What Would You Pay Afterschool College Babysitters??

[DVCLiz]

DD18 and her friend at school (college sophmores) have gotten a job this semester. They will be picking up 4 7th grade girls from school at 3:15 and keeping them until the moms all get home from work, by 6 at the latest. My daughter and her friend each have a car and will be driving the girls home from school, and on one day to a music lesson.

My daughter will do Mondays and Wednesdays, her friend will do Tuesdays and Thursdays, and they will both do Fridays together. How much do you think is fair for them to be paid?

They've already negotiated their own deal - just curious what you think you would do in this situation, so I'll know if they are getting a fair deal.

 

[runswithscissors]

Prior to starting full-day kindergarten, my son spent every day with my mom. He was in school for 2.5 hours three days a week and we paid my mom $1200/month. He is now in kindergarten and my mom will pick him up at 4 every day. He will stay with her until 5:30 when I will pick him up. I will pay $600/month which works out to approximately $13.50/hr. We live in Southeastern PA.

 

[jessica52877]

10 years ago I got $15 a kid to get them off the bus, walk them home and stay untill 7 at the latest, bus got there at 3ish. I had 3 girls though, so was $45 a day, worked out to about $15 an hour since I was not always there until 7.

 

[KteaRN]

I pay my sitters $8/hr. That is for a 17mo old and almost 3yr old, my 14yo is around too to help.

 

[Darcy03231]

At least $10/hour. I live in Southern NH.

 

[poohfriend77]

Assuming your daughter is not expected to do housework, start dinner, or provide major tutoring/homework help, I think $20-25 per day is fair. Maybe I'm being cheap (I don't have to pay for sitters very often, and I haven't been paid in several years ). But 7th graders are pretty self-sufficient. Heck, I was the baby-sitter when I was in 7th grade. It sounds like your daughter is mostly being paid to carpool. No diapers, making snacks, cleaning sticky faces, etc.

I'm curious to know what their deal is, if you don't mind sharing.

 

[DVCLiz]

They are getting $200 a week, to split between the two of them. My DD will do Mondays and Wednesdays, her friend will do Tuesdays and Thursdays, and they will both do Fridays. It works out to about 14 hours, so they are getting about $14 - $14.50 an hour. They'll each make about $100 a week.

I think that's pretty fair - right in the middle of what I expected. They are driving their own cars for carpool, and supervising homework, etc. as well as taking one or two of them to a music or soccer lesson.

It seems fair to me, especially since I am also looking at it from the point of view of the working mom. If I'd had a fun, responsible college student (which I know my daughter to be!!) to pick up my girls after school and all I had to pay was $50 a week, I would have been thrilled.

DD makes about $15 an hour when she babysits here at home, and she usually has 2 or 3 children under the age of 12.

 

[momx2]

I paid $20 per day to a college girl who picked up my 2 DDs from school and took them to practice. She also got them to do their homework. Nothing hard just K and 2 and 3rd grade work. She picked them up at 3 and stayed til 5 at the latest and got to leave early if I got home early. So about $10 per hr., but probably more because she got to leave early alot. I think the big difference in money is that your DD will be watching 4 girls, instead of 2. I think it is very fair price.

 

[Princess Roo]

That is an interesting one, since the girls are older. Your daughter has to provide the car and transportation and commit being available during that time period, but it won't be much "work" during the time. And the 4 preteen children probably means less work than 1 child. I'd say "fair" is about what the going rate there is for her to babysit 1 child in the evenings (here that is $10/hour for college kids). A little less if the driving is quite minimal and more if they'll be spending a lot on gas. And a lot more if the girls don't like each other and fight all the time or don't behave for your daughter.

 

[DVCLiz]

Yes, I told her to add a premium if the girls turned out to be stinkers!!!!

I think they are pretty happy with the deal.

 

[TheDizMom]

This is a facinating thread to me. I am thinking about hiring a college or driving high school student to watch my kids 2 days a week for about 3.5 hours one day and 6-6.5 hours the other this summer. We have used daycare up to this point during the summer. I would want she/he to feed them lunch one day, take them to the pool/beach and parks at times so they aren't just sitting at home, and there may be some driving to summer camps. I am curious as to what you think is a reasonable sum for that . I have no idea what is fair , or what the going rate is. My kids will be 11 and 7 by then and are generally pretty easy, except for my DD's drama queen tendencies . I payed our daycare $19 per child per day which I know is VERY INEXPENSIVE . But part of the draw there was the cousins and that won't be happening next year. I know this is quite some time off, but since the thread has been started I thought I would ask for future reference . I thought I would pay them a set rate for the care itself and then throw in an extra tip to cover any gas money they might need that week. What have you other mom's paid? Thanks for you input .

 

[goofiecrazy]

I can tell you from the sitters point of view its what u get paid. I was working for a family from the the youngest was 10 months old till he was 7/8 yrs old.His brother at the time was 3 when i started and has entered 6 grade this yr.When i started i had to take the older one to school everyday and pick him. I had to get there at 7:30 in the morn get the kids dressed feed them do their clothes and clean the kids room.I was getting paid 350 a week under the table till the younger one started kindergarden.Then the hours changed and the clieaning lady stoped coming and the parents wanted me to pick up the cleaning and not pay xtra for it.Then the younger one went all day to school and then i just got them off the bus and stayed till one of the parents came home.I got the kids homework done with them and sometimes stayed late and made them dinner.The money never was good but i love the boys like they are my own and we still see each other.After i got married and they were in the wedding and having my first kid i was able to bring him with me then having my second kid i decided not to go back but still help out with the kids when they need me. They are looking for a new person but cant seem to find one that the kids really like.She has asked me to come back again this school year but its not worth the little pay and having to take my 2 kids there for a couple hrs a day.

So it depends what the person is willing to pay the sitter and what is expected of the sitter to be doing.
I went to the world with the 2 boys and the mom in 2000 for medical coferences that she had and it was the younger ones first time and I got to share that with him.

 

[DVCLiz]

This is a facinating thread to me. I am thinking about hiring a college or driving high school student to watch my kids 2 days a week for about 3.5 hours one day and 6-6.5 hours the other this summer. We have used daycare up to this point during the summer. I would want she/he to feed them lunch one day, take them to the pool/beach and parks at times so they aren't just sitting at home, and there may be some driving to summer camps. I am curious as to what you think is a reasonable sum for that . I have no idea what is fair , or what the going rate is. My kids will be 11 and 7 by then and are generally pretty easy, except for my DD's drama queen tendencies . I payed our daycare $19 per child per day which I know is VERY INEXPENSIVE . But part of the draw there was the cousins and that won't be happening next year. I know this is quite some time off, but since the thread has been started I thought I would ask for future reference . I thought I would pay them a set rate for the care itself and then throw in an extra tip to cover any gas money they might need that week. What have you other mom's paid? Thanks for you input .

It sounds like you want a driving teen/college student for 10 hours a week during the summer, right? I'd pay about $10 - $12 an hour in that case, plus I'd cover any expenses she had like movie tickets/snacks, pool fees, etc. So maybe $100 - $125 a week, plus extras. And I'd offer another amount for gas, depending on how much driving she'd be doing.

My philosophy as a parent was, and would be for you, to pay well enough and do enough extra to insure that the babysitter felt well-paid and wasn't suddenly going to be looking for another job or quitting to go make smoothies. Babysitting is a pretty sweet deal as far as teen jobs go, but if they can make more money they'll go do something else. It was worth it to me to pay extra to make sure I was the favorite client!!!