£20 a night?

[Silverbook]

How much would you pay for a school pupil to stay in your house while you were away on holiday? Main responsibility is to feed the cat. What’s reasonable?
We were thinking £15-20 but it’s divided the room with half thinking that’s too much and the other thinking not enough.
I’m reaching out the the MN wisdom and the decision here will be final.

Why do they need to stay over to feed the cat?

How do you know this 15 year old? A relative? Are they super responsible? I’d spend my holiday worrying about them!

I've done this for people whose dogs can't be left, on an informal basis. I've been paid £20 a night. I've done light housework and a basic shop for when they get home. As asked, is the parents fully onboard and will they take responsibility for their teen, even when in your house?

My son has done this for friends (even - shock horror - at age 15) and they paid £20 plus provided food. Otherwise quite a big chunk of his earnings would have gone on food from the small expensive local shop/deliveroo. That included walking dogs though. For cats £15 is probably fine.

I did this for a friend when I was about 18 or 19. If was great. My sister stayed with me for company. The friend had a nice flat in central London near the tube with lovely pets.
16 or 17 would be fine, depending on the individual teen, the location of the house and what support is available.
Lots of people move out at 18. If the teen is sensible and responsible and has level headed support on the end of the phone and animal experience it's probably fine.
I guess £100 for the week?

Are you mad? Your house will be trashed or burnt down. Out the vat in a cattery for peace of mind.

Surely a better option is a local cat sitter to visit twice a day, especially given you'd have to buy food for the entire duration

15 is to young for ten days. Really irresponsible of you op. Your house will be trashed, or they won't cope.

Presumably not your own child. I wouldnt have a 15 year old stay overnight. They will be bored after a few nights.

You need to get a paid pet sitter, its just part of the cost of having pets in afraid.

15 is not too young to stay home alone! Mumsnet is crazy. No wonder so many teens suffer with anxiety over every little thing if their parents don't leave them home alone at 15. That's ridiculous. My 13-year-old loves having the house to herself and can cook, walk the dog, get herself on places on public transport etc.

There are organisations such as trusted house sitters where people stay in your house for free and look after your pets in return for the ‘free holiday’ lodging.
At 15 a weekend maybe okay but 10 days is a long time, do they need to stay or could they just pop in to feed / play with the cat in which case £20 is fine.

I'm assuming that this 15 yr old lives nearby so will have parents loosely available / be able to pop home and back again as appropriate. I think £20/night sounds very reasonable.

Why do they need to stay there? That would give me nightmares. Surely they just need to pop in to put new food and water down.

Yes, I'm assuming this as well, not that it's just some random.

Put the cat in a Cattery or pay a professional house sitter.

I'm with the majority here and think that 15 is way too young to leave in your house for 10 days!!! Why can't they just pop in morning and late afternoon to feed the cats?

I wouldn’t have a 15yr old staying in the house alone for 10 days just to feed the cat. A teen won’t want to be alone in the house for that long so I’d be worried about their friends turning up and things getting out of hand.

As a comparison, I paid my friend’s son (15yrs) £150 to pop over and feed the cats and chickens and clean out the chicken coop daily for 10 days last summer. They’re farmers so he’s used to looking after animals and is very responsible. He even cut the grass and watered the tomatoes in the poly tunnel although we hadn’t asked him to do that, so that was a lovely bonus.

Jeez! 15 is too young to stay alone for 10 days ffs. Get a cat sitter to come and feed the cat twice a day and pay them the going rate. Its no that expensive, Here is London its15quid an hour to pop over and spend an hour with the cat.

My granddaughter and her boyfriend are staying in our house for a week while we are away, they are looking after our 3 cats. We are supplying all food, drinks, wifi, netflix, amazon etc, I was thinking £200 between them, they are both in their 20's. Does this seem fair?

DD gets paid £10 a day just to pop in and feed friends cats / check on them/ give them some attention. She’d expect more if she was asked to house sit too though (not sure why it’s necessary though???).

This. And I wouldn't let my 15 year old go and do it for someone else.

I would however suggest they pop in a couple of times a day.

A 15 year old alone in a house with no adults at all for 10 days! That sounds like a terrible idea. Just get a cat sitter to come in and feed the cat once a day.

I'd pay them £20 NOT to come and stay in my house! This is an insane idea, they are a child.

Just get a cat feeding service!

What? Did you not read the thread?

How much extra should he get for remembering to shut the doors and windows, turning the oven off, not flooding the house?

£20 is fine. But I’d want the 15 year old to have adult back up. I’m guessing this is a relative?