How much would you pay this sitter....

[ChangeNameLikeIChangeSocks]

This is inspired by a lot of threads in which people talk about the cost of a babysitter.

It's 1998/1999, you have a 13 year old son and you want to go 300 yards down the road with your husband every Sunday evening for a 2.5/3 hour drink at the wine bar.

You will put him to bed before the sitter comes, usually, though he might still be hanging around. He won't need to be tucked in though, he will put himself to bed on those occasions, he is 13 after all, he's an only child.

The sitter is a 15.5 year old girl. Her 18 year old sister used to do the job but has gone on to uni so suggested the younger girl take over.

It's an easy job. She'll be dropped off by her parents, then sit on the sofa from 7-10, watch TV or do her homework on her lap. At 10 she'll be dropped home, half a mile away. By your dh. You'll leave her a crunchie or a double decker, and she can help herself to water.

You leave her wages on the table every week without fail.

But...

How much is in the envelope?

Hint: according to the BOE inflation calculator, money then would be about twice as much in today's prices - bit less, so add if you're paying her in 1998/9 money, or today's money, iyswim.

I do not think the 13 year old boy or 15 year old girl would be comfortable with this set up, surely? Embarrassing all round.

I was getting 50p an hour circa 1980 so £1 an hour for the dates OP gives. I also got left considerably more than a Crunchie or Double Decker. I could sink a bottle of Ribena in an evening so a new one was bought ready for my arrival, selection of biscuits and usually some homemade cake. If it was an early one supper would be offered. Coffee and tea, when I was older I was told to finish up the open bottle of wine in the fridge. In return the children would be tucked up in bed so I had little to do but study for my exams, watch TV and play the parents record collection. I amused myself by making the children something out of Lego for them to find the following morning.

Used to get a tenner

I used to get a fiver a night for baby sitting, 7 ish to maybe 11 or 12ish depending how long it took and she'd walk me to the end of my road then watch me till I got to my door.

This would have been mid to late 80s

Although back then nobody (well nobody I had ever heard of) was being babysat at 13. That was the age you'd start doing the babysitting.

And I just realised you wrote 98 not 88. 🤦
God knows then. Tenner maybe? Were younger teenagers being babysat by slightly older teenagers in the late 90s?

Late 80s I babysat a lot, for 4 kids who lived round the corner - I got paid £1 per hour! Even the night I had to deal with a child who puked everywhere - bed, floor, stairs, me.

15 years ago we paid around £10-15 for an evening, more recently my kids have been paid between £5-10 an hour, but they are adults not teenagers.

I'm surprised they bothered with a sitter for 2-3 hours for a 13 year old in 1999.

My dd was actually paid the princely total of £5 (7-12 midnight) about 5 years ago, and with a difficult argumentative child, who was allowed to stay up. Parents owned 3 houses, and rented them out, and both worked full time.

She was always too busy for babysitting after that!

In 2004, I used to pay my 15 year old babysitter £5.50 an hour

This is my point, it's quite different now. I could afford to add £60/£80 to a meal out with dh.

I did this a lot in 1995 - £5 for 7pm till 1ish. £10 is her mates kids were also there.

Got better food tho - not just water

It's not just about inflation though it's about how people's attitudes towards childcare has changed. People value it more now.

In 1997 ish I used to babysit for about 6 hours every Saturday and get about £40 as they were always plastered when they got home!! I did do a good job though, did the dinner, put the kids in bed, didn’t mind when the parent got home a couple of hours late etc etc.

I don't know. The lady wanted a sitter, and I wanted some money. He was young for his age.

How young for his age?!

I think most self respecting teens would refuse to have a babysitter so close to their age.

I guess if he had some kind of disability maybe it was different

Also there was no hanging out 😆

I can't retrospectively put a behavioural age on him. I have no idea if he would today be classed as ND.

In any case, he was usually in bed.

He went to bed at 7?

I think you're right, though I did try to get a teen sitter (17) for my ds once and my friend (who had used her before) told me I should bung her £100. We just stayed home.

He may have been reading in his room for a bit before switching the light off. I presume his mum wanted to spare me having to tell him to go up to bed, so she put a routine in place.

This is what makes it weird though - if you think your 13 year old is too immature to be on their own, you need a babysitter who can exercise some authority over him and someone almost the same age isn't likely to.

It sounds like she knew that and that's why she wasn't putting you in a position to order him off to bed but at that point why even have you there?

It's a weird situation.

@WoollyRosebud That sounds like a nice set up :-)

I don't know, though the original girl would have been about 5 years my senior, then the job was passed down.
My sister stopped quite abruptly and suggested me, so the mum went with that.

She knew I was in y11 so I could have been 16 already; I wasn't asked for my d.o.b and I'm a summer baby.

Sorry but I think you were neglected - you probably could leave a 13 year old for a couple of hours but 3-4 days is a bit too far!

In the late 1990s I used to babysit for 2 kids who were in bed most of the time, £15, money for a pizza and control of the sky box with sky movies which was my favourite part. The longer they were out the better in my eyes then as I got longer to watch the good films haha