Picture by Norman RockwellI enjoyed a phone call with a college roommate yesterday (hi LJ!) as I reclined on my couch, famished from shoveling four inches of snow from my driveway. You know, with my delicate situation I tire so easily. . . ha.
At one point our conversation turned to Big C and the fact that he is becoming responsible enough to watch the other two for a very brief period of time while I run to the grocery store around the corner or to drop something off to a friend in the neighborhood. I commented on the cost effectiveness of this idea and we were suddenly discussing babysitters in general.
After that conversation, I feel the need to poll my readers to find out what the going rate is for babysitters in your respective areas. This is a hot topic of controversy for the Hubby and I. He tends towards a more frugal number than I typically would. I am trying to remain competitive because I know what other families in our area (read: ward) are paying. We pay about $2.50 a kid and will throw in an extra dollar an hour if the babysitter straightened up or did the dishes (both of which I did as a rule when I was a babysitter eons ago!)
I'd love to know - what do you pay your babysitters? Do they straighten up after the kids go to bed or do they sit around watching TV and texting their friends? Sound off in the comments section - I can't wait to share this with the Hubby.
19 comments:
Not sure if this will be helpful, but we have friends and family watch him so we don't have to pay babysitters. We will when he gets older though. From what I understand, in our areas, it is $8 per hour for 1 child and $10/hour for 2. I personally think that is expensive, but if they are responsible, it would be worth it!
In our itty bitty corner of the desert, with my 4 children, we'll usually plop down $20 for a couple of hours, stock the pantry with yummy stuff and make sure dinner is ready to go. My first babysitting job was a 7 month old baby, I was 9, and I made 50 cents per hour. Plus, I picked up the house for the mom.
we feed our babysitters dinner and let them play wii. our kids go to bed by 8:00 when they are here so they usually have 2 hours without kids and 1 hour with them. We do not have a pay scale. We generally get cash out and pay whatever we get out at the ATM (or grocery store which is usually the case :). this weekend we went out to a movie and dinner and were gone 4 hours from pick up and we paid her $35. probably too much but we figure that we want them to be eager to babysit again, so we pay a little more. they tend to ease their "advance notice" rules if we pay well. so we can call on thursday for a friday date :0)
That is what I do too! I think you are fine with that.
What I'd like to know is if you and your readers would hire a completely responsible 13 year old boy to babysit if you had a couple of boys and a little girl who is potty trained? Just wondering? What are your thoughts about boys and babysitting? Thanks!
We pay $10 an hour for two kids! In South Carolina we paid $8 an hour for 2 kids and the girls didn't even clean up or get the kids to bed! Ridiculous! This is why Dan and I don't go out much!
Hello there. Delurking here.
I'm a midwest mommy who also happen's to nanny in my "free" time, which since the arrival of my son has been zero.
Working with the nanny service has allowed me to up my range of fees. I now charge from $10-$12/hour. With older kids who don't require much work, I charge less. Back when I was in college (-8 yrs) my best clients paid $2.50/hr/child. If it was a long period of time the usually added $5-$10 as a thank you. When they called I rearranged plans to make myself available to them...my thank you to them for their generosity.
So far, we haven't had to pay anyone to babysit. Family and friends have always begged to step in. But I know the day is coming when we will have to find a young someone who we find responsible enough to care for our son. My plan is to pay that someone $3-$5/hour...you know, for incentive to come back for us ☺
And to Lori Z.: I would absolutely hire a boy to watch my son. My brother (5yrs younger) babysat for the same family's I did (after I had gone to college). I think boys especially respond well to babysitters of the male gender. IMO anyway.
Sorry for the long comment!
To Lori Z: I've got 3 boys and a girl and I think boys can make great babysitters.
Thank you to NovelTea Mommy for delurking herself in order to give what I thought was great advice! It's nice to hear from someone on the "other side" - as in someone who's watched kids and gotten paid . . . recently.
I did need to chime in to Lori - we have called three separate 13 year old boys in our ward to babysit and two of the parents let us know that they don't allow their boys to babysit because they worry about accusations by children - not that their boys are innapropriate, they just don't want to put them that kind of situation - make sense?
Having said that, one of the best babysitters we've had is the third 13 year old. He comes with a bag of games to play and does a great job with our kids.
$6.50/hr for 3 kids. We pay for travel time and feed the babysitter (responsible middle schooler). For half her time the kids are in bed. She straigtens up the kitchen. We always round up and give Christmas/birthday bonuses. Believe it or not, our babysitter's dad says we overpay.
We only have two kids, one of whom is 10-years-old and takes care of herself, so I never pay more than $3.50/hour for both of them... I know I'm cheap. I can't help it... :)
I'm stunned!! I use to get 25 cents an hour for baby sitting and it was expected that you would do dishes and pick up the house. I also cleaned house for 50 cents an hour. Since when do baby sitters make more than the minimum wage? I know what I can do now if I want a part time job.
I have three kids, age 7, 4 and 1. I pay the babysitter roughly $5 an hour, usually more since we always forget to have small bills on hand. She doesn't clean up, but I have had frazzled days where I've asked her to prepare something simple for dinner {PB & J or Macaroni} and I like that she plays so well with the kids. Unfortunately, we really don't go out much, so I have no idea if this is the going rate or not!
dude-- all I can say is, I'm coming to babysit your kids. That's practically more than I get at the WS! (will you throw in a discount on your furniture?)
I don't have to pay for a babysitter, but when i was babysitting back in good ole jersey, i made $14/hr for 3 kids... and didn't have to straighten up.
It was good to talk to you yesterday! Like we discussed I pay $5.00/hr for my two kids (ages 9 & 5). I think that's reasonable! Sometimes I add a little bit more depending on circumstances--if she had to cook or how long the kids were up, etc. But if the sitter doesn't clean up, I don't get her again! Out here in my neck of the woods there's lots of babysitters to choose from so I have the luxury of being picky!
We have 4 kids ages (almost) 9, 7, 4, and 2. Usually our youngest is in bed or will be shortly when our sitter comes. She just turned 14 and we pay about $6/hour. In talking to her mom, she said Caroline (our sitter) is very happy with that. She is a super responsible girl that the kids LOVE! They beg to have her babysit because she actually plays with them the whole time and does not just plunk them in front of the tv. From what I've read, I'm actually thinking we should pay her more. We live in Kansas, by the way.
Good heavens there are pricey places. I've asked and usually I get told they don't have a rate. In fact, I've never been told a "rate" from a sitter. We pay about $5 per hour for the 3 kids who go to bed about 8:00 very easily, we feed them and they can do and eat whatever they want (I do turn off the computers though for safety, etc.). I'll round up a lot of they clean up and I know they "play" with the kids. For instance, if they are here for 5 hours I'll pay $30 if they are good and go the extra mile. I've never had trouble booking sitters and in fact, I have girls asking to sit for us.
The other night we had our first boy sitter. It was odd circumstances and I normally wouldn't do it. He's a son of a really good friend and we came home from a ward activity and put the kids to bed ourselves. He stayed with the kids while we went to his parents house and played games. He got on the WiiFit as we were leaving the house and when we came home about 3 hours later - he hadn't left the Wii. :-) Worked out great for all of us. I paid him $10 but I'm not sure he expected anything. He hadn't even touched the food I'd left out for him. I wouldn't do it if he'd had to put my kids to bed because that would be a tough situation with a little girl at home. I'm normally against boy sitters because of the potential for ruining lives because of stray accusations, but in this isolated instance it worked. In a pinch I'd use him again but even though I trust him completely, I wouldn't use him in an interactive situation unless it was just the boys.
I babysit in utah and have been since i was 12 (i'm 15) people usually pay me 2-4 dollars an hour depending on how many kids they have. i'm fine with that because i love kids. i usually do it for free if it's a church activity.
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