£5 an hour to babysit!!!!!!

To me I think:

£5 babysitter = local teen, ok to sit in house with children 4+ who often are already in bed or go to bed easily. Few hrs max

£8 babysitter = nursery nurse, can look after most ages, put to bed, can help settle, Maybe feed food left for them

£10-15 babysitter = nanny. Suitable all ages if experienced. Can leave tiny baby if needed, overnight, can settle babies and children not as used to being left. Can make dinner and start early / finish late if needed. Should know all current guidelines for milk feeding/ weaning/ safe baby sleep, and have up to date first aid etc

For myself I would leave mine with £5 teen if just poping locally to friends/ bar around corner etc. however if I was planning an evening out the other side of town I would be happier paying £10+ For experienced nanny for peace of mind that they would know what to do in emergency without panicking etc.

So what if you don't get a nice quiet evening to yourself. That's what you are being paid for. And I think £5.00 per is perfectly reasonable.

I don't really see what you are getting excited about. You asked for £7.50 and she offered £5, which you are perfectly at liberty to decline. It would be different if it was MB or you felt somehow pressured to accept. The comparisons she has apparently done may or may not be genuine (but I would have thought she would have accepted one of them if she had really had a lot of better offers). I get loads of enquiries from people telling me how much they have decided to pay and I just say that this is not what I charge. They are usually still looking weeks later.

I have 3 young teens who do sit for me for £5/ hour. We buy them in treats, have DVDs. Dh always walks them home, we round up to the nearest hour and we tip if we are late.

I don't think she's necessarily cheeky offering £5ph but suspect she's bunching all babysitters together & not realising you do childcare for a living so are inevitably going to charge more than a teenager wanting some pocket money.

Eta she has older children so presumably thinks no real input needed but IME they can be the hardest work & you definitely don't get a nice quiet evening to yourself!!

Depends what sort of babysitting it is tbh. Id do it for £5ph if it involved turning up at 7pm, putting them to bed and nine and watching tv til midnight.

Daytime - having to feed and entertain them - more.

Oh gosh then she's a cheeky mare!

I have about 5 babysitters I can call on - 3 teenagers at £5ph who are naturally my first port of call (especially if it's a late one as they never mind the hours & like the extra cash) but if they can't sit I have 2 CM's who charge £7ph.
I know a few nannies who could sit for me but I can't afford/ever justify their £9-10ph rate when I can get someone far cheaper & as my DC are 5 & 8 and usually in bed by 8pm I don't feel they need expertise!

The problem with baby sitting is that there are plenty of lovely young teens prepared to do it for peanuts. A young sixteen year old who has started a nursery nurse course might be content £4 per hour. Depending on the age of your children such an arrangement could be fine.

I think parents often see it as easy money, after all the babysitter is doing what they themselves would be doing, if the kids are in bed. They don't seem to realise actually, we have to get there, get home after. We're in someone else's house so can't do what we'd be doing. We have to cancel plans, or turn down things. Worse is when you get there to be told they'll only be two hours, or they just randomly get home early and you end up with less than you thought you'd get and still have a disrupted evening! Or parents who work it out to the 15 minute.

If she's new to the world of babysitting then a round sum figure of £5 would be an understandable start point?

Just say no and move on.