£10 an hour for babysitting?

[EmpressOfTheSofa]

Is that really the going rate?

I’ve been lucky enough to never really need an evening babysitter but we have a thing coming up that my usual family or older dc can’t help with. I’ve asked around and it looks like a tenner an hour is standard? That would be sixty quid for sitting watching telly all night. I have one 10 year old who will put himself to bed. This is for a local teenager, I’ve had three offers from different kids all at £10 per hour.

If this really is the going rate I’m going to start offering my services! I used to charge half that per child for actual childminding fgs. Am I just out of touch?

My DD, who is at uni, charges £8 p/h and £9 after midnight plus she can drive to each job.

Actually, where are you? For twenty quid I'll come watch telly at yours and use your heating.

Cheap! I charge 13

Of course it's not the equivalent of 31k a year.

Nobody babysits for 40 hours a week, every week, for starters - but even if they did, that income would have to to cover sick pay, annual leave, pension contributions, tax, NI, transport etc etc.

HATE when people say €10 for watching telly all night.

That's the situation we find ourselves in. No family locally, live in a small village so not a million options. Obviously we'd want to pay minimum wage, but as others say realistically it's sitting at home in front of the telly and effectively being paid to call us if there's an issue. The added cost of babysitting makes us going out for an evening unaffordable anyway as we can't afford an extra £40-50 on top of a meal out.

If that's the going rate where you are, then that's what you have to pay. I paid £8/hour about 3 years ago so that seems pretty standard

It's not watching telly all night though is it.
It's making sure your kids and safe and seen too and being responsible in an emergency.
Costs are sky high for everything now, how far do you think tenner goes? It's literally the price of a cocktail on your night out.
Just factor it in to this cost of your night out and the fact of having kids.
Soon you won't need a babysitter, it's a temporary thing

Why? When I used to babysit as a teenager, I used to do my homework and/or watch telly. Occasional glance in bedroom to make sure they were still alive and in bed. And the parents used to leave me plates of food as well.

Hmm, I'm thinking of a career change.

Wow I'm in the south east and my DD charges£6 an hour - if less than 3 hours she charges £15 minimum, from when she was 15-18 but then I drop her off and pick her up.

It's all about £6 here. We are about an hour train away from London.

DD will babysit up to 2 children who are older than preschool. She's good with littliees but when younger wouldn't have felt as confident doing nappies and milk bottles. She can now though...

I paid £16 for three (one is 3) per hour and that included the tip.
I'm not in London.
I as happy to pay that because she had lots of experience (age 50+).

** I was happy to pay that (Christ alive)

I pay £10phr and always round it up to the nearest hour. My lovely babysitter is one of the nursery staff and she is DBS checked and my son loves her. She likes dogs and I trust her immensely

Seems about right, yes.

It’s what we pay in London.

I'm very interested in this, queen. Are you qualified in some way or just a responsible adult? How did you get into doing it? How do you get your clients? Do you have a DBS or do you just know the parents so it's not necessary? Is it quite steady work?
Hope you don't mind me asking! Also whereabouts are you? SE, NW, Scotland, etc.

But while an emergency is rare, you still have to be responsible and sensible enough to deal with issues when they happen.

Depending on age of the child, any of the following could happen - wetting/soiling the bed, falling and injuring themselves, throwing up, having a nightmare, fighting siblings, tantrums, children refusing to go to sleep or screaming for their parents etc.

that's cheap.
my oldest sometimes babysits and he is paid 20€ per hour. the sittees are early primary age.

@PurpleRaindancing £6 is far too cheap. I am also in the south east and never paid less than £8ph and now it’s £10. They are taking advantage of your DD.

also OP you will be gone for 6 hours 🤯where is the party?

@MarshaMelrose

Im an Ofsted registered nanny in East London, so qualifications, first aid, insurance etc etc

I get my clients through childcare.co.uk / Facebook childcare groups.

I would say that the pay scale is all relative. You pay for the experience of the person.

For the people who say they don’t like it when babysitting is described as just being paid to watch tv - I’m sorry but 90 percent of it is. I’m babysitting right this minute, I’ve put the baby to bed and I’m going to now watch tv until parents come home. When people say it to me I say, yes it is, haven’t I lucked out!

I used to babysit and most of the time this is all I ever did.

£10 is cheap. It's £15 an hour round here. South east commuter town.

I used to get £10 an hour in the north east twenty years ago.

I don't think it sounds that high. It was more like four hours not six hours though.

£10 is super cheap! Where in the country are you!? We pay ours £16 an hour, however don't begrudge it as she is in charge of any potential emergencies and she still has to earn a living. I wouldn't class it as watching TV all night.

I mean, it IS literally watching telly all night. We’ll be ten minutes away and sober; and DS doesn’t need looking after as such, he’s just in that weird mid time of being self sufficient but not quite ready for us to leave him home.

I’ve now found a friends daughter who will happily sit in the house watching Netflix for £20 and a pizza. Result.

A 6 hour party 10mins away? Still think it’s not nice you are ripping a friend’s kid off by paying £20 for SIX hours! But you are so proud of yourself you managed to find some poor fool.