£9ph to babysit?!!!!

[yummumto3girls]

We have used the same babysitter for the last 4 years. A girl who worked at my daughters nursery so we knew she was qualified and checked. Have always paid in region of £5ph and rounded it up to take account of travelling, so usually £25 - £30 a night from say 7 to 11. We don't often go out together and have no family to babysit so needs must. Have had 3rd DD 9 months ago (others are 9 and 6) and only been out once about a month ago when we knew DD was sleeping 7 to 7 so put baby to bed before we go out, other two washed in PJ's so all she had to do is entertain for an hour before putting to bed. Have just asked her to babysit this weekend and she has said she wants £9ph now she has the responsibility of a baby! Am I out of touch or is this just taking the piss?

If you can't afford to, dont go out. Babysitters charge money, not for charity, but for some this is their job, not a special favour they are doing for you.

I am sure the babysitter would rather be at her own home, not sitting in yours. She does it for money.

Whether your children are asleep or not, she is still giving up her time to be at your house.

It doesn't matter what the minimum wage is. The going rate is what is important.

Our sitter charges 10 pounds an hour - as do all of the others I have used in the last year, that is the way it is. It isn't the babysitter's problem if people can't afford it, she just doesn't get the work if she overcharges.

I think with babysitters you are paying for the "what ifs" (fire/choking/accidents/fevers etc), I am willing to pay a qualified sensible adult because I know she can deal with all the "what ifs". I think of it like insurance, yes, chances are she will spend the evening reading and eating chips, but if something does happen I want someone who can deal with it.

am in london - we use our nanny to babysit and pay £9 ph and taxi fare.

Make savings in other areas? I dont know anyone that has that kind of money available after bills and food! I also dont know many jobs that pay for antisocial hours in low paid jobs.

Also if you say pay peanuts, get monkeys then that is what every person in childcare gets and people leave their kids for them for up to 50 hours a week. Just because you are paying more doesnt mean you will get a better service.

As I said my friends that babysit have degrees in childhood studies, child protection certificates, first aid certificates, nvq 2 and 3. I do think this boils down to how affluent your area is though, and how much your houehold income is.

ours is £10 per hour.
And most of the time DS is already in bed, so she just watches tv all night.
I was thinking of doing it to get some money!!

I do think some are misunderstanding how someone sets a rate. Ultimately a babysitter decides what their time is worth to them. It doesn't matter how much you can afford - that's irrelevant. They may pay some attention to the amount other sitters are charging locally - but even then they might decide they're happier with less work but charged at £x - because that is what their time is worth to them.

Sunny, the price may not reflect the service but i feel that a qualified experienced sitter is worth more per hour than next door neighbours teen daughter who is sitting her gcses. You do tend to get what you pay for.

Regards to making savings in other areas, if this wasn't an option for me then i wouldn't be spending money on going out.

Op, if you cannot afford the sitter then perhaps have people round to yours? Wine and a take away or bbq?

The nursery nurses from dds nursery charge between £7-£9, plus petrol/taxi fare home for them at the end of the night.

When friends/family babysit for free I make sure both dcs are in bed, leave wine out for them and cook them a meal/order a take-away but when I'm paying I leave the nursery staff to sort the dcs (3.10 and 10m) and go out earlier, I want to get my moneys worth!

Morloth, I agree entirely with you. There is no way on the earth I would entrust my precious baby who is the centre of my universe into the care of a £5 per hour teenager who only wants to watch telly for the night and would have no idea how to cope with an emergency.

If that's all I could afford to pay then I'd rather not go out

Bloody hell how much? (cough splutter)

Our local NCT coffee morning group have a babbysitting circle. We sit for vouchers and use them to pay when we want a sitter

As yogabird says "its the only way" if you dont have family to sit or are not loaded

we had a super qualified nursery nurse and she used to charge us £6 per hour and so did her best friend.

We are in the North of England though, so maybe a little cheaper here. It is cash in hand so I don't think it's that bad?

So you used to pay less than the minimum wage (£5.80 per hour) to someone who had childcare qualifications and a job in childcare? I'm not surprised she wants a raise. You may say it's just watching TV, but it's just watching TV in your house, with no option to leave.

Everyones assuming that teenagers are irresponsible and couldn't cope in an emergency.
I could. I used to babysit alot. Aged 15, I was very mature for my age. Aged 25 and studying for my accountancy papers, all i did was sit there and study all night/ watch tv. never saw any children ! and was paid £20 for doing so.

I pay £20 for the evening now. maybe £25 or even £30, if its very very late. She is lovely and i trust her with my 2.

I had the same scenario as Op. My next door neighbours niece used to babysit for me. then she started training at a nursery and asked for £10 per hour instead of £20 for a night.
I just said I couldn't afford her.
No problem. I found someone else.

to compare with Sitters you need to add on the membership and booking fees

I worked out we are paying the equivalent of about £10 an hour in London using Sitters

Local nannies charge £8-10 and possibly a lift/taxi home too

I am sure they can Oblomov and when I move home I intend to collect on owed babysitting from my nieces (i.e. I used to sit with them so they can sit with DS's, whether they agree they owe me for this is another matter! ).

But I have access to a qualified childcare professional and have no problem paying 10quid an hour for her services - she doesn't want to work for less and why should she?

I just don't know any teenagers here. Also, at home if one of my nieces has a crisis she can call my Mum or her Mum (my sister) to come over in 5 mins or so, and there is no drama getting her home after a late night as she can either stay at our place or I can drive her home, not an option here so I need a cab.

Much prefer to just pay an adult an appropriate price and make it a business transaction.

It just goes to show how brainwashed hysterical we've all become about childcare, there's nothing really wrong with next doors 18 year old babysitting whilst we go out locally and paying her/him £20 for the night.
Nothing will go wrong and if it did a sensible teenager will call you/their mum/the fire brigade.

Do you have the option of joining a "babysitting circle" - or are they now not allowed with all the CRB checking etc. I have no family near me and this helped us get out once a month when the kids were small for no babysitting costs - I went to babysit for other mums in the circle in return.

£9 an hour not unreasonable though. I pay a cleaner £11 an hour.

I pay £9 an hour when I use my former nanny - plus her cab fare. I generally use her when there is some putting to bed involved.

Other than that I use my neighbour's 15 year old daughter who is more sensible and trustworthy than a lot of parents I know. I pay her about £6 an hour and she just pops across the road. A much more sensible approach if you have 3 children who never wake.

I pay £5 an hour for babysitting (one child) from a professional child minder who took early retirement. I am as the name suggests Oop North. However, I tend to feel guilty (esp if it's antisocial hours, or I'm not able to be precise about when we'll be back) and round it up, generally chucking in another fiver (she always protests, but I insist).

I suspect £10 an hour is the going rate in London -but it would put me off going out I suspect!!

OP, you asked about setting up a babysitting circle. There's no magic to it, just get a group of friends together and agree how you are going to run it. We have about 10 people in our village circle - there is a book with all the points in which goes to a different person each month, and they arrange all the sits, generally contacting the person with the least points first. You get points for each sit, more on Fri/Sat and after midnight. You then use the points you've earned when you go out. It is fantastic, and has saved us an fortune.

I don't think the CRB issue comes into it, as it's an informal arrangement, but all the sitters are mums (or dads) too, who we know.

I am a nanny who babysits and I charge £8 hour and £10 after midnight and think that the peace of mind parents have leaving their children with a CRB checked nanny with paediatric first aid and plenty of experience is worth it. For those that say once the children are in bed nothing can go wrong I have had babies wake up with dirty nappies, children rolling out of bed and waking up, children having bad nightmares, the lights in the house blew and had to find the trip switch, parents getting very drunk and rolling in at 4am are all instances I have had to deal with that a 15 year old teenager may not know how to cope. I know of a family who used a teenager to babysit and after they travelled into London and sat down to dinner in a nice restaurant got a phone call from said teen who had a headache so could the parents please come home!!

Re babysitting circles. my sil had an even simpler one than mrsdepp.
they lived in a close. and 4 of the 6 ladies agreed to join. 3 of the ladies needed occassional. one lady needed alot so agreed she would still join in but would use a babysitter for all her other needs.
they decided they roughly needed 4 per half year. they would have a voucher system, but never any actual pieces of paper, if
you see what i mean - virtual vouchers.then when one of them needed they rang/spoke to another one, till they found one that could do it.
it ran easily and it was up to you to make sure that you got your 4 back, i.e you utilised your eve out. my sil had no plans, but she just used it becasue she had to and her and her dh went to the cinema.
No one took the mick and it all worked out very well. then sil moved and now has no one.

It's true that you are paying for the what-ifs. Over the last 10 years I've had powercuts, parents stuck in snowstorms, parents in a car accident, suspected meningitis, night terrors, bog-standard nightmares, babies waking up for all sorts of reasons....I count myself rather lucky that I didn't have to face that kind of thing when I was babysitting at 14. The worst I had then was a 3 year old wetting the bed or parents coming home a bit tipsy.

And yes, I charge what I feel my time is worth to me. I am out my house. I might be watching your TV but I'm working, I'm on duty and I'm constantly worrying whether your kids are okay! I once charged someone about 1.5 times my normal rate because if I was sitting for them I was missing out on something else I quite wanted to do (but the extra cash was handy) and gave them the choice of either paying me that or finding someone cheaper. I even offered them a student nurse as an alternative! They decided that on balance they would rather pay for me to do it. Equally they'd have been well within their rights to choose someone else.