babysitting charges/checks

[mckenzie]

How much should I be giving a young lady (18 years old) who is going to do a spot of babysitting for us?

We have just one 18 month old son who will already be in bed. She's going to make her own way to our house but my husband or I will take her home. Also, if she looked after DS for a few hours during the day while I got some christmas shopping done, would it be the same rate or would I pay her more?

She's been recommend to me by one of the ladies who helps out at our local Mother and Toddler group and I have spoken to another lady who she has childminded for, unpaid though (single mum, friend of the family) and got a verbal reference from the school that she is currently taking her A levels at. My DS and I met her this afternoon and I think she's lovely but have I checked her out enough?

[bayleaf]

Well the information you have would satisfy me as references.
Around here the going rate is £10 for a normal evening - which takes you from 7-8 ish to 11 ish.
Any later and you'd sort of be expected to pay more ( My dd has always been in bed too). I've paid more on occasion ( up to £15 ) if it's been a 7-12 type evening or on a popular night when it was hard to get a sitter and they were doing me a favour. All ours are 17/18 year olds who live in the village ( it's tiny so we know everyone) or daughters of friends. It IS money for old rope for them but I'm grateful to be able to ahe any sort fo social life ( I know several people who don't have a supply of baby sitters so basically never go out) that I'm glad to pay and even offer perks such as going on the computer as we're on Anytime internet deal!

[Alibubbles]

My 16 year old daughter does a lot of baby sitting. I always go with her to meet new families so I know where she will be and the family as well. She has a first aid certificate with infant and child CPR and has also been police checked. (Easy to arrange)

My daughter gets £4 an hour if picked up and taken home, or £5 if I arrange for a cab( known to us, not just anyone!) to bring her home (normally about £5-6) so it is about the same in the end.

If she works during the day time or baths them and puts them to bed she normally gets £5 an hour, especially if there is more than one child.

That seems to be the going rate round here, but it can vary widely. Teenagers get more than Sitters pay in Herts., but with Sitters you always have to pay a minimum of £18 plus your booking fee, so teens can be cheaper in the long run. HTH

[prufrock]

I want your baby sitters - we pay £7 an hour. Admittedly that is in London, and it's one of the girls from d's nursery so NNEB qualified. We would also be expected to pay for her cab home (about £15) if one was necessary, but she gets her boyf to pick her up.

[janh]

My daughter (17) sits for the 2 small DDs of the chap she also does a milk-round-money-collection with one evening a week - she gets 6gbp for the collection round (barely an hour) and about 15gbp for sitting from c 7-12. She tends to walk there and back, it's only half a mile and very safe - they would get her a taxi if she wanted one.

They are very generous though, she can have any friends round she wants and help herself to contents of fridge, and booze too (though doesn't - the 2 little girls often wake up so she prefers not to!)

This is a rural area and I think those are about the going rates - seems from what prufrock says to depend very much on where you are!

She doesn't do any daytimes but I would expect the rate for that to be higher because the children need more attention then.

[WideWebWitch]

Hi mcKenzie, I'd say £10 is about right for us too, we're in a rural area. But I did hand over £20 the other night because I felt guilty about not coming in til 1am. She also got a lift home and food and wine left so I think she was happy. She was the daughter of a friend of a friend and I knew of her reasonably well so was happy to leave ds who doesn't wake up much anyway. Sounds like you've got a good one there. I'd say probably more money during the day - they're awake and it's not quite such a cushy number!

[tigermoth]

Hi McKenzie, your babysitter sounds lovely to me too! I think you have checked her out enough but it might be a good idea to let her do a trial run of babysitting for the first few times - ie go out locally, not for too long and come back earlier than you say. When I've had a new babysiter, I tend to hover around more to begin with and chat to them, just to see how they are with my sons (if awake) and to generally get to know them.

As for the going rate - we pay around 4 pounds an hour to stay in line with the minimum wage - and then I usually top it up, so if my babysitter stays for 4 hours 5 minutes, I pay for five hours, no quibble, plus taxi fare home if necessary - ours live locally now so usually don't want one.

We usually shell out between 20 to 30 pounds a night, but this includes doing the bedtime routine with both our sons, and sometimes cooking them supper as well, so they do not have an idle evening! As this is the case, I would not pay more for daytime care.

[JaneyT]

We pay around £4 an hour, but round it up at the end of the night so it is usually more like £5.

The sitter is the deputy manager at the girls nursery, and has babysat for 2 years for us, but only about 6 times in total.

Dds are always asleep before she comes, and rarely wake, but it is nice knowing we are leaving them with someone they know, if they do wake up.

My mum babysits most friday nights (we are VERY lucky) and doesn't charge!!

[Azure]

We are in London and use Sitters, who charge £5 per hour in the week plus a booking fee of £4. There is a minimum charge of 4 hours but they pay for their own transport. You can request the same sitter if available - we have the same woman most of the time. How I wish my parents lived close by!

[bundle]

we're in London & use a mixture of some of the girls from dd's nursery and other local nannies/teenage sensible girls. costs between £5-£7 per hour and I run them home or pay for a taxi.

[Lindy]

We are also in a very rural area & I use teenagers; daughters of friends, the going rate around here is £3 an hour - it's always a bit of a competition as to who get the babysitters first as in our crowd we all tend to get invited to the same events (boring!!) luckily they seem to like coming to us as we have only one DS who is always asleep &, touch wood, has never woken! I use my 'regualar' girl occasionally in the school holidays as well and pay her the same £3 an hour in the day. (Feel mean that the child minder only earns £2.50 an hour when DS goes there one morning a week but she insists that is the 'going rate'.

[mckenzie]

thanks very much everybody for all your info/feedback. I think I'm going to offer her £10 for the evening session (DS will be asleep so it should just be a case of watching our TV instead of her own) and £4 per hour for the daytime and she if she's happy with that.
DH is going to meet her on sunday for the casting vote. Let's hope he likes her too.

[Janeway]

I've resurrected this thread to ask about baby sitting ettiquette - dp has arranged for one of ds's nursery staff to look after him whilst we go out for the evening (he really likes her and we'd have no conserns about leaving him in her care). She lives about 8 miles away and so would probably come here direct from nursery, but we'd have to get her home afterwards (£10 taxi if we've both drunk with our meal). Do you leave cash for takeaway (we have not microwave for quick dinners)..? This is all starting to get more expensive than our evening out!

It's the first time we've hired a sitter and we're not at all sure what is the "done thing"

[breeze]

When i used to babysit, it was a case of 'help yourself to anything in the fridge'. Is it not possible for her to sleep at your house, i used to sleep over, so i could go to bed when i wanted, and also it mean't they didn't have to rush in coming home. I would ask her beforehand what she likes for dinner and maybe get that in. If you are not paying her for babysitting (other than the taxi fare), then a take-away would be a nice thank-you.

I wouldn't worry about the cost too much (unless its really a problem), it will probably be worth every penny spening a nice night out with dh. Have a good time.

[prufrock]

We leave ready meals that can be done in the oven for dd's babysitter - also a nursery worker. Also tell her to help herself to anything, and always leave chocolate + fruit (usually a big bag of maltesers) lying around.

[Cathy1]

Hi, I think you should provide dinner if she is coming to yours straight from work. Ask in advance what she would eat and maybe she can eat what you're having or get in a frozen pizza if you want to keep the cost down. Then I would always have biscuits, minerals, some chocolate around and tell her to help herself to anything she wants. Then pay for her taxi home. It is worth it and sometimes if we are getting our babysitter a little too often one of us will not drink so we can drive her home to make it a little less expensive. HTH

[bayleaf]

Ditto the biscuits - when I was young I usd to love babysitting JUST becasue I could eat loads of biscuits and nobody would tell me off!
I talked to ours when they came without eating and a pizza you can put in the oven is what she asked for - so not too expensive and you don't need a microwave.

[Janeway]

Thanks for the advice - I was getting a bit panicky (it was late) and very conserned that the costs would stop me enjoying our evening out (£25+ for sitting + £10taxi + a £15 takeaway was just getting too much for me). I do worry about money (don't earn much)and would probably have cut back on my meal to try to reduce the overall cost.
Dp has a different attitude (earns more) and recons it's money well spent if we feel confident ds's safe - it will be our first evening out together since ds was born (by then almost 1 year).
I'll see if she'll go for a bake at home Pizza Express Pizza, nice salad and some scrummy dessert (plus some nice snacks)- she's mid 20s and so a bit more sophisticated... it's also going to be Valentines Day. I'll also see if I can put asside my usual reticence to splash out on myself and try and relax, enjoy and not worry about the money this time.

[soyabean]

Janeway Hope you have a good time. And you must try to do it again from time to time! Our eldest is 10 now, and we have got into the habit of v rarely going out. Mainly it is the expense. It just makes an evening out into such a big deal, and I feel under pressure for it to all go well. But I do think its v important, even if just a quick spin to local cinema, which is often all we manage. I say its the expense, actually its also laziness: dh works weekday eves and by the time its Sat night, we are exhausted, tho we di=o have a good time when we heave ourselves off the sofa and venture out. Its great that you've found someone you are happy with. Also, in a way its better to have someone you pay as you can always ask and know they will just say no, if they cant do it. I have a lovely neighbour who babysits sometimes but wont take any money, so the end result is I dont like to ask her.