To pay £5 an hour for babysitting for the girls from nursery

[hellohelloididntseeyouthere]

Or is that really tight for two kids!?!?!?! We have people who will do for free so don't want to pay too much

That's very cheap. I pay £3.50 per hour per child for a professional childminder while I work. £5 per hour for two children out of office hours is a bargain.

Yes you are being tight. I wonder how much you intend to spend on yourself on your night out?

For the record, my neighbour is 17, and i round it up to the nearest five so she does get more than 5, even though that's what we agreed- like others have said, i don't stand counting out pound coins!

Cheesecake Mom, what a stupid point. If the nursery manager was taking a babysitting shift you might have a point. But these are nursery staff who will be paid the NMW at work. So they wouldn't be 'a doctor' taking a shift as a nurse. It would be more like, a nurse, taking on an extra shift outside normal working hours for less than she gets paid for her normal full time job. No nurse would do that. In fact, if a nurse takes on a second job on an ad hoc basis outside her normal working hours she will normally be doing it as an agency employee on two or three times her normal salary.

If you were actually going to apply the corrected logic of nurses to this case you would be looking at about £19 per hour. That would be a 'nurse taking a job paid as a nurse' in the same circumstances. Hope that helps.

I got paid £5 per hour pre 1994.

That's not enough.

I don't understand your argument cheesecakemom, surely it's beneficial to have someone qualified to babysit your children. I always ask the nursery girls to babysit for DS, when g'parents not sitting, as I'm far happier knowing that they are CRB checked, first aid trained etc. I pay them £6 per hour, always well rounded up. This is to look after DS (age 4) for approx 1 hr before he's asleep for the rest of the evening.
The peace of mind is far more important to me than having a cheaper baby sitter.

Tight IMO, I earned that as a teen babysitter with no childcare experience or qualifications 20 years ago.

I got paid £5 for the whole evening!!!!! Pre 1993. At the time I thought I was being ripped off! However long the evening was, it was always £5 total.

Presumably the babysitters normally pay tax and NI and your paying them cash in hand. I'd still go £7 an hour.

Yabvvu. If you have a free option, take it. Yes £5 ph to look after the most precious things in the world to you, is quite tight not even minimum wage. They are trained professionals, not teenagers.

We regularly get the women who work in dd's nursery to babysit (one child, usually in bed before they come, though yes there is the possibility she might wake up and be a bugger to get re-settled, it has happened once). We pay them £10 an hour, and provide food (a fairly cheap pizza) if they request it.
Possibly we are paying slightly over the odds, but they earn such an appallingly low wage, I'd hate to take advantage. Lo and behold we have them queuing up to sit for us, at any available opportunity. We can afford the wages too, so it's a win win!

I wouldn't pay anyone less than £7/hour. If you can afford to go out, you can afford to pay for childcare

£3 an hour is the going rate for a teenager round here, although I do provide food and drink as well - pizza, crisps, pop, stuff like that (not all of my friends do). So I'd say a fiver is more than reasonable. I don't shit gold bricks though, unlike some on this thread seem to. If all they're doing is watching telly and eating pizza, it's not really 'work' as such. Just offer them a fiver an hour and see how you go. If you don't get any joy, see if you can get a local teenager by putting an advert in a shop window or something. I got one of (I have three) my babysitters by her putting a note in a shop offering her services, I rang her up, she and her mum came round, we sorted it all out and we're both very happy so although how we came into contact with each other was a bit random, we did have an initial meet-up so we could check each other out.

I don't shit gold bricks. I get tax credits to pay for my childcare while I'm at work. Perhaps because I don't 'shit gold bricks' I'm not prepared to pay someone who has qualifications below the NMW and exploit the fact they probably need the money to pay them unfairly? I would rather go out less often and pay a fair deal than go out regularly and rip off someone who needs the money. £3 an hour is a rip off even for a teenager.

I'm a single parent and I go out about 6 times a year. I save up.

Oh, and by the way Cruikshank. I'm glad that you think inviting strangers who've seen an advert in a shop window and are prepared to do it is a safe way to look after your child. Personally I think you are irresponsible and your attitude borders on neglect. A teenager who you know well and you know is reliable is generally okay. A stranger who may well steal everything you own and abandon your children alone is not.

I also used to get payed £5 for the evening,they were my parents friends though and seemed to think they were doing me a favour .
I actually think £5 ph is ok, not generous but ok. It's cash in hand isn't it, so no tax or ni and the hourly rate does tend to be lower in those circumstances.
Tbh if I was a teenager I would be more than happy to babysit for that rate, it's just putting the kids to bed and watching tv, not at all like running a childminding business or working in a nursery, babysitting is pretty easy money if the dc go to bed as planned.

I do however seem to be in the minority, so I am probably tight and unreasonable too .

Well, my babysitters are happy to sit for me and my friends and we are happy with the job they do. I only ever need to add to the pool when one of them goes off to uni and I'm still in touch with those that have because we have a friendly relationship. So, while it might not work for you, it certainly works for all of us. Enjoy those nights in!

I think £5 is fine just to watch TV while children sleep. If they have to put children to bed and do actual childcare I'd pay £7.

I used to charge £5 a night when I babysat for nursery children 17 years ago.

I no longer babysit but did ask the girls who I used to work with who still do it, and they charge £8 an hour and taxi fare home if they don't drive.

Ahhhhhary, I actually think £5 an hour would be okay in some areas for a teenager. Where I live up north it would be okay. But for someone who is qualified and CRB checked it's derisory. I used to babysit to pay for a night out. At £5 per hour it's going to pay for maybe bus fare and a couple of drinks at Wetherspoons prices. Not worth it.

Cruikshank. Enjoy your nights out. Personally I prefer not to leave my children with strangers off the street.

I pay £5 per hour, but DD is in bed before she gets here. I leave food, drink and the TV is obviously at her disposal. DD never wakes so basically it's money for sitting around eating free food and watching TV.

Yes, aermingus, the news is full of reports of 16 year old girls robbing houses bare and abandoning children. I am practically leaving my son in the woods to be raised by wolves.