How much would you pay for babysitting?

[VillainV]

H and I are going to a night football game in a few weeks (we have season tix to our local team), and our 16-year-old neighbor is babysitting for us for the first time.

We will put C down to bed before we leave, and he doesn't normally wake up until morning. So all she'll have to do is sit there. We'll give her access to our guest wifi network and we have satellite TV. If C happens to wake up, she can just play with him until we get back (we'll leave some easily accessible snacks/sippy cups just in case). The whole gig will probably be 5:45 - maybe 11:00. She lives next door so she can just walk home.

She asked off from work that day from her job (smoothie place, so she probably makes minimum wage) so I want to pay her enough that it's worth her while. What is a reasonable amount to pay her? She won't have to do much. $40 for the whole night? $50? We live in MCOL.

[bananapancakes]

What's minimum wage where you live?

[holly116]

First, I'd ask her rate. If she has no idea, try and figure out what she would have made working her shift and add $10 to it and see if that seems right for the hours worked? Even if she's just sitting there for most of the time, getting in with a good babysitter that lives next door could be gold. I'd pay her on the high side to try and win allegiance down the road lol.

This is so location specific. Definitely ask her first.

[Deleted]

I would give her $10 an hour. I say that but at the same time I may try to get my neighbor to watch dd for the Sunday games which is a full day and was going to offer her $75 a game. Currently she does 1 or 2 a season and refuses to take money. But I feel like doing 8 is taking advantage of her.

[lg28]

I had a babysitter switch their shift once where she made $14/hour, so I told her I would give her $20/hr that time for my appreciation. We normally pay sitters around $10/hr, and she was thrilled I paid her more that time under the circumstances.

[whitepicketfence]

I usually go with roughly $10/hour.

[VillainV]

Sept 3, 2015 6:53:40 GMT -5 bananapancakes said:

What's minimum wage where you live?

$8.23/hr. She would probably make about $7.50/hr after taxes, and she'd have to pay for gas to get to and from work. So I guess we should pay her about $10/hr? So $50-60? That's about what she would make in, I assume, an 8-hr shift at work that she gave up to babysit for us. We'll definitely ask, but she's the type of girl that whatever we offer, she'll say "yeah, that's fine."

I definitely want to get in good with her. We are also becoming friends with her parents.

I also want to have some snacks or dinner or something for her. We can get delivery here but it's expensive. Would a take-n-bake or frozen pizza be okay?

[sjh722]

Do you have any local friends you can ask? I've done that before too.

[VillainV]

Sept 3, 2015 7:24:09 GMT -5 sjh722 said:

Do you have any local friends you can ask? I've done that before too.

That's a great point. Yes, I have some friends I can ask.

[purplecow0206]

For our sitter (who's 18), we paid $12, though we've only had her come a few times. I really think this is one of those things that's so location-specific. Asking around is probably your best bet.

[namasteak]

$10/hr

[countthestars]

We pay about $10/hr and make sure to have frozen pizza and some snacks on hand. Finding a good babysitter is the best, hold on to her!

[VillainV]

Sept 3, 2015 7:58:56 GMT -5 countthestars said:

We pay about $10/hr and make sure to have frozen pizza and some snacks on hand. Finding a good babysitter is the best, hold on to her!

She's a really sweet girl, and we would love to be able to use her on a regular basis! I really hope we can keep her :-)

[CloudBee]

Whenever we use our high school sitter, I usually have the following in my freezer:
- a couple cheapie (like $2-3) single serve frozen pizzas
- a few $ Ben & Jerry's single serve ice cream cups

She always eats that, if I tell her it's in the freezer. ^

If I haven't planned in advance, I drive her through the Wendy's drive thru after I pick her up.

I would text her and ask what she charges. If you get a vague answer, I think $10 sounds good.

[monsterz]

HCOL I have been paying $15 an hour for a sitter. MCOL I paid a neighbor kid $10 an hour.