£5 an hour to babysit!!!!!!

"No there is no legal age for babysitting. It is the responsibility of the parents using common sense to make the decision. It is worth bearing in mind though that a child under 16 years old cannot be prosecuted for neglect or ill treatment of children in their care. The parents/carers/guardians would be charged in that situation. However, any person who is 16 or over and who has responsibility for a person under that age could be prosecuted.
The law does not specify how old someone has to be to babysit. However, the NSPCC recommends that no one under 16 should be left alone to look after young children. If someone under 16 is looking after a child, the parent or guardian, and not the babysitter, remain legally responsible for the child's safety. Parents should still use judgement when choosing a babysitter, as some 16 year olds might not be mature enough to look after younger children. The same careful judgements apply if your child wants to babysit for others."

This is from the sussex police website and the age of responsibility appears to be 16 not 18. As I said my dd is 16 and has been employed to do some respite care for a child with sn. This has involved a DBS and social services approval.

Although there is no UK law saying how old a babysitter should be, the NSPCC recommends that babysitters should be at least 16.
When employing an under 18 year old legally you are still the responsible adult. An under 18 year old can not legally be responsible for another child (unless it is their own child). So should you come home to an accident you could be classed as neglectful in your parenting.
Most professional nannies do not need to babysit and do it as a favour to their families. I personally will charge my normal day rate.

Duchesse - dog walkers don't charge £10 per day. They charge £10 per walk. Most dog walkers I have met, walk for around an hour, some walk more than one dog at a time.

I met a woman (when we were looking for holiday dog walking cover) who earned between £100 and £170 a day and then farmed the dogs out to teenagers for £2.50 per dog!

I charge per £10 per family. If relatives or friends are added to the equation, I drop my hourly rate per family. I.e., one family = £10. Two families £7.50 per family = £15. Three families £6 per family = £18. Up to five children. All my regular families (some are ex-employers) are happy to pay me this. None of their children are under 4.

theres a nanny near me who charges this on a fb site im on, or £25 for an evening - mums bite her hands off and when i said i earn minimum of £10ph and 4hrs worth and often nearer£13/15 for wedding work they were omfg not going to pay that

i wouldnt want to work for some of those mums, not coz they dont want to pay but their attitude stinks

i work for lovely famillies who appreciate me and think whatever you charge rem if the parents arent happy paying it then they wouldnt use me, and re book me many times

When they were younger, we usually put them to bed before the sitter came, and always if using a teenager. As they got older, they put themselves to bed. They are always fed before we go out. Never has it been like day childcare.

Do your children go to bed early or you out late most the time? As mine go to bed around 9pm and if we went to say the cinema would want someone 6pm-10pm so first three hours children would be awake

Same here. It's a body in the house who can evacuate the children if the house catches fire an check the kids are killing each other. Now obviously that would be a very very important job and worthy of a lot of money, if it were in any way likely. Having an "unqualified" teenager there is absolutely fine for vast majority of children and the vast majority of nights out. Obviously if the child(ren) have a lot of additional needs, it might be very unwise to employ a teenager. For most children a teenager is just fine.

Many of my friend's children with jobs at 14 or 15 around here (eg in shops or garden centres) earn £4/hour. Obviously the employer gets (or can get) a very good deal, but that's market economics for you. The teenager does usually gain a little from the experience, even if it's not monetary in value.

I am perfectly happy to pay an unqualified 16yo to babysit. It's completely different to daycare in terms of quality of experience and training required, as it is occasional only and my children are in bed for the majority of the time.

£5p/h is far less than minimum wage, unless you're happy to pay an unqualified 16yr old to babysit of course.

My point was why would you want to work in the evening, as extra, for less than you earn per hour during your working day.

I used to charge £3.50!! That was about 15 years ago. Last time I was in London my parents 16 year old told me she charges £7.50 an hour. Adds a fortune to a night out. But such is life, I needed a babysitter and that was what she charged.

Your last comment makes absolutely no sense I'm afraid.

£10 per day
£5 per hour

There is a difference.

Just to add, your point about nursery fees, you may be charged that, depending where you are in the UK, but nursery nurses aren't paid £35 per day, they will work on average 9hr shifts, for minimum wage, which depending on their age,could be £6.30p/h. So to do evening babysitting for £5p/h sounds very unattractive to most.

duchese

Have to disagree unfortunately, I babysit for £7.50p/h (sometimes £10) and I am asked to babysit on average 3times a week, for 4+hrs at a time. I'm in NLondon.

If someone wanted me to babysit and said they would only pay me £5p/h I wouldn't do it. If you are happy for an unqualified 16yr old to babysit you, then £5 is ideal, but not for someone who is qualified, experienced, and older.

During the day I CM, I charge £5p/h, per child, and I am constantly full. For this I provide meals and activities, and yet some parents still ask if I would charge them less per hour, my answer is always the same, if you can find outstanding childcare, by an experienced professional, by all means use their services, but my fees will not be decreasing. Same goes for my babysitting fees. Quality costs.

You made my point quite clearly in your post, dog sitters cost £10, but you would only pay £5 for a babysitter- it astounds me!

Yes so true, parents wants great quality childcare, for less than they would pay a dog sitter

No, they don't. They want childcare that isn't going to make them bankrupt. Dog sitters cost £10/day round these parts. Nursery is £35/day. Average wage for full time work is £22,000.

Nobody is going to pay more than £5/hour for a babysitter.

Seems reasonable to me - that would be £20 for a whole evening which is what I would expect to pay.

My DD (17) gets £10 for the evening so 7-11pm kind of time. She has lots of experience of all ages including from newborn and has done overnights too, including getting children up and to school. She is fantastic with children and does lots of other things with them too (Rainbow leader, teaches guitar, etc.) She doesn't have a first aid qualification though.

We live in a small town in the North East and people here won't pay more than that.

My dd 16 got £5 an hour but that was because it was only 1.5 hours a week. For a lot more hours she would have got less per hour IFWIM.
She has just been offered a 4 hour a week job doing respite care for a little boy she has known for a long time for £10 an hour (we think she hasnt actually started yet but that was the figure mentioned)

Artandco - It depends where you are. Nursery work here is a lot more skilled than minding children as it is dealing with children with such varied needs eg age 4/5 in nappies, cant use cutlery, cant talk, sexual abuse, neglected, emotionally abused and all the way up to teens. They will try and beat you, swear at you, bite you etc. I would say 70% of the children I have cared for have had 1 or multiple of these.

Yes so true, parents wants great quality childcare, for less than they would pay a dog sitter!

ACM88 yes, I know all that, but I was just making the point that childminders charge an incredibly low rate for minding children and yet people still moan about the cost of childcare! I mean, how little do they think they should spend?

I earn roughly what you do without having to look after 4 children all day every day! I take my hat off to you.

minty yes you're right, except childminders, and I'm one, charge per child, so I have 4 children a day, effectively for £20p/h (obviously from this I have expenses and buisness costs) a CM never has one child a day, that's a nanny, and as already said they can charge up to £15p/h

£5 an hour is more than many childminders charge for looking after your children (when they are wide awake and active and need feeding and changing) and jumping through all the Ofsted hoops to boot.

Just to add that I have never felt ripped off by childcare, can't get my head round people who koan that nurserys etc should be cheaper!! I want the people,looking after my kids to be as well paid and motivated as possible!!
Nit to day it's not a challenge meeting the cost but that's life.