How Much Do You Pay Your Babysitter?

mattsmum

New Member
How much do you pay your babysitter or how much do you think someone should pay?

It might help to add what state you live in and ages of children for comparison purposes.

I am asking because I am in search of a babysitter for my two kids, ages 5 and 7. My previous babysitter has gotten a part time job that keeps him busy. I was paying him $6/hour and changed to $7/hour when he got his license and was able to drive himself here. I would often "round up" what I was giving him and pay him extra.

His younger 13-year-old sister has offered to babysit, but I think my difficult child could possibly be too much for her~basically because I can't picture her being able to put her foot down when he needed to obey her.

I just found another babysitter that gave me the price of $9/hour, but said we could discuss it. She is a sophomore in High School.
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
My neighbor's daughter says she charges $5.00 an hour per child. I think that is AT LEAST average around here. I've heard of anywhere from $8 to $10 an hour just for one child. I'm certainly glad I have a few relatives and friends to ask first.
 

meowbunny

New Member
Northwest USA -- $10 for a child over 5; $1 an hour for each additional child under 5; $15 for a child under 5; $2 for each additional child under 5. Forget it if you have more than 3 kids. Then you have to ask family and friends. Infant rates seem to be whatever the babysitter can get away with. I have one friend who pays $25/hour for her and her hubby to get out once in awhile.

A lot depends on whether the babysitter is certified by ARC or a school program. Age of babysitter also factors in. A college student is going to demand more than a high school or middle school student.
 

smallworld

Moderator
We live in a suburb of a large metropolitan area on the East Coast, plus I have three children (and we still get babysitters for our 14-year-old because of his issues), so we pay a premium here. I pay college students $10 an hour. We have also hired a 30-year-old woman who has a day job but wants to earn extra money by babysitting at night. We pay her $15 an hour, and quite frankly, she's worth every penny because she's so competent.
 

Adrift

Member
Hi, we live in rural Maine and pay $8/hr. for an afterschool college student with a car. I'd pay a little less if he didn't have a car. Some people around her think that's too much. I think the college student part and the car means a lot. I wouldn't have a high school student for my kids now. Yhe 12 year old is too much to handle. I made 50 cents andhour!!!!!
 

Dara

New Member
We live in Houston and we pay $10-$11 an hour. Before I had Sammy I babysat (I was a preschool teacher) and I got paid $11-$12 an hour. I had some teacher friends who charged $14 an hour!
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
My friend does in home care at her house and charges $4 an hour for the first child and $3 an hour for each additional child. I told her lastnight I may send her all 3 difficult children for the $10 an hour rate. That sounds like a steal of a deal to me!
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
:surprise: :smile:

easy child Melissa is trying to get pregnant again. Maybe I should show her this thread. :rofl:

Then I'll readjust my "wages" for watching Darrin at night for her. :wink:

I do make her pay me, even though I'm Nana because I don't want her getting ideas about making me the permanent sitter. I knew it wasn't near the going rate, but geeze I hadn't realized the going rate had jumped so high!

Here, if you go for private sitting, you can usually find an afterschool sitter for about 50.00 a week. Full time sitters run a 100.00 a week. (these are adults) And daycare is out of this world since we only have 2 to choose from.

This is in rural southern Ohio.
 

Sunlight

Active Member
5.00 an hour at daycare centers north of PGH but you must make a committment of number of hours. Kaleb goes to a private daycare when with me and the dear woman only charges 2.00 an hour!
 

nlg319

New Member
I have never had a babysitter tell ME what she charges. Whenever I ask, they say," whatever you want". I generally pay between 6.00-10.00 depending on how long I've been gone and whether she had to make dinner,and what the house looks like when I get home!
 

Janna

New Member
I guess it depends on what kind of babysitter you're looking for.

We had a girl that was high school aged that came and sat with the boys once in a blue moon on a Saturday night when SO and I wanted to go out. I paid her $10.00 per hour.

I pay my full time, daytime babysitter per week ~ $60.00. She has my two younger for about 30 minutes in the morning, puts them on the bus for school, and then about an hour after school. Now, she is an older woman, retired. When I tried to go to a state licensed day care center here, they were not by the hour. They were weekly, you pay that amount regardless of whether you went or not, and they were outrageous ~ well over $100 per week, per child.
 

jannie

trying to survive....
I pay $7.00 - $10.00 per hour. For after care 3:00-6:00 pm during the school year I pay 375.00 per month per child.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
OMG -- I am a cheapskate! I've been paying my 14 and 15yo sitters $6/hr for all three kids. It's typically just for a few evening hours so husband and I can get out once in a blue moon.

I haven't had any complaints, but... maybe it's time for a raise? :slap:
 

Marguerite

Active Member
difficult child 1 occasionally baby-sits for a friend of ours who has three boys, 8, 6 and 18 months. He's usually only watching the two older boys but will look after the baby too. She pays him about $15 for 2-3 hours. Once he baby-sat until about 2 am, because the baby had had a nasty fall and they'd taken him to hospital.

We don't use baby-sitters any more. Back when we did, I remember we were going to a street party at a neighbour's literally over the road. Another friend in town with a daughter the same age as easy child was also going but couldn't afford a baby-sitter, so I checked with our sitter about leaving the girl with our tribe. After all, the sitter was looking after my three and my friend's one. The sitter (an older lady who also often did my washing up without being asked) said OK, not a problem.
I dropped in a few times through the night, as did the other mother - pop over home to collect some papers, a book, a warmer jacket - and at the end of the night, the sitter charged us DOUBLE because she'd had to mind two families. I mean, the kids were settled in bed almost as soon as we left and each time we got back home briefly, all the kids were in bed asleep. I wasn't impressed and she never sat for us again, even though we'd used her as a sitter for years.

I do think it's something that needs to be negotiated ahead of time (from this experience) and also you need to consider - will the kids be a problem? Will they be in bed asleep all the time? Will you be requiring the sitter to be up past midnight? Will the sitter be taking themselves home, or wanting you to drive them?

Lately I've been minding kids for people who can't afford a sitter - I don't really mind if it's a friend because they generally reciprocate in some other way. But not if they try to take advantage of me.

I do volunteer teaching at the local school. I used to do it after school and found I was getting stuck with kids who didn't want to be there and wouldn't behave for me, because their mother simply wanted to save after-school care fees. I switched to lunchtimes and the problems stopped - the kids who don't want to be there, just don't go. Or they leave. So all the kids are wonderful, delightful and easy for me to handle. They do not abuse my anarchy in any way, for which I'm grateful.

There are so many factors to this, it's hard to know where to begin.

Marg
 

miche

New Member
We paid $7 for one child (a while ago) and then we just started paying our soon to be nanny $10/hour to watch the two of them on occasion. She hasn't complained or asked for more. Maybe because she's going to be working for us full-time soon?
 

WNC Gal

New Member
We live in a small town - most sitters are not required to drive our kids anywhere and only rarely babysit at night. For 2+ kids, we pay $8 per hour if they drive themselves here, $6-7 if they don't.

Also, some sitters are very organized and high energy and tend to keep the kids happy and busy as well as make sure the house is picked up (hopefully by the kids) before we get home. Others spend the day texting their friends while they encourage the kids to watch TV all day and the kids are crabby and bored when we get home. I wouldn't pay them less, but just plan on not utilizing those babysitters again except in dire straits. AND specify expectations about screen time for the kids!
 

SRL

Active Member
I haven't used one in awhile but I always paid more than they would get if they were flipping burgers at McDonald's.

My oldest watches them now when we have a need and I just pay him a couple of bucks an hour. He doesn't have many other responsibilities around here so I consider it his "family contribution" to take a lower rate.
 

mattsmum

New Member
Update...we decided to give her the $9/hour. From your responses I thought that it wasn't an unreasonable rate...and we want her to want to babysit. We haven't been out in such a LONG time..

Thanks for your help!!!
 
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