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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Cost of baby sitting

376 replies

Niloufes · 18/05/2016 13:07

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?

OP posts:
Stillwishihadabs · 19/05/2016 18:38

We paid £10 / hr for proper grown up with driving licence, who could cook and expect to return to spotless silent house.

We pay our cleaner £8:50 /hr to make sure they don't kill each other during the day, she doesn't ferry them anywhere or cook.

We pay a local teen £5 leave easy food eg pizza or pay for a takeaway leave loads of snacks and fully expect to come back to a bit of a mess- oh and we take her home (luckily walking distance) after midnight its £10/ hr.

londonmummy1966 · 19/05/2016 18:40

I usually ask my cleaner to babysit as DCs like her. I pay her £10 per hour but she usually does some cleaning or ironing when she is here so that she can have an afternoon off in the week instead (her choice I'd pay her for both). She's 40 and sometimes brings a friend to chat to as we don't have the tv channels she likes. I trust her and she always introduces her friends. Actually not a bad thing now I think about it as if there was an emergency she could go with one dd and friend stay with the other. Big advantage of an adult is that they don't need walking/driving/a cab back home as a teenager would.

My neighbour used to resent paying a teenage babysitter to do nothing so (despite only paying them the low teenage rate) she would leave them out a great long list of things to do - eg sewing in name tapes - I always thought that was a bit cheapskate especially in the week when they might want to do homework. Then she'd wonder why no one ever wanted to sit for her......

1ittlegreen · 19/05/2016 18:46

I pay mine a flat rate of £40, we are not usually any later than midnight. I also leave her dinner and treats. She's a gem.

chilipepper20 · 19/05/2016 18:51

we have a range of people. we live in central London.

teenagers charge between 5 and 7, though we haven't paid 5 in ages. they usually come just before or after bedtime, so sometimes have to put the kids to bed (not onerous, both go to bed easily and are 5+).

we got a few registered childminders to do babysitting and they charge around 10. Fair enough. Adults who know how to handle most scenarios should charge more.

hippiedays · 19/05/2016 18:58

10 pounds here too. It makes for a very expensive night especially as she requests another 10 pounds for her taxi home. We usually go out for six hours so it costs 70 pounds immediately. On top of that is our taxi/drinks/meal.

We don't go out very often :-(

fionagrace · 19/05/2016 19:31

My friend charges £10ph and gets more if it goes over midnight. I think you get what you pay for. A teenager would be cheaper but if there was an emergency could she handle it? I think paying less than the minimum wage for someone with the responsibility of child's health and safety when you're not there is a bit mean. She is looking after the most important person in your life.

timefliesby · 19/05/2016 19:47

Wow you must all be rich!
OP I'm in the Midlands, I pay my neighbour's 17 year old son £5 an hour. The kids are always asleep. He sits and watches Netflix or revises and yes he's very happy with the money for that. Maybe try and find a teenager who's happy to watch the at yours rather than their house!
When my kids were young (about 6 years ago) I paid qualified childcare providers much more - £9 an hour as I didn't want to leave babies with a teenager. I agree it depends on who's babysitting and what they're being asked to do for that price!

lesleycope30 · 19/05/2016 19:48

Surly if you pay minimum wage or more you would expect the babysitter to work for the time she is there.put the hoover round,wash pots,Cook some food for the freezer,a bit of ironing. I can't remember ever being paid to sit drinking tea and watching telly

WaitrosePigeon · 19/05/2016 19:49

You begrudge paying a 40 year old woman minimum wage? ?

£6 an hour is crap.*

This. I'm embarrassed for you.

WaitrosePigeon · 19/05/2016 19:50

*You begrudge paying a 40 year old woman minimum wage? ?

£6 an hour is crap.*

I agree. I am embarrassed for you OP.

Marynary · 19/05/2016 19:53

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.

Really? Maybe some people think it is an okay salary considering that you don't have to do anything. I would certainly do it for that amount of money as long as I could watch television or work on my computer while they are asleep. It is much less than my salary for my main job but it's not as if it requires any actual work or great skills.

NameChanger22 · 19/05/2016 20:03

10 pounds per hour for babysitting??? Blimey!

I don't earn anywhere as much as that working in the Civil Service. I'm a graduate with lots of qualifications, skills and 20 years' work history. I wish I hadn't bothered with my efforts now, I should have just stuck with the babysitting job I had when I was 14.

I've never had a babysitter for dd because I can't afford one. To me 5 pounds per hour sounds reasonable.

BettyBetts · 19/05/2016 20:23

YANBU Babysitting isn't proper work.. How about if she's increasing her rate, you increasing her 'responsibilities' to include some child looking after related chores to complete while she isn't required to look after the children such as washing their toys or ironing their clothes? Alternatively, you could consider having another child to get your money's worth ; )

GrassW1dow · 19/05/2016 20:25

We pay ours (London) £12 per hour....seems to be going rate

TerrifiedMothertobe · 19/05/2016 20:32

Depends, our main babysitter is a professional child carer (room leader at a nursery). We pay her £7.50 per hour.

We also have a teen from the village with no experience, she gets paid £6.20. Although the kids are in bed, the peace of mind for the extra £ is worthwhile.

Our full time nanny is £10 per hour for a 50 hour week.

You pay for what you get.

2catsnowaiting · 19/05/2016 20:38

I babysit (I have no child care qualifications but am a mum of 2, run extra curricular kids activity and have DBS) and I charge £7 per hour. People round here seem to pay less for a teenager £6 or so. Although, yes the person is "looking after your child" unless they are doing bedtime or active childcare in the daytime, you are really just paying for "just in case" if you're child is most likely to through. Most parents make it clear if there is any problem you are to call them. It's different from a nanny ir childminder where they are actually interacting, educating, playing wit the child. For me it's easy money especially as I work only laptop most evenings and can do that at someone else's house.

Primaryteach87 · 19/05/2016 20:50

We pay £5/h for a teen (which tbh I think is too high as they would be useless if little one woke up). We pay £7/hour for a local childminder to babysit. I don't resent this at all, as feel she is cheap in comparison to the teen considering her skills.

IndigoBlue · 19/05/2016 21:23

I did babysitting for a while, and I didn't charge enough, I understand why people have an idea that a babysitter doesn't deserve to be paid min wage but that comes from someone who's never done it themselves.

It's not just sitting and watching tv. It is keeping dates clear on your calendar weeks / months ahead and being reliable, it is changing your normal routine depending on the time you are needed to start - in my case I could be rushing around to make sure my own children had their tea early and were sorted out before going out. It is having responsibility for someone else's child. It is actually pretty boring sitting in someone else's house all evening, and it's tiring staying up til up to 2 / 3am in some cases.

So yes they should be paid minimum wage at least, there is the cost of petrol too.

Marynary · 19/05/2016 22:12

I did babysitting for a while, and I didn't charge enough, I understand why people have an idea that a babysitter doesn't deserve to be paid min wage but that comes from someone who's never done it themselves.

Oh come on. I'm sure most of us have done babysitting as teenagers and as adults (although I do it in return for babysitting rather than money). It's much easier than any other "job" I have done.

Muchneededcommonsense · 19/05/2016 22:17

It is rather appalling to discontinue using someone's services because you don't think they have a right to be paid the living wage. Also I guess she is not your next door neighbour so she would need to spent time and money in paying for her transport/petrol to your house and back. Are you covering that or is it not your problem how this person makes a living? I hope she sticks to her guns and does not accept work that is paid at a rate that by definition does not allow to live on it.

Primaryteach87 · 19/05/2016 22:29

I do class babysitting as child in bed... As a teen had some utterly nightmare babysitting jobs where I was paid a £10 and expected to get 3 or 4 hyper kids to bed who is never met before and though telling me all sorts of rubbish was what they 'normally' did. Utter nightmare! So does depend, re: how easy it is!

IndigoBlue · 19/05/2016 22:36

I guess it depends how much your time is worth to you... if you'd regularly give up your evenings for £3 an hour or something good for you

DailyMailFodder · 19/05/2016 22:40

My uni age DDs 19 and 21) get paid £6 for evening babysitting and are delighted by it. They put the kids to bed then spend the evening revising. There aren't other jobs about where you get to do your homework.

They get £8 or £10 for Daytime babysitting. They much prefer the evening work.

DailyMailFodder · 19/05/2016 22:43

Having said that my DD are happy to be paid £6 per hour I still think you should pay the living wage to your babysitter. It's the law.

TwirlsInTwirlsOutAgain · 19/05/2016 22:44

I haven't RTFT, just the first few pages as can't be arsed reading 9 pages at this time of night so just going on them.
A reliable, trustworthy 40 year old woman giving up her evenings to babysit your child I don't think you can really quibble at the cost.
She's not just "sitting in front of the TV", is she? She's on call for your child if they wake up, get scared if mummy and daddy aren't there and generally watching out for her and keeping her safe.
There's some things you just can't put a price on, and good childcare is one of them.
If you want to pay less, get a responsible teenager, the local takeaway on speed dial and bung them a tenner. I babysat as a teenager for a neighbour and would have been happy with that which is what I'm basing that on.
However, I'd be much more happy paying the experienced older person more money to look after my kids as some things are more important than money, and children's safety is one of them in my opinion.