Poll: How much do you pay for babysitting?

[miso]

Please click on the poll.

If you cannot see the poll, please answer these questions:

(1) How much do you pay per hour of babysitting?
(2) Describe your babysitter(s) (age, child care background, etc.)
(3) How did you find your babysitter(s)?

[zaneyzoo]

We pay $10/hr for two kids ages 5 and 2.5. Out sitter says we way overpay her. But she always says yes 😉 And we loooovvveeee her

[VillainV]

Approx $10/hr for a high school senior. She has a part time job and sometimes has to ask off from work to sit for us, so we want to pay her more than she makes at her (minimum wage) job.

ETA: she lives next door

[noodleskooze]

We have a babysitter once a week while we go to Bible Study; she's a friend (late 20s). We also get reimbursed up to $30 a week by the church since they don't outright offer childcare. We usually pay her $35 to watch him from 7:15 - 9:45ish, but again, we get reimbursed for most of that amount.

[thebreakfastclub]

Our sitter is 14 and lives down the street. She's $8/hr and knows cpr. I need to find a 2nd one who can do late nights though.

[janegold]

We haven't paid one yet but the going rate around here is $20/hr according to my moms group. (Plus dinner and Uber money, ugh.)

Most people I know use a sitter service, pay their nannies for off hours, or hire friends' nannies who are looking to pick up weekend/evening hours.

[eb777888]

Adventure Kids! $7.50 an hour. I love it.

[chickadee77]

$17 per hour

She's mid-twenties-ish. Has all of her state certifications, CPR, etc. etc.

I found her by asking if anyone at L's school babysits on the side. The upside is, L knows her from seeing her around school, and we know her credentials are on the up-and-up. Downside is that she works for L's school, so we can't use her for backup care if L is sick because she works during the day.

[miso]

We recently split the cost of a babysitter with our friends. The girl is a high school senior and charged $16 to watch two kids. For just one kid, she charges $11.

Sounds like we are getting a good deal.

[snipsnsnails]

(1)$20/hr for 3 kids (1, 4 & 6, but she's been our sitter since our youngest was 3 months old) When our budget allows someday, we'll have her do overnights, too.

(2)She's 22 and in school to be a pediatric nurse. On weekends, she also works at a kids' play place playing with kids. She has all the First Aid certifications. We love her!

(3) She was the childcare provider at a weekly moms group I was in.

[nextbigthing]

I pay $10- $12 per hour for my almost 2 year old

Babysitter that is my favorite is a college student that also works full time so I always overpay her because she's awesome and I know she needs the money. Plus she always is available when I call. So last week I was gone from 6:30-10:00. I could've gotten away with $40 but I gave her $60.

For a high schooler $40 would've been plenty in my area.


Eta: that sitter also does overnights and takes/picks up from school if I have to travel for work. I pay her $100 a day for that

[otowngirl]

We pay $15 / hr for our 6-year old, but it's through a service where all the women (early-mid 20s / grad students) have been vetted and we haven't had an issue finding someone with relatively short notice.

[miso]

Also I am a creepy creepster who just Googled her. She is a track star and wrote a thoughtful article in the school paper about race relations.

And my kid loved her, which I suppose is most important. LOL.

[Jalapeñomel]

1) $20 a hour
2) different ages from 24-50
3) Care.com and friends

[noodleoo]

We pay $15 per hour. The two people we have used so far are teachers at our daycare. One was 26 and the other in her 50s. Both were great and worth it just because we knew DD was comfortable with them. I do need to look into cheaper options though. I never asked if their rates go up for 2 kids.

[L]

I paid a 16yr old HS girl $11/hr for 3 kids (3-7yrs old). Found her by placing ad online. She sat for me when I worked P/T in the summer. She was super sweet, always left the house spotless, did crafts with them & my kids were old enough to report back everything...lol. I usually left her money (spending to buy everyone ice cream or snacks) & a car (because I hate installing car seats) & she'd take them to all the nearby places we had memberships (zoo, museums, parks, etc). So much easier than when I did the drop in daycare (which I did during school year).

[CurlyQ284]

$10 an hour for one kid (4 yo). She is mid 20s, works at daycare, she was his teacher in the last class he was in and he adores her.

[Mrs. ChanandlerBong]

Jan 30, 2017 20:28:17 GMT -5 miso said:

Also I am a creepy creepster who just Googled her. She is a track star and wrote a thoughtful article in the school paper about race relations.

And my kid loved her, which I suppose is most important. LOL.

Offer her $15/ hr for just your family, make sure she'd rather work for you.

[missmaddie]

We pay our 14yo nephew $10/hour. He lives down the street and still goes to DS's school until the end of this year.

[Deleted]

We pay $12 and hour but round up for a pretty big tip usually. She is 25ish and is our former daycare teacher.

[miso]

Jan 30, 2017 20:40:51 GMT -5 Mrs. ChanandlerBong said:

Jan 30, 2017 20:28:17 GMT -5 miso said:

Also I am a creepy creepster who just Googled her. She is a track star and wrote a thoughtful article in the school paper about race relations.

And my kid loved her, which I suppose is most important. LOL.

Offer her $15/ hr for just your family, make sure she'd rather work for you.

She lives five minutes from me...and 45 minutes in traffic from our friends. Pretty sure she'd rather sit for us without the additional cost.

[starlily]

(1) How much do you pay per hour of babysitting?
- $14/hr for two kids.

(2) Describe your babysitter(s) (age, child care background, etc.)
- Early 30s. No kids of her own, but helps care for her niece and nephew who are similarly aged to my kids. Was a CNA when we first met her and recently became a LVN.

(3) How did you find your babysitter(s)?
- Through care.com. I hired her initially to be a companion for my mom during a weeklong visit because it was too dangerous to leave her alone while we were at work.

Our only other babysitters are friends, but we try not to impose too often. One of the teachers at daycare also offered her services, but we haven't used her yet.

[mslhb]

One kid age 8. I usually just round up to whatever bill denomination I have in my wallet and it is typically about $15/hr. She is a freshman in high school and lives down the street. I am all about convenience so I love that she is close, safe and available when needed. Found her through nextdoor.

[cereal K]

When we don't use family:
(1) How much do you pay per hour of babysitting? $15/ hour for two kids, one of whom is usually asleep when the sitter gets there.
(2) Describe your babysitter(s) (age, child care background, etc.) We had one who was a high school senior, came highly regarded from friends who knew her family.
(3) How did you find your babysitter(s)? Recommendations from friends (mostly people who have kids that are friends with the babysitter). We recently started asking if any of the teachers at our preschool babysit on the side.

[sawyerthedestroyer]

One of our sitters parents will not let us pay her more than $5 an hour (they've made her return money to us before), but we make up for it by getting her good birthday and Christmas gifts. She's a high school senior.

Our other sitter is 8.50 an hour. We just started using her because the senior is going to college soon. New sitter is 14 and just a few doors down.

[lilac05]

$10ish/hr for two kids 6 & 3.
She's our 16 year old neighbor. The BEST babysitters to have! I love not having to worry about going to get her or her driving home. Plus she's never late because she just has to walk 30sec to our house.

Since our plans are usually really flexible, I often send her a text saying, "we want a date night in the next week or so. What works for you?"

[notsopicky]

(1) How much do you pay per hour of babysitting?
$15

(2) Describe your babysitter(s) (age, child care background, etc.)
All three of them (we have them on rotation, or whoever is free when we need one) are teachers (young, mid-/late-20s) at E's former pre-school (he goes to camp there in the summer too)

(3) How did you find your babysitter(s)?
See #2. We are lucky--all 3 of them LOVE our son, so while they won't babysit for everyone, they almost always say yes for him. (yay us, I guess). If one is not free, they actually talk among themselves to find out who is free.

We don't have any family in the area, so we rely on them often (not every weekend, maybe 2 nights a month). My two best friends have also stayed with E for weird events, and the one babysitter will do overnights if needed (we've done that 2X in 5 years). We pay $250 for that.

[4speedy]

$10\hr for the 14 yo who can't stay out past 11 and needs transportation.

we also have two sisters who have been babysitting for us since they were each 15.  One sister is now in college.  She gets $20/hr.  The other sister is in graduate school, working on a masters in speech therapy.  She gets $25 per hour.  Worth every penny because she "practices" on my son who was diagnosed with apraxia of speech.  My son has been her Guinea pig all the way through undergrad and masters so it's been a win/win for all of us.

we found the sisters because they are the daughters of our daycare provider.  They grew up helping out in the daycare.  I am quite convinced they know more about caring for my kids than I do.

[jenna]

We paid a high school senior $10 an hour to watch our youngest (I'd guess he was 3-4 at the time) and to keep our oldest (13ish) from "burning the house down."

She only babysat for us 2-3x. I would also bring her a treat from the local chocolate shop as a way of saying "thanks."

ETA:  I worked with the baby sitter's mom.  The young lady also babysat for a friend of mine who also worked with me.   The young lady lived about 1/2 mile from our house, so that was nice.  Since she was in the same school district as our boys, she was able to baby sit at the last minute during a Snow Day when school was closed.

[fryjack2]

Jan 30, 2017 20:01:40 GMT -5 miso said:

Please click on the poll.

If you cannot see the poll, please answer these questions:

(1) How much do you pay per hour of babysitting? $25/hour.  2 kids. Both 4.5 years old. 
(2) Describe your babysitter(s) (age, child care background, etc.) They are all nurses between the ages of 24-28.
(3) How did you find your babysitter(s)?  Posted on a local college job board a couple years ago asking pediatric nursing students looking for babysitting jobs to please contact me.  The babysitters we used all have graduated and have nursing jobs, but they still babysit for us when they can.