How much should I offer a 17 year old to look after 3 children?

[OnEdge]

There is a lovely girl who's mum looks after my DD (3) at play group. She is doing some sort of child care course at college. My daughter thinks the world of her and she is keen to baby sit. I also have a 17 month old and 1 week old. I would like to her to take them outside to play for 2-3 hours. I would be in the house in case I was needed for any problems.

How much should I offer her? I have no idea.

I don't know... I recently visited a friend about 2 hours away and saw quite a few girls about 16-18 years of age, pushing newborns -maybe their own or nannies? Assumed their own.

I'm late to post but when I was 17 I babysat a lot and would occasionally be asked to take the children out for a few hours during the day. If it was cold, the parents sometimes gave me an extra few quid and I'd take the kids out to play, then to a local cafe or similar for a hot chocolate to warm up, play again, then head home. Stretched the time out beautifully.

Oh and I got about £5 an hour and this was in west London.

While your grounds and local area sound lovely, I don't think that a 17 year old should be given responsibility for three children of the ages you have mentioned.

She may be fine with them while all is going well, but might not have the judgement to know what to do when something goes wrong.

I would have to say I agree with the others and that looking after 3 children of those ages is a HUGE responsibilty and not something I would ever contemplate entrusting to a relatively inexperienced 17 year old, no matter how lovely or trustworthy I knew her to be.Also no matter how close to home she is , she is still out and effectively in sole charge of 3 very young children.
I have 6 kids, some only 18 months apart, and have at times had little ones of those ages, and going out with all 3 of them, has been extremely chalenging, even for a relatively experienced Mum!
Also 3 hours sounds an incredibly long time for a 1 week old to be away from his/her Mum.
I can understand you must be shattered, but could you not possibly have a nap with the baby whilst she took older dc out for an hour or so ?? or else let her play at home with older dc whilst you sit and relax with the baby for a bit?

Overflowing - hope you dont mind me being nosy, is thAT 6 of your own? or are you a CM?

Agree you're asking a lot of a young girl to take out three little children including a newborn! My ds was feeding more frequently than three hourly at that point, and I wouldn't have trusted a babysitter to take him out for hours on his own, let alone with two toddlers to watch too.

I would let her take the oldest child out, possibly the middle one too, not sure, but certainly not all 3.

That's just me.

MJB66 - yep that's 6 of my own!! They're now aged 12,11,8,6,4 and 2. Never a dull moment round here LOL