£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?

In that case you don’t need one at all. There’s no point paying someone just to watch TV, so go out without a babysitter.

It's more than I get as a nursery nurse looking after 12 toddlers a day.

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.

Well, yes, most of the time, that is what it'll be - but you're paying for the reassurance that someone is around just in case it goes wrong.

You may only be ten minutes away, but the person your paying still needs to be competent enough to sort the problem (however minor), comfort your child, sort basic first aid and call you - and be capable of staying calm too.

Anything could happen, that's why you're there. But the likelihood is small. And, honestly, any kids that were into regular fighting with siblings wouldn't get me there a second time. Illness and accidents happen but it's highly unlikely. Much, much more likely you get to watch telly, with an occasional water request by a try it on little chancer, hoping for a bit of extra tv! Lol.

But you need to pay minimum wage if you are going to pay someone to do a job.

Otherwise it will be someone doing you a favour for pocket money

I've been babysitting for 24 years (professional Nanny for 20) and whilst most babysitting involves just putting the kids to bed (sometimes dinner & bath) then watching tv until the parents come home I've had a whole host of things I've had to deal with over the years. Most parents take a while to get back & that's after you've actually managed to contact them. You'd be surprised how many don't check their phones.

Off the top of my head:
Multiple cases of wet beds, vomiting, nightmares, babies who won't go back to sleep/take a bottle.
Fire alarms going off - one was a fire in the house next door.
Pet dog collapsing - emergency vet needed
Kitten stuck on roof.
5 yr old having an Epileptic seizure.
Baby having febrile seizure - ambulance for that one.
Teenager trying to sneak out.
Estranged husband that turned up demanding to see the kids.

Obviously I do a lot of babysitting & this is over a long period of time but you never actually know which night will be the one you thank god it happened to me now & not back when I was an unexperienced teenager charging £20 a night & a lift home.

I pay £14 per hour in London for a first aid trained nursery worker. DC are already in bed. It’s not necessarily just watching TV all evening, it’s the responsibility of looking after your DC if they get ill without panicking, or being able to get them out of the house safely in the very unlikely event of a fire. I don’t want an inexperienced teenager who is much more likely panic if anything goes wrong.

Sounds fair, I used to get £6 an hour as a teenager 15 or so years ago. Plus snacks!

Bollocks. I'm 60 and I'd do it for twenty quid and a pizza. It's just watching telly in someone else's warm house rather than your own.

Could he go for a sleepover at a friends house?

30 years ago, I got £5 and a plate of biscuits - for the whole night! I did only watch TV though and my mum was across the road in case one of the kids woke up.

Absolutely - most of the time it's easy, but you're being paid for the very occasional times it's not.

Exactly this.....grab a teenager and pay them £3 an hour for babysitting. Absolutely lousy.

And someone who thinks that what the job involves is both someone who you do not want looking after your children and someone who it’s no surprise is scratching around for money in their sixties.

Teens, like all other working individuals deserve to be paid for both the actual service as well as their time.

Hopefully she vomits on their sofa and shits on the stairs.

I pay £10 an hour for teenage sitters (London)
For qualified nursery staff/nannies I pay up to £15

That’s what we usually do (and not often) but we’ve come up short.

Also, not a party.

I'll have to tell my ds to get with the times, he only charges £5 an hour!

I used to charge £10 an hour when I was a teenager… I’m in my 30s now! I think that’s very cheap

£10 seems fine. When I babysat as a teenager I wouldn't do it for less than £50 a night (if it was any longer than 4/5 hours I wanted more)
You're putting what you value onto it. Which is someone sitting and watching TV, but the babysitters time is important no matter how old they were. I've never agreed with "a bit of pocket money" when it comes to having teenagers do things. Their time is worth as much as anyone elses.

If there’s one thing I don’t want to skimp on is the person who is looking after my child when I’m not around. Better paid people tend to be more willing, be in a better mood, and so on.
of course bad people can charge high rates too but that’s a different story

I got paid that nearly 15 years ago as a student, so I'm surprised it's not higher now!

Not if it never happens!

I'd need to vet clients' children but I think this could be a good way to earn some extra money.

blimey I got 5 pounds for the night to look after a 10 year old for about 8 hours. my mum gave me another fiver for being a good girl and I was happy as anything.
this was only 2010s I was about 14