-3/hour. I know other places pay more then that. For kids your age, they would probably get paid on the lower end of that, maybe $2/hour since they don't have to do as much with the kids like you would with a toddler for example.

 

[aprilgail2]

10.00 an hour for one kid.
$1.00 and HOUR??? wow, even when I babysat 30 years ago I made more than that LOL!!!!! I wouldn't have bothered doing it even back then for 1.00 an hour.

 

[golfgal]

10.00 an hour for one kid.
$1.00 and HOUR??? wow, even when I babysat 30 years ago I made more than that LOL!!!!! I wouldn't have bothered doing it even back then for 1.00 an hour.

Like I said, it is a regional thing. An office worker around here makes about $10/hour so paying a babysitter $1-2/hour is a lot. A teenager can go to a movie and out to McDonalds on what they make in a night of babysitting around her, so it isn't bad (movies are only $4.50 for kids under 17 and $6.00 for adults).

 

[snoopy]

We have a teenage girl we use very ocassionally. We pay her $10/hour for 2 kids. She's worth it, my kids love her and she loves them and its one big party for them when she comes over. I haven't called heri in awhile, thanks for the reminder. The sad thing is these girls grow up and go away to college...our last one we had since my oldest was a baby was like a member of our family and now she's all grown up in grad school out in CA!

 

[nowellsl]

My daughter gets at least $10.00 an hour.

 

[Blueeyes101817]

i usually get 10-12 dollars an hour....but i work at the day care center that most of these kids go and they said they feel "safe" when im there since im older ..

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Around here the going rate for 2-3 kids is about $10/hr. Depends on the sitter though and also the kids.

My 15yo son gets $10/hour for one family, but he gets paid I think about $7-8/hour for another family. Their kids are about the ages of your kids and he enjoys watching them so much that he'd do it for even less (they love him, too, because he brings his guitar and really interacts with them).

Ask around your area because it does depend on the area.

One dollar and hour? That's what I got paid in 1980 when I was in college and even then it was below the going rate, but it was for a family without much $ and for a little boy who I loved. And this was in Oregon where the going rate was low.

Around here a person really needs to pay close to the minimum wage to attract the babysitters or they will go get "real" paying jobs.

 

[TLHB70]

Ok...........so it looks like $10 is what most recommend???????
I guess I wasn't expecting it to be quite that much. I was thinking about $8 or maybe $9. However, I do want to pay a good amount, maybe a little more than average, because if the girls end up really liking this sitter I would like to get her again. I am afraid if I under pay that she will not be willing to come back.

 

[RadioNate]

For 2 kids I would say $10 an hour.

We pay between 7 and 8 (we round up) for 1 child. Both our sitters are college aged.

Good babysitters are totally worth it.

One of our sitters has a younger sister who is just starting to babysit. Since we know their parents we have agreed to help her get some experience by watching DS for a few hours during the afternoon. She doesn't drive yet so we will provide her transportation and pay her around $5 an hour.

 

[lecach]

Im in NC too - in Durham. I was told by my friends (two different sets) that they pay $7 an hour. We had a teacher from my DS's daycare babysit and she wouldnt tell us what to pay her. So we paid her $20 for less than 3 hours. She seemed very pleased. Since your girls are older I would think that $8 or $9 an hour would more than enough. Its more than she'd get working part time. And your girls will require very little work. If they were infants it'd be different.

 

[Forevryoung]

I would say 8-9 an hour depending on how long you are gone and how long the kids are awake. I made 8 an hour in NY when I was that age (not too long ago). Now I make 10-12 an hour but I'm in college.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Ok...........so it looks like $10 is what most recommend???????
I guess I wasn't expecting it to be quite that much. I was thinking about $8 or maybe $9. However, I do want to pay a good amount, maybe a little more than average, because if the girls end up really liking this sitter I would like to get her again. I am afraid if I under pay that she will not be willing to come back.

$10/hour might be high for your area. I think that $8/hour is probably a fair amount for the age of your girls. You can always ask the sitter or tell her you were going to pay $8/hour and ask her if that's ok. And then round up. As you said, you want the sitter back if it goes well. Too me it's worth it to pay a little extra for the knowledge that the sitter will beg to come back. The family with 2 kids that pays my 15yo son $10/hour (and pays my DD the same when she's able to babysit) pays a lot, but wants my kids available often, with very little notice. It's a win-win situation.