Cost of baby sitting

[Niloufes]

Our baby sister recently told us that she is putting her costs up to minimum wage per hour, £7.20 an hour. Am i being unreasonable to think this is too much? She comes round when our 3 year old daughter is asleep and waits until we get home. Only once has she woken up and needed a drink and so the sitter is just sitting watching tv the rest of the time. Is this a normal amount to pay? we paid £6 before. aibu?

We never thought about an amount per hour - we paid for the evening, usually around £20, maybe a tenner more if we needed her earlier than around 7 o'clock or were home after 11 (though our babysitter was only around the corner). This was a good 5 yrs ago, mind.

(If I was paying minimum wage I would expect them to be doing my ironing while kids slept, not watching the telly!)

We preferred reciprocal babysitting with other parents, which was free in return for going round their houses from time to time, eating all their biscuits and watching their telly. (Kids were older then though and didn't get up!)

Minimum wage is just that, a wage - but I doubt she declares babysitting on a tax return!

This is an agreement between the two of you. Maybe negotiate a rate of £6.50 up to 2 hours, then £7.50 for each hour after that with a minimum of £15 to be paid to her.

£10/hour here plus taxi if it is in the evening.

I think that it is disgusting that you don't want to pay minimum wage. This is her job, whether or not you think it's sitting around doing nothing. There are plenty of people who earn far more for doing a job that many would consider too easy or too fun to be paid for, but at the end of the day it is their career and it is how they are paying for their families.

If you don't think her job is worthwhile, don't go out and care for your own children, or indeed why not hire someone who charges less. But it is a very scummy thing to do, to refuse to pay wages that pay for basic living expenses. It's not exactly a luxury wage!

And on a different note, these are your darling children! This person is basically standing in for you as a parent, and you don't consider that worth that basic price? I would be darn worried about leaving my child with someone who accepts such a low wage as £5/6 an hour because frankly, you get what you pay for. For any job, no one is going to put in that extra mile when they are working for a pittance. It is a clear message that you don't value your babysitter, as a service nor as a person with their own life to pay for.

I am offended, both as a person having to scrounge by on minimum wage (and who has been screwed over), and as a mother, who despite a low income would rather pay £15 an hour to ensure the babysitter CARES about the work she is doing.

I'm amazed at how lucrative babysitting is these days - I will seriously consider supplementing my income with this if rates are high round my way.

I babysat as a teen and got around £1.50-£2 per hour plus some snacks. This was pre-internet and 24 hr telly so could be mind-numbingly boring, and challenging to stay awake when they don't get home till early hours of the morning.

I charge £8 p/h and most people tend to round it up for me. I don't think it'd unreasonable

The babysitter should get minimum wage you wouldn't be able to come and go if it wasn't for her services so therefore regardless if she's sat watching to she is in call if your DD needs her. If you want cheap getting a teenager but your risking losing someone mature for favour of saving pennies in the scheme of things.

It is the law isn't it? If you employ an adult you pay them NMW, the rate for teenagers is lower. I like the bit about you don't have to pay NMW because its cash in hand. Do people realise the babysitter should be declaring the income?

It used to be £5 an hour where I live but that was about 10 years ago so your babysitters prices sound about right.

We pay £7.50 to our 22 year-old babysitter (someone else's nanny by day) and are often back late. We're in central London.

Lol all she is doing sitting watching TV

This is not true though is it - she is there to look after your children in case they need her. She is giving up what she could be doing instead so that you can go and do what you want her to do. Why should you not pay minimum wage for this?

Babysitting, as I used to do it as a teen, is not a career and does not require special skills. Families and parents look after each other and children all the time without training and pay, you don't need certificates and so forth to be a good trustworthy person who would cope reasonably well in a crisis.

The higher the standard required (DBS, childcare quals), the higher the price, the more it is seen as a specialist skill set, the more that ordinary people can't actually afford it any more. Who can afford £50 for a night out on top of actually paying to go out?! Only pretty wealthy people, I don't believe anyone I know (and I know mostly professionals) is paying this regularly any more, we are all in belt-tightening mode and that's more than the cost of the take-away we could have in instead.

Now, that's the market- if people want to pay professionals to do this in their spare time, in the belief they are better than a 16 year old down the road, that's their perogative, but it's all the perogative of others not to want that level of service or of pay.

My friends/other parents mind my children from time to time, or take them out or even have them to sleep over, and I don't consider that I require a DBS check/training/huge amount of relevant experience, just a bit of common sense and my mobile number.

Now I have read this thread, though, I'll be telling my dds' to definitely enter into this lucrative market when they get older, there's no point in cleaning/serving in a shop/delivering newspapers/working as a waitress if you can sit on a sofa, do your homework, chat to a child if they wake up all for the same price an hour or even more!

I pay a 16 year old neighbour £5 ph to arrive after my 2 kids have gone to bed and we're back by 10/11. She sits and does her homework and watches a film. Easy money in my book. We're only ever 20 mins away so we pop back if ever a problem. In 3 years we've never been called. (Different 16 year olds).

I think I need to start supplementing my income by babysitting in London! Some of these prices are amazing!

If it's actually childcare, the children are awake, and you have to put them to bed, I'd charge more, typical child-care rates. I'm talking about the scenario where the children would be off to bed when I arrived, I'd check a couple of times, then several hours of sitting about and eating their food would ensue.

Don't tell me the snacks are included on top of the £10 an hour, I might seriously start looking for some babysitting work!

My 16 year old will do it for £5 an hour but that's her bottom end and she often refuses because she has a job in McDonalds which pays the same + perks AND she says is easier than babysitting because she doesn't feel the same weight of responsibility all on her shoulders. You can't guarantee your DCs will stay asleep - my teens have had children wake up ill or with worries/ bad dreams.

My eldest is late teens and people seem to pay her no less than £7 an hour.

I think you're being a bit tight for a grown adult, tbh. Find a 16 year old if you want to pay £6 and they'll probably do it happily.

When I was younger I watched my neighbours kids the whole day for $50, I offered to do it for free, but said thank you for the money. She commented she was really happy about me as a babysitter because I actually played with her kids, while the other babysitter they used just sat and watched TV while the kids played by themselves.

YABU. You're griping about an extra £1.20 per hour? You'll be lucky to find anyone cheaper and I'm not sure I'd take the 'teenager and take away' approach either.

I babysat for my next-door neighbours for a few years over 10 years ago (when I was a teenager) in London (zone 2) and got £6/hour. That was a dead easy job, only once or twice did I have to interact with any children, and then it was very easy to get them back to bed.

Fast forward to now, based in Surrey, where I'm working as a nanny for the last 2 years, am going to train to be a teacher from September, am DBS-cleared etc, but I also babysit for a couple of other families. I ask different rates depending on the number of children and depending on how prone they are to need my attention. These vary between £6-8, though when I babysit for the family I work as a nanny for they pay me £10/hour.

With the families I babysit for currently it is rare where I have an evening where I have simply been able to sit in front of the tv and do nothing.
I've often been promised 'They'll be asleep, you shouldn't have to do anything' - to then find children need calming, reassurance, and are very difficult to get back to bed. In these situations the parents return and simply tell me that that's quite normal i.e. the children's sleeping routine isn't completely sorted and it is hard work getting them to stay in bed! If this happened for the families I only ask £6/hour for on a regular basis, I would definitely ask and expect to be paid more.

I pay £10/hour but she is a childminder/nanny. She gets the same rate for daytime childcare. Although she is less busy when they are in bed I don't think of her time as less valuble, iyswim . . . but we don't go out much! £70 last time.

I'd babysit for £6 per hour

I've always charged based on what I feel the parents can afford (outside London, poorer area) One family have paid me 5 an hour (rounded to the half hour for the extra 2.50 ) since I was 14.
I felt getting 40 quid a day was v generous seeing as I love the kids and would happily play with them for free.
Families on benefits tend to give me about 10-15 for an evening, plus chips and taxi home.
Did get one man who paid me 10 before going out at 8, then came back blocked at 4am, couldn't open the door, and then said he'd drive me home!

I used to earn £40 to babysit for an evening 20 years ago plus taxi home. These people had money but even still it was great money. My teenage babysitter charges me £5.50 an hour. I always pay her a bit more, so £10 minimum really as she will often just come for an hour so I can do an activity whilst my husband is out.

It is the law isn't it? If you employ an adult you pay them NMW, the rate for teenagers is lower.

I could be wrong but I don't think national minumum wage rules apply in this situation as the babysitter is self employed and isn't being paid a salary. They are responsible for setting their own charges, paying tax, national insurance etc. It isn't an employer/ employee relationship.

Should have said, I've also been paid double for looking after twice the number of kids.

There is a fellow mum who charges £5 but my teenage babysitter is more flexible. I have paid between £7 and £8 per hour for other babysitters