How much should I offer a 17 year old to look after 3 children?

London or not a 17 year old doesn't get £10/hour IME! Or I was grossly underpaid...

Nannies get £10/hour+ for FT work. Mother's Helps who are doing part time permanent work might get £10/hour to compensate for the fact that it's difficult to pick up additional jobs to fit around that.

£10/hour for an older local lady to come in every morning and do childcare/housework is reasonable - that's about £200gross over the course of a week. £7.82net to be precise. You're paying for the experience and the part-time hours.

£10/hour for afternoons is the same principle - you're paying someone to compensate for the fact they can't take a FT job. At least in the case of mornings they could get an after-school nanny job.

In both cases they could have other employment which means negotiating gross is vital and that gives a higher figure. Also if they lose your job or the other having a slightly higher hourly income than for a full time job means they're more likely to try and find another job that will dovetail than just find a FT job.

So in a nutshell a permanent arrangement pays higher but for a 17 year old doing it a couple of times a month, or even weekly, it's more like babysitting when the DC are awake and under the threshold for tax in a week so your £10gross (nearly £8net) get adjusted down to around £6net for the lack of experience and the relatively light workload (no nursery duties involved, limited long-term responsibility so no need to plan activities) which is equivalent to £6gross assuming no other employment and earning less than £97 a week. Otherwise it's about £7.50gross.

Oh sorry I thought we were talking about London? Usually people say they pay that kind of wage there for this sort of thing there. If you are not in London then where I live it is probably four quid or a fiver an hour is probably the norm.

There seems to be a big difference in areas for this type of thing.

£10/hour? Flipping heck! I'd be more in the region of £6/hour. She's 17, not yet qualified and it presumably would be more like a babysitting arrangement than a permanent thing?

It's great experience for her though especially if you let her hold the baby/change a nappy from time to time. In all likelihood at 18 she'll be qualified for sole charge and this is an ideal way for her to build up to that for short periods of time.

She will need quite a lot of direction though so be prepared to say that you want her to take them to the park for an hour or play in the garden as much as possible but that they should wear coats/take a snack/come home if they're cold etc. As life pointed out you do need to have an indoor backup plan as 2-3 hours is a long time, although if she's only there for that time only an hour or so will be playing outside.

There is nothing wrong with being outside for 2 - 3 hours as long as they are wrapped up. Its good for them. (I work with kids and we aim for 50% of the day outside). I would say £10 an hour to.

I'm sure Onedge wouldn't let them freeze. Sounds like you need a 'mother's help'.

When my dc were little had a 17 year old girl to help me too.

I would give her £10 per hour

Its not appropropriate for any child(i include the 17year old here) to be outside for 3 hours in the winter..

i am sure you need a break and are knackered but this is not feasable..

pehaps the oldest two could be dropped at soft play with the babysitter although personally i wouldnt leave my dcs in charge of a teen outside of the house..

same as lifinagoldfishbowl.

2 pointers -

1. I would probably leave it as just the elder 2 with the baby remaining with you at the moment.

1. You want her to play outside with the 2 children in this cold weather for 2/3 hours? Not only will the children get cold/bored but I think the babysitter will too. Could they do arts/crafts or playing inside too?