How much do you pay your babysitter?

You're right, Hula, we rarely go out....

My babysitter must seem lucky, but she's another qualified childminder. I pay her £20 for 2.5-3 hours, or just under £7/hr. She thinks it's a lot for me to pay her, but I think it's a lot of responsibility for her to look after a baby, a preschooler & a 5yo. Neighbours & local teenagers have offered to sit for us... but I just cannot imagine leaving the baby with them & a 3yo who still needs help (due to her frilly dress addiction) getting to the toilet.

We have a nursery nurse from the local leisure centre creche who babysits. She charges £5 an hour and we usually go out for 4/5 hours so £20 - £25 for an evening. We feel it is worth it because she is qualified, Police checked for her job and the children know her and like her. So far we have only asked her to watch them in the evenings and both DSs have been excited to have her read them a bedtime story and have then gone to bed without any hassle leaving her to watch TV.

She did ask last time if she could bring her boyfriend over (she lives with him) and DH and I said no, I feel really bad about it as I know she just wanted some company but we don't want anyone in the house that we don't know.

If I had to pay some of the prices quoted on here for babysitting, quite honestly DH and me would very rarely go out together. We are lucky enough to have parents who can do it for free, but it must make a night out very expensive! Quite shocked at some of the prices!!!

I remember babysitting as a teenager (for family), getting children ready for bed, playing, stories, and until 11-12 o'clock for £3 A NIGHT!!! When one relative gave me a £5 I was so chuffed

My how times have changed!

Sorry that should be "nursery nurse" not nurse

I pay £10 for 3 hrs, which I don't think is peanuts, and I don't get a monkey. The girls we use are 17 and 18, one is planning to go on and do teacher training. My boys are 5 and 7 now and very rarely get up in the evening, but they know the girls well and I have no hesitation that they would cope. And in any case we are always easily contactable if not.

When the boys were little and needed more attention, we used a qualified nurse and paid her accordingly.

I don't know why you're getting on your high horse about this. I go out for the evening, a teenager comes and sits on my sofa for 3 hrs for which she gets paid £10. She's happy, I'm happy, the boys are happy. On some evenings she works in a bar and gets £5 per hr (we live oop north - wages are lower here).
Given the choice she would babysit every night - working in a bar is hard work. Sitting on my sofa is not

Well I assume you just hire a friend or neighbours teenager to babysit then by what your suggesting and paying roisin? But if one of your children was to wake up and was upset would a 14 yr old know how to handle that? What if one of them woke up ill, would she have the expierence or the ability to know what to do and to assess if it was serious or not?
One of the boys I babysit for quite often wakes up with nightmares screaming and very upset, he also sleep walks. But then I'm expierenced to deal with that.
But if your only paying her to sit there and watch tv and cope just incase there is a fire, I guess you don't mind if she ignores them if they wake up.
As Amy said 'I like to think i treat her with respect so she will treat me, my baby and house with respect.'
If you pay peanuts your'll probably get a monkey. ;)

PennyLane - of course it makes a difference if the children are in bed or not.

If, say, I hired a babysitter from 5pm - 8pm she would have to supervise their tea, clear up afterwards, supervise them getting ready for bed, read bedtime stories, etc. And cope with any 'nonsense'. If I were to do this (and I don't) I would want a qualified/experienced person and would pay them accordingly.

If I hire a babysitter from 8pm - 11pm the boys are already in bed asleep, and she can do what she likes for the evening - watch TV, videos, DVDS, use the internet, do her homework, whatever. But she has to be in the house and adequately briefed for action in case of an emergency.

ahh see, i know him aswell. Like i said i used to teachher dance and he used to come and pick her up etc. decent bloke, great with kids as well. ( would prob have him on his own if she was busy) Also i was always allowed to take boyfriends once they got to know them etc. I like to think i treat her with respect so she will treat me, my baby and house with respect.

amyjo22 that sounds awfuly nice of you. Not sure about the inviting boyfriend over as well though.
But the people I babysit for reguarly always say to help myself to food and if I start before 7 they usually have something special in for me to eat.
Oh and it shouldn't matter if the children are in bed or not when the babysitter gets there because the children may wake up or if there was an emergency i.e a fire.

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when you pay £4 it is easy to round up to the 1/4 hour. Personally I'd be careful of allowing friends to come with the babysitter unless you know them.

Hi, have to say i was shocked by some of the prices mentioned on this thread. Before i became a qualified nanny i started babysitting at the age of 15 and i have never had less than £4 an hour. Most of the families had babies though, and i always had to do the 10.30 feed etc and sometimes i would stay over as the parents didnt get back till 2am ish. Then i would get about £30 as even though i went to bed i never really relaxed and went to sleep till the parents were in. Even on the shorter nights say till 11pm. ( never had a family less than 11pm!!) i always got at least £20 and this was what was offered i never asked. Admittedly it is a small town and not many babysitters etc around but i am still shocked at the 2.50 and 3 mentioned earlier. I became a regular for 13 local families and i couldnt have paid my way through college etc if that was all i got paid for it. I am pregnant now ( due in 2 weeks and had enough!!!) and have already asked one of the girls i used to teach if in a few months she would be interested. The deal is £5.50 an hour, i get her home and she can bring one friend or boyfriend. No alcohol. ( not that she would she is lovely) and if starting before 6 then i provide pizza or chinese etc. Am i being too nice?

We pay £4 an hour. The youngest kids are normally in bed but even if they aren't I have a nice network of babysitters who are more than happy to send them on their way.

Oh my gosh £2 an hour. Are these 14 year olds from down the street?
As I'm a nanny but I wouldn't even go out my door let alone start my car for that hahaha. I charge £7 per hour and the nice family I reguarly babysit for usually rounds it up as well.

But if the kids are in bed do you really need someone with 20 years childcare experience? Not that I can really comment on this because I have never paid for a baby sitter. This means that I don't go out often. or at least not with DH.

We pay a flat rate of £15 for the evening. But I do the odd bit of sitting for Sitters and their rate of pay is £5 per hour (Manchester).

Golly, a friend of mine is paying £8.50 per hour in Wapping. I thought it sounded a bit high when she told me. The person has 20 years childcare exp, maybe that is the going rate for somebody of that calibre?

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I do babysitting and charge a flat rate of £20 per night but then i am a qualified childminder. The kids are usually in bed for me and i just sit!!

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Hi there, I work for Sitters in central London and the going ratye is 6.25ph, for other parts of london its 5.75 ph. Hope that helps

My babysitter asked around and discovered that the going rate is 7E per hour for evenings, 6E per hour in the day. But since mine are always asleep she only ever charges me 5E per hour and we usually have a silly argument over whether or not i pay for the extra half hour (I usually don't have enough change anyway so she usually wins). Bless her.

I think we pay £5 an hour - it usually ends up being around £20 for a night.