How much to pay babysitter?

drillerswife · October 2012

We're using a babysitter Friday evening and I have no clue how much to pay her. FWIW, G will be awake when she gets here but I'll put him to bed before we leave. She'll get here about 6:00, we'll leave once G is asleep, and I don't know how late we'll get home. I asked her how much she charges and she said "oh whatever y'all think is fine", so that wasn't helpful Lol. Thoughts?

BoyMom21 · October 2012

We've been paying $10/hour, but B is awake the entire time and is a handful. If G is going to be asleep and she's not dealing with him at all, I'd say $7-8/hour is fine. But...if you want to use her again, I might make it worth her while and pay a little more so you're more likely to get an enthusiastic "YES!" the next time you're in need of a day or a night out.

drillerswife · October 2012

BoyMom21:
We've been paying $10/hour, but B is awake the entire time and is a handful. If G is going to be asleep and she's not dealing with him at all, I'd say $7-8/hour is fine. But...if you want to use her again, I might make it worth her while and pay a little more so you're more likely to get an enthusiastic "YES!" the next time you're in need of a day or a night out.

$10/hr is what came to mind first, but then I thought since he'll be asleep the whole time that maybe that was too much. Now it's dawning on me that us going to this wedding reception could be very $$--we may come home earlier than planned Lol And I definitely want to be able to use her again since she's the ONLY babysitter we've found and it'd be nice to have her as an option...

jesseandbri · October 2012

I think it depends on how old she is, does she have her own transportation and that stuff. I use a girl that charges me $10 an hour in the evening or $40 for a day. She drives herself and is in college.

I tried a highschool girl (she "rescheduled" twice) and I had planned to pay her $7 but that never happened.

That was for one child and honestly I fear what the charge would be for my two now at this age.

drillerswife · October 2012

jesseandbri:
I think it depends on how old she is, does she have her own transportation and that stuff. I use a girl that charges me $10 an hour in the evening or $40 for a day. She drives herself and is in college.

I tried a highschool girl (she "rescheduled" twice) and I had planned to pay her $7 but that never happened.

That was for one child and honestly I fear what the charge would be for my two now at this age.

She's college-age, has her own vehicle, and works for our neighbors, which is how we know her (they have a wheelchair-bound daughter she helps them out with).

I'm sorry you've had some bad experiences

. And I haven't even let myself think about the cost of a sitter for 2---the cost of daycare for 2 kids makes me weep.

BobKat22 · October 2012

I'd say $10/hr too.

amidavey06 · October 2012

We pay our babysitter $10/hr. But M is also wake and she is very interactive with her. We also leave money for food.

BlinkingLight1 · October 2012

$10 an hour seems like a lot if he's going to be sleeping. I'm not sure though, I guess you have to be consistent. And, he could wake up. I say give her $10/hr this time so hopefully she'll want to babysit in the future

And, if you think about it.... if you were gone for 5 hours that would be $50. If you paid her $8 that would be $40. I think it's worth the extra $10 to make sure you don't tick her off or have her think you're cheap or something.

drillerswife · October 2012

BlinkingLight1:
$10 an hour seems like a lot if he's going to be sleeping. I'm not sure though, I guess you have to be consistent. And, he could wake up. I say give her $10/hr this time so hopefully she'll want to babysit in the future And, if you think about it.... if you were gone for 5 hours that would be $50. If you paid her $8 that would be $40. I think it's worth the extra $10 to make sure you don't tick her off or have her think you're cheap or something.

$10/hr does seems like a lot to pay someone to hang out in our house, eat our food, and have the monitor close by

. I do agree that I'd rather pay her a little more in hopes that she'll babysit again--I'm just cheap and didn't realize the pay scale had changed so much from my days of babysitting in college Stick out tongue

. Good thing I asked Lol

+buttercup+ · October 2012

drillerswife:
BlinkingLight1:
$10 an hour seems like a lot if he's going to be sleeping. I'm not sure though, I guess you have to be consistent. And, he could wake up. I say give her $10/hr this time so hopefully she'll want to babysit in the future And, if you think about it.... if you were gone for 5 hours that would be $50. If you paid her $8 that would be $40. I think it's worth the extra $10 to make sure you don't tick her off or have her think you're cheap or something.
$10/hr does seems like a lot to pay someone to hang out in our house, eat our food, and have the monitor close by . I do agree that I'd rather pay her a little more in hopes that she'll babysit again--I'm just cheap and didn't realize the pay scale had changed so much from my days of babysitting in college . Good thing I asked Lol

I was just thinking that the pay scale had NOT changed much from when I used to babysit. I used to get paid $10/hr but then I realized that was for two kids so maybe it has.

llizzyb · October 2012

I pay ours $10 an hour, regardless of DS being asleep or awake. We really need a reliable sitter who wants to come back, so it's worth it to me.

FWIW, I babysat two little girls two summers ago (2.5 and 6) some afternoons and got paid $10 an hour. I was a 25 year old teacher. We went to the park, watched movies, colored, etc. Easy gig, but I had hoped to get paid more in the $11-$12 range. I took the job anyways, since it was a sweet family and I didn't have anything going on that summer.

How much to pay babysitter?

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