Babysitting rates

[ThirtysomethingMummy]

I’m thinking of doing some babysitting to top up my income as we are saving for a house deposit. I’m an experienced primary teacher and SENCO with DBS. The rates vary so wildly that I have no idea what to charge. I’m in the south east. What would you pay? I’m new to this so apologise for the possibly silly question!

I used to babysit through an agency, Sitters. Can’t remember what the rate was, and stopped a few years ago so it would be different anyway. But it was worth doing and easy because everyone involved already knew the rate and expectations.

Depends on where in the country you are.

Would you join an agency?
If so, it would be whatver they pay

If not, How are you planning to get customers? Through the school?

You’re a teacher with additional experience

£15 an hour

out of London £18 in London

pick close sits that aren’t going to cost in travel time or cost to get there

Have a look at www.childcare.co.uk see how much baby sitters charge in your area.
I suggest you have a min sit i.e. 3 hours, and put how much you charge for petrol i.e. £0 for up to 2 ? miles then £5 ? for 5 miles etc.

I think you have to work out how to best maximise your experience. Whilst you could compete with the local teens for evening babysitting gigs, if the kids are going to be asleep for much of the time, then you won’t be able to charge much more than they do. Where you might be able to charge a significant premium is by effectively offering nannying for a day or half a day at the weekend or in the holidays. Childcare is so hard to get at weekends and I am sure someone would bite your arm off if you were able to not only look after the DC in their own home but take them to their activities and out to the park and that sort of thing. If you have experience of hands on work with DC with SEN, then you might be able to offer almost respite services to a family, perhaps looking after the sibling with SEND whilst allowing the parents to spend time with the other children or you taking the child with SEND out for a few hours and they can be at home. That is the sort of thing where you can really set yourself apart.

I agree with pp. for standard babysitting you’re not going to be able to charge much more for being a teacher with SEN experience, we pay nursery staff minimum wage per hour for babysitting and they also have DBS and training. You could definitely charge more for SEN care with your experience though.

The advantage of having teacher and SEN experience is you’re likely to get more work

My mid-teen dd and her friends get between £13 and £16 per hour.
Plus an endless supply of snacks, ice cream, pizza via Uber if wanted..

We pay £17/h for DD’s former nursery key worker, in London.

Wow! It was £3.50 when I was that age (I am now 105 years old though….)
Im with a babysitting agency and charge between £13 and £15 per hour. South East.