[Emster]

I've had my eye on some girls in my church and approached their mom a few weeks ago about setting up a babysitting arrangement. Woob is 17 mos. old and I am finally loosening up a little on who can watch him and feeling comfortable going out without him occasionally. The family in question has two teenage girls, and when I enquired about her babysitting the mom said that the girls would love to. I asked her what did sitters charge these days, to which she replied "oh a few bucks an hour..." pretty noncommittally.

Not only am I wondering what the standard teenage babysitter rate is, but how to pay if two come at the same time. Here's my thought on the matter...$5 per hour for one sitter, and if her sister tags along, $6 per hour and they can split it. I can't pay double fees just cause there are two girls.

OR Do you just say "we'll be gone no more than x hours and I'll pay you $xx for the evening. They can decide if they'll both come and split it or if just one will come.

What do you think? I'd like to pay enough to keep them interested in sitting for me, but I am not a goldmine.

[HBV]

Do you need them both at the same time? I agree, I don't see why you should pay double just because they want to keep each other company.

I have usually used one of our former nannies for an out of family sitter, and I just pay her by the evening, so I agree that that might be a good solution for you if they're both going to come. The other thing to do is to just ask them (not their mom) what they charge. I remember parents asking me that all the time. (The sad thing is that if your price point is the going rate----and I think it's pretty close---then babysitting salaries are not keeping pace w/ the economy. I charged $4 an hour, and that was 25 years ago!)

[Emster]

Oh, gosh, when I was in my babysitting heyday, I got $1-2 an hour! I wasn't a good negotiator apparently!

[Emberbit]

It depends on the kid and how much they like babysitting.

As a teen, I hated babysitting, but would do it, even overnight or with a lot of kids if the money was right.

As a teen, I always prefered to hear "We need you from X until no later than X and we'll pay $XX for that time." Then the teens in question can decide whether they want to split it or alternate who sits for you or what.

Oh...and I would accept less if the parents were generous with their TV/computer or kept good snacks/drinks in the kitchen or would order me dinner...

Edited to add that I usually charged $50 for 2 kids for 4 to 5 hours in the evening/afternoon...or a little less ($35-40) for the same amount of time overnight while they slept depending whether they were sleeping when I got there or I needed to put them to bed. If the parents didn't provide a cooked meal/take out and I needed to cook to feed them, I uped the price by $20. I hated to cook.

[megaphonemo]

We pay $10 an hour, and we ask for the one, and her sister comes and keeps her company. We make sure to give the instructions to the one, and when I pay them at the end, I give the money to the one. I don't ask for two to come, that is their choice....

I used to get like $2 an hour from my sister in law when I was in 7th and 8th grade. Now, I am not sure I'd let a 7th grader babysit my 2 year old!!!

$10 an hour stinks!!

Mega

[SchmennaLeigh]

Yeah, I got between 2-3/hr in my day.

I've been wondering this as well. We're also thinking about asking a girl from church to come over, once a week for two hours in the evening so I can get work done or go to the store or do laundry or take a ding-dang nap or whatever. LOL.

And so, I'm watching this thread for further discussion.

[mrsdatabits]

I wonder the same too, and when people tell me between $7-10/hr I'm flabbergasted. I used to work as a daycare provider and didn't make that much!!! (and this was only about 3 years ago). So, I despair of ever having someone watch DD. I, too, used to babysit and it was for about $2-3/hr.

[Emster]

Okay, here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to call the teenager and see if she's willing to come on Saturday to babysit. I am going to offer her the opportunity to earn $30 that night. Sister can come if she wants. What they do with the pay is up to them. We will likely be gone a total of 4-5 hours. Friday, I'll offer to pick her up to bring her to our house to see where everything is, point out routines, no-nos for the baby, etc. I'll offer pizza for dinner. She will not have to feed or bathe Woob Saturday night, except for milk and a snack before bed.

She can take or leave the Friday thing, but I kind of want to do that ahead of time regardless.

I'll let you know if she takes the bait.

[Mich71]

I think the rate may depend on were you live.
We pay $5.00 per hour for one child. And I think it changes at 3 kids to $6.00 per hour. We asked the girls directly.

[Emberbit]

Originally Posted by mrsdatabits

I wonder the same too, and when people tell me between $7-10/hr I'm flabbergasted. I used to work as a daycare provider and didn't make that much!!! (and this was only about 3 years ago). So, I despair of ever having someone watch DD. I, too, used to babysit and it was for about $2-3/hr.

I think a lot depends on where you are and how old the child being watched is and how many children...

When I charged $50 for 5 hours for 2 (roughly $25 per child so breaks down to $5/hour/child)...some nights, I had to call a friend to join me because because they'd hand over $150 and say..."Oh by the way, their 4 cousins are here too..." Which fits my system of $5/hour/child but has to then be split because I couldn't (and probably still can't) take care of 4 kids under 5 plus two between 5 & 8.

[ourdreamcametru]

We're in Nashville and although we don't have to hire an outside sitter very often since we have the two older boys, we pay $6.00 an hour when we do. Our oldest son will watch Castle for us free if he's not working but our youngest, 13, still wants some pay but he does come cheaper than an outside sitter thank goodness!
One thing I've found through the years is if our sitter brought a friend along our children didn't get as much attention because the girls were talking on the phone or on the computer so be careful that they know that they are there to watch/entertain the child.

[HBV]

I'll add one other thing here---we pay our nanny $10 an hour, plus she gets a lot of benefits (a gas credit card, AAA, cash bonuses, we keep food she likes on hand, etc.) but I don't usually pay evening sitters that much. On the rare occasions when we don't have grandma to sit, our former nanny sits and I do it by the evening---and half the time she won't take the money.

I somehow have a hard time wanting to pay an evening sitter the same rate----like it would somehow demean nanny's job during the day. Does that seem weird?

[Emster]

Saturday went without a hitch. Only one of the girls came--she was 14 yrs old (a freshman), but pretty mature acting, and has experience with little boys because she is second oldest of 5, the two youngest being little brothers. It went well. She played with him all night (you could tell because EVERY toy he owned was out ) We paid her $5 hour which she said was great. I did make the point that I was hoping to establish a consistent babysitter for Woob so that we'd like to call her again. She said that was good with her. The older sister didn't seem too interested, so I'm glad she didn't come.

[Casey677]

Emster, I think it's great you found someone for $5 an hour! That is what I got paid 17 years ago, LOL. But I only babysat for family, so they were probably a little over generous.

We just hired someone to come into our home two days a week (I'll be here too) for $10 an hour. She'll be helping me with our two kiddos (26 months & 8 months) at the very end of my pregnancy (I'm 36.5 weeks) and for a while after I deliver with all three kids. Part of me thinks $10 an hour is a lot since I'll be here and just need some help, but she is fantastic so it will hopefully be worth it!

[McNally720]

Congrats on finding a good sitter, Em! We pay ours an average of $5 an hour (I tend to round up if we're out late or something) and Megan loves her. Girls from church are the absolute best--ours is the oldest of five, so she's got it all covered....