Tell me about babysitting rates...

[dimpleknee]

I'm gobsmacked by babysitting rate- just been quoted £7-10 per hour! Possibly because I'm an older Mum who only got a fiver a night back in the day. Say you go for a meal and drinks with friends, leaving home at 7, back at midnight- £50??? Really? On top of night spends? Who can afford this?

Most people can afford this.

£7-£10 is cheap! My babysitter is £15 an hour, £20 after midnight

£7-10 an hour is cheap. I pay £14 per hour then £7 after 8pm (as they're in bed)

I'm evidently well out of touch! 🤣

I'm a nursery teacher and would charge £15 an hour.

Yeah that's really reasonable. You want to pay less than minimum wage for something as important as looking after your child?

It’s half what we pay and is under minimum wage isn’t it?! Unless you’re employing a teen. Go out half as much if it’s a struggle.

Really?! So your babysitter, who sits watching TV while the children are upstairs/asleep earns £75 for 5 hours "work"?!

That's a rip off and im surprised many people pay that.

It would be different if she was cleaning your house, washing your laundry and organising your cupboards all night. But £75, tax free presumably, for sitting on their arse is crazy money.

Over the last few years I've used the older siblings of friends of my sons (whose parents I knew well). The 17year old I paid £7 per hour (my kids were 9&13) and another was 19 and I paid her £8.50 (when they were from 7&11) Now my oldest is nearly 15 and he gets a flat rate total of £10 to babysit his brother while we nip to the local or the cinema for a couple of hours. He wants to start marketing himself through my mum-network 😆for the next round of younger kids.
In the past me and other mum friends have traded evening babysitting .... especially when the kids were little it worked well and was technically free. Is that something you could consider?

I'm a nanny in Kent and I babysit as well. I charge £14 per hour while children are awake and £12 per hour once they're asleep. Never had any issues with my pricing and plenty of people are happy to pay that

Thanks @SchoolShenanigans, now I don't feel quite so unreasonable. 😁
I guess I WOULD rather 'have less nights out' and spend that money on days out with the kids. But for me it's a choice, if you can afford and budget for both, that's fine.

All the above is mostly horse shit @dimpleknee ... minimum wage is fine. Check rates on childcare.co.uk

Well if you want someone cheap you will have to employ a young teen.
I charge between £10-£12 an hour as am qualified and experienced and giving up my time.
It always baffles me that people think nothing of paying their cleaners a good hourly rate but begrudge paying someone to watch over their children. Who should be their most precious of possessions.

What?? Horeshit how?

Minimum wage is £10.42 for over 23s so surely not unsurprising that someone might want a bit more than that for working late, especially if they’re a childcare professional, and if they’re expected to put the kids to bed. £7 an hour would be under minimum wage unless the sitter is under 18.

Also, You still have to pay at least minimum wage which is
£10.42 for those aged 23 and over.
£10.18 for those aged 22-22.
£7.49 for those aged 18-20
£5.28 for under 18's

So as I said, if you want it cheap you will need to pick someone very young

21-22 I meant.

£15 an hour here as well.

I thought it was London rates but we are going to a wedding near Liverpool later this year and I needed to book a babysitter to sit in the hotel room with the kids while we are at the reception downstairs, and they were all quoting me £15/Hr as well

Blimey I’m also out of touch. Don’t need a babysitter and had thought of offering my services locally. I thought £20 for say 7pm - 11pm but maybe I should ask for £30! £10 per hour after 11pm as I like to go to bed early.

I paid £5/ hr for 15/16/17 year old sitters 10 years ago. Dd now 16 gets £7:50.

@FlounderingFruitcake well in my neck of the woods they don't. Min wage is average. That's why I said check childcare. Obviously I'd exodus £15/20 pH in London.

Are you joking? Most babysitters are registered, trained, childcare professionals being trusted to look after a child. And you don’t think they even deserve minimum wage?

Our babysitter only charges minimum wage (I thought this was a bargain!) but I always tip her, more if it’s a Saturday night, and I give her a lift home if it’s dark. We only go out together a couple of times a year (our birthdays and wedding anniversary) as an extra fifty quid on top of a meal etc is a lot.

I’m sure you could find a local teenager to do it cheaper.

DD16 with First Aid and a DBS charges £9/hr.

I have always used sixth formers tbh.

It depends what you mean by babysitter. I used to look after 2 kids for a working day when I was an unqualified 17 year old, and got £40 (approx 1999). If I'm an adult giving up my own Saturday night then hell yeah I'd want about £50.

I would say around £15 an hour seems to be average based on the ones I’ve found and what I’ve paid.

£7 seems reasonable to a neighbour’s teenager though, that sort of thing. Depends on how you found your babysitter. I’d love to have a reliable teenager I knew as a cheap option!

South East. £10 per hour though now my teen will agree to babysit youngest for a flat rate of £20 for the evening.