to think teenagers should be cheaper than qualified people?

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We regularly use an agency for babysitting and have a level 3 qualified registered childminder who is in her 50s babysit for us.
She is fab, but for times when we are (literally) down the road we’d love to have a cheaper babysitter in their teens. Our children have never woken up in their sleep and are in bed by the time we go out. We could literally be home in 5minutes.

Loads of people advertising their teenager sons and dds are available for babysitting on Facebook (obviously would check them out first) but AIBU to think teens these days expect a lot!
So have 3 I have casually enquired about have want more or the same as the agency rate I pay for our qualified, experienced babysitter!

I am not that old and babysat a lot in my teens - I never expected the (equivalent) rate these teens expect.

Are people going to book them? Are they out of touch or is it me who is BU?

(For record even though this is AIBU I am not in a fury and will just carry on using our babysitter - so no drama 😁)

but £5 an hour is a joke. Minimum wage for an under 18 year old is £4.62 an hour.

@pleasedonttextmyman

I was paid £10 an hour as a teen, and that was a couple of decades ago!

I wouldn't let my own teen be taken for a mug and give 4 hours of their time for £10 or £20 - if it's a regular weekly arrangement, it's different, but £5 an hour is a joke.

As more girls than boys are babysitting, it's a good lesson not to be taken for a mug and not accept low rates because people expect everything for nothing.

£10+ rate is the standard around here, and that sounds fair on both sides.

I’m not sure what you mean about being taken for a mug. The minimum wage for a 16 or 17 year old is £4.62

£5 an hour is absolutely fine. Mostly all the teens are doing is eating snacks and watching Netflix while the kids sleep!

No chance!
When I used to babysit as a teenager/into uni it was £5 an hour one family was £10 a hour because I did school pick up, dinner, bath and bedtime. I had hoped increasing the price would put them off as 2 out of the 3 were a nightmare as soon as it was me and not their parents but nope and my mum would say I was available whenever the mum knocked 🙄

I think 5 pounds an hour is mean. 10 pounds an hour seems more appropriate.

I used to work for £5 an hour twenty years ago. I now do a part time cleaning job and earn £12.50 an hour. Paying a teenager £15 an hour to sit on the sofa and watch TV is hilarious.

I stayed in a nice city centre hotel at the weekend and was surprised at how many young couples (they looked late teens) there were. It was a bit of an extravagance for me, and I’m a middle-aged child free professional so I wondered how so many could afford it. Perhaps this thread is the answer!

Imapotato

by being taken for a mug, I mean accepting a ridiculously low rate. £5 an hour is nowhere near enough.

(on a side note, I wouldn't encourage my kids to take a minimum wage either, unless it really brings something to their cvs, they need to aim higher)

@pleasedonttextmyman

Imapotato

by being taken for a mug, I mean accepting a ridiculously low rate. £5 an hour is nowhere near enough.

(on a side note, I wouldn't encourage my kids to take a minimum wage either, unless it really brings something to their cvs, they need to aim higher)

Conversely I think it’s an excellent idea to encourage your teenagers to work and a minimum wage job is just the incentive needed for them to try harder with their education. Any job is also excellent to learn employment skills and often come with a social life.

It's been a few years but we were paying £6/hour to teenagers - at that time we were paying the cleaner around £10/hour.
Whilst my children are obviously more precious than a clean loo I would not pay a teenager more to sit on their bum just in case a child woke up than I'd pay someone to clean

I put more importance to the safety and well being of my kids than the quality of dusting in my house frankly.

That’s a nice argument @pleasedonttextmyman 🙄

@pleasedonttextmyman

Imapotato

by being taken for a mug, I mean accepting a ridiculously low rate. £5 an hour is nowhere near enough.

(on a side note, I wouldn't encourage my kids to take a minimum wage either, unless it really brings something to their cvs, they need to aim higher)

I disagree completely.

Working crappy low wage jobs as students will make them want to aim higher and do better for themselves. Dd1 is 16 and has a low wage, part time job (which she found herself). It’s definitely made her realise she wants more from her career in the future.

And I wouldn’t be paying a teen more than £20 for an evening to sit on the sofa, eat and watch tv while my kids slept. Asking patents to fork out more is just pure greed.

I babysat many years ago for a doctor, often he was also on call and I was left instructions on how to contact his pager if needed.

So all this "what about if X happens, so they should be paid y" doesn't cut much muster with me.

£8 a hour tops, so £25 for 3 hours (rounding up)

@MereDintofPandiculation

but £5 an hour is a joke. Minimum wage for an under 18 year old is £4.62 an hour.

Yes, but they are restricted to no more than 2 hours a day on school days and Sundays, and not after 7pm at all.

So expecting a babysitter to work from 7pm until 11pm (for example) is completely outside the remit of legal employment for 16 year olds.

So the market determines the rate because you're already taking them outside legal protections.

Seems only fair to pay them extra for the unsociable hours and for the advantage they give the person who wants to save money and go out. Same way that somebody who pays a 16 year old to look after their children for more than four hours without an hour break is breaking the laws on child employment.

I don't think adults should exploit the existence of NMW to justify paying 16 year olds so little when that NMW comes with legal obligations on the part of the person paying.

They can ask whatever the want and you can hire whomever you want. If you find their rates to high, get someone else. They learn soon enough if they aren't getting any jobs. Then again, perhaps babysitters are in high demand and they can ask these high rates and still get jobs. In which case the qualified cm are getting stiffed.

Conversely I think it’s an excellent idea to encourage your teenagers to work and a minimum wage job is just the incentive needed for them to try harder with their education. Any job is also excellent to learn employment skills and often come with a social life.

I disagree

they are in competition with people with superb cv, and it's their own interest to go for the best they can from a young age.
Of course they work, but not for peanuts unless it's a specific interest. It's not all about the money, it's about the big picture.

There's "crap jobs" and crap jobs.. and it's insulting to pretend you have to go the the lowest possible job to get some ambition.

On threads like this, you can still a lot of resentment about paying people for "sitting on the sofa". Well, you are free to offer your services too. It costs what it costs. Seeing people resenting others is a good lesson for kids too.

Around here, you'd struggle to find a babysitter for less than £10 an hour. Supply and demand.

You wouldn't find a cleaner for £5 an hour either, and that's not a bad thing.

I'm a childminder and I charge £12 an hour minimum charge £30 and my teenage son babysits and charges £7 an hour minimum £20 (snacks always welcome!) This seems to be fairly standard round my area although I am thinking about putting my rates up to £15 as I do sometimes regret giving up an evening for £30! No way would I pay a teenager £15 an hour!!

Rather than responding to ads, why not post yourself stating the rate, minimum payment and snacks included - I bet you'll be inundated with offers as so many teenagers around at the moment & all seem to want to earn some money but are struggling to get jobs

We pay our teenage babysitters £10/hour for our 3 children when they are awake. Between £5-7/hour when they are sleeping but I usually round it up so it always ends up closer to 10.

We also have an older babysitter who is a qualified teacher and she has always charged £10/hour if they are awake or asleep (which is more than fair!).

The kids do prefer the younger babysitters because they play with them more and I think these girls are worth every penny :)

YANBU OP and these teenagers may well find that nobody is willing to pay £15/hr. But I don’t blame them for trying! It’s entrepreneurial…
I’ve used a couple of local teenage babysitters (aged 15/16). One asked for £6/hr - so when she did 3 hours I rounded it up and gave her £20. Another suggested £8. She was also with my children for 3 hours, but that involved putting a 6 and 9 year old to bed. I gave her £30 and her Mum (who I know) texted me after to complain I’d given her too much!!
So I guess everyone has different expectations, but I certainly wouldn’t think any teenagers around here get more than £10/hr and more likely to be around £8/hr.

Many adults with qualifications don’t earn £15/hr for daytime work, so it would seem bizarre to pay this for teenagers watching TV!

Our local page has had local teenagers posting offering babysitting services recently. They are charging between £10-15 per hour. People are biting their hand off, they are now fully booked.

I wouldn't encourage my kids to take a minimum wage either, unless it really brings something to their cvs, they need to aim higher

You're effectively encouraging them to be unemployed then. And also potentially committing yourself to funding them semi-indefinitely. A candidate with experience stocking shelves, working a checkout, bussing tables, or staffing a kids holiday club is a much more attractive prospect to someone recruiting for a "proper" entry level job with prospects than someone who has never worked. Those graduates getting shiny jobs in the City and large corporates are getting them in part on the skills and references they earned at minimum wage.

I personally wouldn't use an under 18 to babysit and certainly wouldn't want someone who isn't trained in paediatric first aid. As you already use somebody with all the relevant training why not just stick to them ?

I paid a local teenager £40 for 5 hours which I felt was maybe on the stingy side but she was thrilled and is desperate to do it again, her mum was asking too so clearly felt it appropriate. Unfortunately I can't usually afford to go out but have recommended her to friends at her request. £15 is absolutely insane.