To be down about no babysitting work ?

[ToSunshineAndRainbows]

I am really wanting to babysit but literally cannot find any work. I only charge £11 per hour , I am qualified and experienced in childcare but despite having all my profiles up on the main sites such as bubble and childcare I cannot find any babysitting work. I’m near London too. I’m thinking it’s either how I look (I am unattractive), my age (Almost 40) or the fact I don’t drive. Maybe all three ?

Have you thought of training to be a childminder?
I was never unemployed and picked my own hours.

I wouldn’t have a babysitter that I didn’t know. What checks do the site you advertise through do?

how would people know you don’t drive from your advert? If you have it in there, maybe make clear you will arrange your own transport. If you really think that’s an issue.

It’s very unlikely to be your looks or your age. I have never met anyone who would turn down a childcare professional because they were 40.

Have you tried your local FB groups. I would only use someone that's been referred by someone on there. And then I would check out their profile too. No driving isn't an issue for most of us. I think babysitting is one where referrals are the way forward. Try in your local area first. 11 is really reasonable, around here it's 18-20 an hour.

Have you got any reviews yet? I use Bubble regularly, and previous experience and greater maturity are plus points, but I wouldn't want to risk someone with no previous reviews (though logically I know that everyone has to start somewhere!). Can you babysit for a friend for free in exchange for an inital review?

Did you also register for "Sitters", OP ? That's where we tend to book our babysitters from.

The age and not driving thing wouldn't make a jot of difference to us when we book a babysitter. I only find out about the driving after babysitter has taken our booking and asks about the parking situation.

I am not in a position to be a childminder at the moment. I am working in a nursery currently but dislike it a lot.
I have three positive reviews on bubble app. They were all jobs I got back in the summer. I assume they were positive anyhow as my ratings are showing up as 100% and I got rebooked by one parent.
Bubble does background checks and I also have an enhanced DBS. Many parents on bubble post for morning care or afternoon pick up as well. It isn’t just evening babysitting where you just sit on the sofa and watch out for the kids. My prices are really quite low compared to others also. I do agree that people are cutting back with COL however. Maybe it is that and there’s little I can do but think of other options.

Sitters only take you on if you drive or live in certain areas which unfortunately I do not.
I’ve also got chatting to a few mums on FB who always say they are interested in adhoc care but 9 times out of 10 it comes to nothing.

I agree £11 per hour is a lot, we've had a teenager do it for less than that. It's a lot of money to pay on top of a night out.

As I say, I’m actually a lot lower than others and it isn’t just evening babysitting all the time either. Everyone has different expectations too. Personally I would never leave a child with anyone under 16. On my local FB page a mum tried getting her daughter babysitting work and the daughter was 16. Many parents replied saying no way would they leave their young DC with a teen. I appreciate if the kids are older that may be different but a lot of the families I view have kids under five.

Then it’s not that you don’t drive

... but if you think not driving is limiting your opportunities why not do something about that?

£11 an hour to mainly sit and watch TV.

I'd say that some of your problems are caused by this sort of attitude, tbh. Instead of people thinking "I'm paying someone to look after the most precious things in the world to me, I want them to be safe" they are thinking you're somehow mugging them off because you might watch a bit of TV.

I don't think £11 an hour is too much to pay for knowing my children are in good hands while I'm off enjoying myself.

OP have you tried local Facebook pages? I see a lot of babysitters offering their services on there and they always have a lot of replies (am also fairly near London)

OP I would tackle this 2 ways:

Firstly, a lot of people still prefer personal recommendations for babysitting. They don't want to leave their child with someone unknown (even if you have DBS checklists). So you want to try and build up your word of mouth recommendations. Do you have some families you currently babysit for or even friends and family you have done for a favour? Could you create a Facebook business page/instagram etc (post things like "ideas for activities to do with children") and get them to write reviews, share links to your page.

Secondly, do your nursery have a list of staff willing to babysit? Some nurseries are funny about this and won't recommend (in case something happens), but some do on a very much "we take no responsibility" if not get on that. We always use to get our children's key workers to babysit because we knew the children would settle with them. Don't be "shy" in mentioning you babysit if you can get into conversation.

Thirdly, get someone to look at your pages on the websites (preferably someone with children who uses babysitters) and ask them to honestly critique. Ask them to have a look at other people's profiles and ask what things they like on them that might them more keen to book them.

Once you've built up a few families you will be fine. It is just getting started which can be the hardest.

Also, as you've said £11 for babysitting near London is very much the lower end of rates. To be honest, any lower, I think you risk people wondering if you aren't very good or qualified.

We used sitters.co.uk recently and the lady was probably late 40s, experienced etc. I think she walked to our house. No issue with her at all.
But, as pp said, we really want to find local teenagers instead as it's a lot to pay for someone to sit on your sofa for a few hours

ETA that we paid £11ph but are outside of London

Completely agree with this.

We use my children's key worker from their nursery for babysitting. Qualified in childcare, DBS checked, experienced, familiar. And they charge less than you!

OP, do you hold a valid, enhanced DBS?

Regardless of what other people charge, £11 an hour is a lot of money and it adds up very quickly, especially when it's on top of a night out or work-related costs if it's morning/afternoon care.

I'm not saying to lower your prices, just that you need to be realistic about the industry you work in. It's one that's very easily affected by COL and it's not one that will provide you with any kind of steady income unless you offer something like childminding or nannying.

Babysitting is still seen as a job for teenagers or students who want to earn some extra money. It's the same with my industry (pet care) - people don't want to pay the minimum wage for an adult when they can get a 16yo to do it for a fiver. So you need to be realistic and find your "niche" as it were.

I wouldn’t want a teenager looking after my young kids and I would be happy to pay your rate, but I would find a babysitter from my local fb page, probably after asking from recommendations from local parents. I have never used a person unknown to me, and I would really struggle to tbh!

I would have thought the parents of the kids in nursery would ask, if anything and then of course you'd also get work from their word of mouth.

You're in competition with my dd, 15. She charges £5ph and tends to sit dc who are about 7yo. They adore her as big girl status in a way you can't compete with. It tends to be neighbours kids who know I, with my more experienced first aid knowledge, can be contacted by dd at the first sign of any issue. So for £6 more for every hour you would probably be able to deal with a bump to the head without a phone call to me and help two minutes later. For me, that isn't worth it, I happily paid teenagers their low prices when mine were small. I wouldn't have gone out of ah evening if it was going to cost me £60 before the night even started.

I'm not in London but am a little outside the M25, West Surrey. I'm just about to go out to babysit this evening, £11 per hour. So I think price wise you may be about right, though of course there are going to be teenagers who will get paid less... we were teenagers once and we got less back then. It does seem quieter than it was this time of year 20 & 30 years ago. It has been quieter for me the last few years... maybe age, maybe cost, maybe just that I can't be bothered to look for the work, who knows. I just use one childcare listing site now, plus Facebook local groups on occasion.

Did you post in the hope of getting lots of PMs of potential clients? People are telling you the problem, you're dismissing them and preferring to listen to pie in the sky types who swear blind they never pay a penny less than £500 an hour because children are the greatest gift of all.

Take note that if these people were your target market they would have booked you by now. It's not whether the product/service you're offering is worth it, it's whether people who need that service will pay it to you for that service at this point in time. Obviously that's not happening or you wouldn't be here.

You're not going to listen because you haven't listened to anyone else saying the same, but I'm just outside London in one of the most expensive parts of the UK outside Z1/2, and £11 an hour is not far off nanny money, certainly on Childcare.co.uk. I just wouldn't pay that for a babysitter who for my under 5's would start after they were in bed, and who isn't actually supposed to meet specific outcomes every session with my children or take them anywhere and who isn't paying NI/tax/insurance/car costs on top of that to do things with my kids. Or even talk to the children as they're asleep.

On top of that, even if that was the going rate (which it isn't), I don't have the money for that plus overpriced food/drinks so I accept that I can't go out in the evening, it's part of having kids. Many people around here have had mortgage increases of over £500 a month. They look like they're doing well from the outside but they're really not. They're not going out either and I can only imagine how much tighter their budget is than ours.

If I need extra childcare for any reason, I ask my childminder who is £6.50 an hour (and offers sibling discount) and make sure I only make plans during the day when she's available, or I do things I can take my kids to.

There are a lot of people in a similar boat, and £11 an hour is fantasy money for a babysitter in December 2023 unless you are established and have loads of warm contacts of wealthy parents who might want your services (which you clearly don't or you wouldn't be posting).

Why do you need to be physically attractive to babysit children?

Not sure why people are getting so agitated. Very odd.
I’m in London and that sounds a very low rate for a qualified babysitter. I often see people advertising from
£12-£20 per hour. Clearly there’s a market for it too.
Fine if you want to use a teen but I know many would prefer to pay more for peace of mind and wouldn’t put their child in the care of a teen. I certainly wouldn’t. No need to get so angry about it like some of you seem to be. This place is hilarious at times !

£11ph is not high for current babysitting charges..can be anything from £10-£15 in Glasgow now. If you don't like the nursery look into nannying, much higher wage and more hours. Much better than nursery work too.