Babysitting Costs

Couldn’t you book their babysitter for your kids?

If you don’t want to pay it, then that’s fine. You don’t have to. She can charge what she wants to. Babies are much harder work than 4 year olds, as are 2 children versus 1

Look at sitters. See what they charge for a comparison. They are all great, DBS, vetted. Lifeline for us when kids were small.

As pp said, you’re asking her to stay awake in your home for 6 to 8 hours (based on your cost estimate of £150 to £200 per booking).

So let’s say you are asking her to arrive at 6pm, and you’ll be back 6 hours later at midnight, therefore her Uber home might get her home shortly after midnight.

Or let’s say you would like her to arrive at 5pm and you’ll be back at 1am.

That’s bath and bedtime for two small kids, single handed. She has to stay awake to check on the baby and maybe resettle and do a late fee?

It is late working, you are paying for her particular skill and relationship with your kids, there are two kids. She is almost certainly underpaid for the care she provides your kids at nursery. Seems reasonable to me.

When we get a babysitter it is the grandparents, we don’t go out until 7pm and we are back by 10.30pm or 11pm.

If you can’t afford the babysitter can you adjust your plans or find a cheaper teenager to sit the kids?

I would probably pay it if you are happy with her but I certainly wouldn’t then be providing food and transport costs on top.

I think that's taking the piss. It's not unreasonable to pay a bit more for extra chidlren - although around here, babysitters only do that once it starts being extra extra eg ifyou send a friend's child round as well - but not double.

Also, you're already also paying for food and a taxi. So perhaps you should pay the £28 but stop paying for the taxi and food?

At the end of the day though, you pay what you are wiling to and she charges what she can find people willing to pay. At that price, I'd be looking for a new babysitter. One who I would upfront NOT offer to pay for a taxi for.

£17/hr for 2 kids in London with longterm trusted former nanny. Makes me wince but £12 too little - and £24 too much!

£12ph is astonishingly cheap for a qualified babysitter - I’m in the north west and pay £16. And there is a £5 surcharge for extra kids.

I’d maybe politely offer to meet her at around £20 and just see what she says. Perhaps she’s realised she’s cheap and is trying to up her fees.

So you'd be going out for 6-8 hrs?! That's an awful long time to leave a small baby?

There's probably room to negotiate somewhere in the middle. It might be dependent on how in demand she is. If she hasn't got a waiting list of people happy to pay £24 and she's risking losing you as a regular customer she might be willing to accept less than what she's asked.

I get what people are saying, that it's cheap compared to a cleaner etc. But if you can't afford it then you can't afford it. My kids are older now but in the early years we limited ourselves to 2 babysitting bookings a year as any more than that we just couldn't afford to pay babysitter £50 before stepping out of the door (this was nearly 20 years ago)and the cost of going out on top.

I live in London and have had lots of babysitters over the years and now my teenagers babysit other kids. £24 an hour is completely ridiculous. I’m not sure where those who think it is are living? I’d say £15-£18 an hour for 2 kids is enough.

We have always paid for all the kids, but I think a bit more for one that's 8 months is reasonable, I'd offer £15 then go elsewhere.

I bet HMRC would be interested to know her hourly rate for this work on the side.

£24 is ridiculous and ‘per child’ isn’t really a thing- unless it’s different families.

£12 is a tiny bit on the low side but not much, £13-£15 for nighttime babysitting is a lot more normal.

Yes this!
Many sitters charge extra for hours after midnight so if she is charging a flat rate fee that's a bonus.

She's a qualified nursery worker, you get what you pay for.

I think it's refreshing that this young woman knows her worth and is willing to charge it.

I get that it's too expensive for you OP, but rather than try to push this qualified young woman's price down, you should look around for someone you can afford.

Then ask your local friends to pass on your details to their babysitter. If you want to keep the babysitter your child knows, you’ll need to pay what she wants paying and you go out less.

Also if you're saying it's £150-200, that means you're out between 6-8 hours, which is a long time!

£24 an hour!!!

Jesus that's more than junior doctors isn't it? It's def more than a TA gets and they have 30 kids to look after.

I think she is being greedy op - fair enough charge a bit more for an extra child but that is too much.

That's what I would expect to pay tbh, especially given it's London. £12ph is very low for childcare. As a PP said, I pay £18 an hour for a cleaner and I'm in the north of Scotland, so I would expect to pay more than that for someone early years qualified looking after my two young children, one of which is a baby.

You could get cheaper definitely, but it might be more akin to a teenager making some pocket money type thing than a qualified childcare professional who presumably has first aid, etc. But if you're asking whether it's unreasonable for her to charge that, no I don't think it is. Women in particular often undervalue themselves and their skills so it's good she's not doing that.

I've charged £15 per hour plus £5per child more than 2. I'm not a nursery teacher but I am an experienced mother whose children are adults. My one semi regular family always round up and tip on top but they have a dc with non verbal autism and apparently I'm the only person other than her mum in Spain willing to babysit, but he's lovely and good for me! (My dc has asd so I have the experience!)

£12 an hour for London was cheap though when I looked on childcare most wanted £20 an hour

I wouldn't consider it for a moment. On Mumsnet you will get lots of people saying you should pay more than minimum wage, but in real life there are plenty of lovely and competent people more than happy to look after two children for £12 an hour and a taxi home.