The hourly rate for babysitting

[Rubberleg]

Dear all,

I am a 40 year old woman babysitting for a child. The child is also my god-daughter (although that was a recent adjustment). I am having trouble figuring out how much I should charge for babysitting. I have offered to do it for free in the past but they quite rightly said I should be paid. Therefore, how much do you think I should be charging? Does anyone know if there is a set wage for evening babysitting?

regards

I imagine it depends where you are, Rubberleg. I'm in London and we last paid around £8/hour. I'm sure you'll get a range of responses, tho!

Thank you. And good point, I am based in the south east, near Brighton

if it's your godchild I would suggest a token amount rather than usual pay rates tbh.
eg suggest they just give you a tenner or get you a nice pizza in.

Depends on area/ until what time/ if discount as friends etc

I'm a professional nanny. I live in central London and charge £12 per/hr before 11pm and £15 per/hr after 11pm. I charge triple on New Year's Eve and have always been full and had to refer to other people I may know

I have a 15 year old that baby sits for me and she said she charges £4 an hour but I usually round up to around the £5 p/h ish mark.

Gosh, I'm in a well-off city in E Anglia and I pay a teenager £5 an hour. If it goes past midnight I bump it up to £10. This rate is the same whether it's evening baby sitting when she gets her homework done or daytime when she has to play with/feed my children (they are 6 and 8, so not babies). She is fabulous. Am I being a bit mean? She's 16, very responsible, gets lots of work from me.

OP I'm not sure I'd want to charge the parents of my god daughter. Unless of course their motivation for making you god mother was purely in the hopes of getting free baby sitting out of you! If you weren't baby sitting this child, would you be at home watching your own TV, or would you be earning money elsewhere?

all good points. btw, i think the god-mother came in because they didn't want to lose me-

I do stuff with my god child outside of the b/ sitting realm that I iniate. And perhaps it is good to make that distinction

Seems like £7 p/h would a reasonable amount

Thanks guys- always on hand to solve those nitty gritty issues

it's the god daughter thing that is a difficult one.. if they have money and.U could do with some money, then.I would.say £8 an hour... If they haven't got much, maybe u cud suggest a nice meal, snacks, and a taxi home?

I charge £7-8 in Brighton for babysitting. Sitters and the like charge £6.50. I'm a nanny though, I know a lot of childcarers who charge a lit less though unfortunately :/

DD gets £7 p/h - we are in London (we used to pay the teenage babysitter £5 an hour only a couple of years ago!)

TBH the goddaughter thing is tricky - I don't think I could charge to sit for mine

£7 for an adult is ok. but it depends where and when. If it's normal evening babysitting then it sounds about right. My teens get £6 and £10 after midnight (always generously rounded up)

So nice to see people rounding it up. I once babysat for 3 couples with 11 kids, who had come on holiday. Through an agency. None of the kids woke up so was easy in that respect, But I did the 'rounds' at every add break, listening at every door. Large rambling house. Any way, at going home time the bill came to £42. All 6 adults scrambled round for change even tho one of them had a £5 note in their hand. I have 30 years experience and had driven over an hour to get there!!! And I bet the total of the cars in the drive would have been worth more than my house!!!

Rubberleg, it completely depends on you how much is your need. According to me 7-8$ per hour is good but now a day's people's don't prefers baby sitter as there are number of material available in market such as baby carriers to keep there baby with them self.

www.fertilemind.com.au