What would you pay for extra care from nursery?

[Monkeybar]

I have to go away for 5 nights fro work in two weeks time, adn my husband will be working ridiculously long hours. I have asked at my ds's nursery if I can emoploy someone from there after the nursery closes to look after my ds until his dad gets home from work, which they are happy with. The supervisor lady said that she would be happy to come to my house after nursery and look after ds. I asked her what the going babysitting rate was and she said £6 per hour. She then said that her and another girl from nursery tended to do these things together, but that didn't mean paying them both. I feel that as they will be childminding until ds is in bed, then just babysitting after that, and especially as they will be sharing the money, that I should pay £8 per hour before ds is in bed and £6 thereafter. Is this reasonable, or being too generous? Should I pay them upfront for the time that I know they will be here for ie 2 hours per night at least, then settle the rest with them on my return? What would you do?

that sounds reasonable to me, although I wouldn't pay them upfront!

Thanks! Maybe will leave a stash of cash with the dh and he can sort that out with them on a daily basis

I wouldn't pay upfront, i never expect to be paid before i have done the work. That amount is around average i would think definitely fair but don't think too much about paying more because there are two. The job is more than capable for one person and that is all you asked for, it is their choice to share it. If you used a nanny agencie then it would be quite similar costs but using someone from the nursery must give you peace of mind that they area bit more familiar to you. Good luck

The familiarity is important to me, mainly because ds is only 13 months and I know that he is used to these girls and that they are able to settle him to sleep etc. I see what you mean about them choosing to share the job and therefore the payment, but personally I feel there is a big difference in terms of effort between entertaining an awake child and sitting watching someone else's telly and drinking their tea while the child sleeps, so would just feel better paying a bit more for those 2 hours.