How much would you pay for a weekend of babysitting in London?

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I used to be an au pair for a family living in a nice part of North London (zone 2) I moved out at Christmas but still see them often. They want me to babysit for a weekend at the end of the month, and I feel their offer was quite low.

It is a 7 year old girl and a 9 year old boy, a dog and a cat, from Saturday noon to Monday morning. Will be doing all meals, baths, taking them to their scheduled activities on Saturday and Sunday, and getting them ready for school Monday morning (difficult as I have my own job to get ready for).

What would you think the going rate would be? I know they tend to underpay me for babysitting as I used to live there and do sorta consider them family. But this is a full on weekend, and considering I already have a full time job it will be 12 days without a break for me. Just wondering what other mums would think is a reasonable pay for this in London?

I would say 8-10 an hour while the children are awake, and 50 for an overnight fee for each night.

How much have they offered you?

I'd like to see what other people would think is fair before I say what they've offered me, but it's much lower than that.

Id do it for £250.

Well I wouldn't consider it babysitting, it's proxy parenting. I think £250 is about right.

probably 250-275.
fwiw I also babysit for a family I used to be a live in nanny for, they always pay me 250 and its usually fri night-sun afternoon. the boys are 13 and 9 and hardly require any care for the 13 yr old, just a responsible adult in the home.

£300 I would expect, I'm NE London and often do overnight care x

£250-300

You might like to look at this old MN thread - it's four years old and is still talking quite high charges: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childminders_nannies_au_pairs_etc/1041964-Weekend-nanny-how-much-is-reasonable/AllOnOnePage

It seems to be reasonable to pay you your usual hourly rate during the day, then a lower overnight flat rate (say £50) for the time they are supposed to be asleep, so for yours, say 9pm to 7am.

Ok. They've offered me £150 for the whole thing and I thought that was quite low. They usually pay about £7 an hour for babysitting (which I know is probably below the going rate but I think of it as a friendly discount as I always make myself a meal when I cook for the kids and other little things like that that normal babysitters probably don't get).

I just can't help but feel this family sometimes takes advantage of me in situations like this, but I'm from Australia and they're the closest I have to family here.

Hourly rate not even covered at that cost (assuming 5pm-9pm fri, 9-9 sat, 9-4pm sun) let alone sleepovers (at £50pn min).

Adding in the overnights at your hourly rate as detailed above would come to £261.

That's too low, really. I don't know how you'd go about negotiating this without souring relations - are they the type who would accept that you are happy to do it below the going rate, but not that far below the going rate?

(And babysitters and nannies do usually get fed - or at least they always did in my house.)

They might be a bit sour with me. They've talked a lot recently about their finances not being great. However I haven't noticed a change in spending habits (none of my business obviously but something I've noticed).

Especially after reading the old link posted I'm definitely not happy to accept £150. I'm not an untrained au pair, my degree is in child development and I now work in a school. I just don't know how to say this without offending them.

I think you need to get them to see you not as the old au pair but as a more grown up nanny.

Au pairs aren't supposed to have sole charge over whole weekends!

Tell them that now you are more experienced and have your school job etc you are thinking something along the lines of nanny rates - but you would be happy to do it for a discounted rate of £250 (or whatever you would do it for).

It sounds quite hard work, and their offer is taking the piss.

Their finances are not your problem. If they can't afford to pay you a decent wage, they can't go. I get the feeling you're doing this as more of a favour to them too rather than that you're desperate for the cash? So there's no big need for you to take a hit.

ps I pay a 16 year old £7/hour to babysit

Maybe just say "it would be lovely to spend the weekends with the kids, however I would require payment that is closer to my normal daily rate, and a bit extra for the overnights. I am happy to come and childmind for weekend for £250, however, I wouldnt be able to it for £150"

Most agencies say around £150/24hrs and rates do vary depending on experience from£125-200/24hrs.

It's not far off being 48hrs n based on lowest rate around£250 for whole time would be reasonable

I asked for my regular rate during the day, and £10 per child flat rate after they go to bed (probably sleep about 9-10 hrs each) which means the whole thing would work out to £220 for them.

They said no. So have agreed to just do Sunday 8 am to Monday school run for my regular hourly rate plus the £20 night charge. Hmmm. This whole thing makes me feel weird though.

For a normal family I would charge 9/10 ph for waking hours and then 50 for overnight.

If it was for my previous family I would do it for 150 (or possibly less) I wouldn't be working for them in the way I normally work when I'm nannying though. I'd take it easy. I would also expect them to pay for any activities we did and would want to be able to have a fun weekend, maybe a cinema trip and dinner out or similar. I'd really just be hanging out with them so wouldn't charge anywhere near what I'd charge to look after children I didn't know in a house I don't know etc.