£5 an hour to babysit!!!!!!

[FlusteredFairy1]

I am gobsmacked that a mum (not mb) thought she could get me to babysit at £5 an hour. I often do it cheaply (not that cheap though) with meal included for 2 local mums. But £5 was taking the proverbial. I am not greedy and charge £6.50 - £8.50 depending on location. I get loads just from these two as they can go out more often. I love nannying which is full on and babysitting is sitting usually !!!!! So therefore smaller fee. Any thoughts?

For those age children you could have care in day for 2.40 each an hour here with 3 full meals and trips to cinema, parks etc.

Are care centers open for casual babysitting though, including evenings? If so, that would be the obvious option for most parents. If not, they would simply have to pay any available babysitter what they are asking. As a 'customer', they also have the right to shop around for the best deal too.

100s of babysitters here for 3 or 4 quid an hour. Degree or nvq 3/4 qualified, first aid, child protection, years of experience.

Melissa - where do you live? Ie in London it will cost prob £5 for someone to get there and back. So £12 for 3 hrs is only £2 per hr profit! Most people I know who babysit here are nannies. With several degrees, up to date qualifications and first aid, with day to day experience of being alone with 1 child or more. so much more qualified than nursery manager, who usually works in a team so rarely alone having to manage a few children as have other staff to assist.
You wouldn't like new year here in London, most nannies I know charge £15 per hr normally, and triple rates New Year's Eve ie £45 an hr. Most are already booked by January for the following new year

Nannies charge 7 an hour here as my friend is one. We are in the south. All the nursery staff have 2.1 degrees and above if management. They are usually responsible for 45 children and a team of staff. I will rip you hand of for a fiver as such easy money!

I earn 7 an hour for managing team of 8 with 45 children. I have to write reports for social services and attend core group meetings as well as many other professionals. I have a 2.1, first aid, 2 nvqs, child protection, forest school leader, ecdl, all rsa typing qualifications, gcses, foundation and modern apprentice etc etc. I am well paid for what I do imo.

I don't think I would do anything for £5p/h hahahaha I'm not 14yrs old, and I don't need £20 that badly. I'm always being asked to babysit at £7.50p/h, and yes I think I'm worth more than a nursery managers wage. (They are paid appallingly btw)

When it comes to extra hrs babysitting, you get what you pay for.

Depends where you are I have enough for mortgage, car, 2 foriegn hols, 2 uk ones a year on that income with dh on roughly same

London, nannies paid approx £13 gross +. Nursery teachers less. It's always been that way.
45 children / 8 staff, plus manager is 5 children each. However if one is sick, or needs extra help staff can assist and add one to each group if needed, usually in one location in nursery and just childcare.

Nannies could also have 5 children to look after, but all aspects of care from education, hospital trips, travel abroad whilst caring for them in foreign places, huge age ranges, household stuff related. I have been a nanny, full time is 60+ hrs, 4 children, x2 spherical needs, foreign travel, care overnight etc. I have x2 degrees with firsts and a post grad, plus all child related stuff and medical extras. I'm afraid I don't work for less than x amount. Always been full

You don't live in London then! Haha

The rates of pay here reflect the higher cost of living. My neighbour sold their one bed flat (no garden) for £350,000 last month!!!! So no £5p/h jobs for me!

I think in general you get what you pay for.

We have two Dc and one of them has some additional needs which means I would definitely not feel it appropriate to leave hi. With a teenage babysitter, also my eldest feels a bit nervous just having us out of the house.

We pay around £10 per hour to one of the senior staff members at DC's nursery ( what we actually pay is a flat rate of £50 but we are usually gone around 5 hours).

The two people we use are both degree level educated in child are, and know our youngest very well and I actually feel confident leaving him with them ( over and above my own Mum!). So it's worth it for us.

My friend does 4 children overnights all aspects of care for 7. She has had tube fed children before and got same rate

Just to add that I have never felt ripped off by childcare, can't get my head round people who koan that nurserys etc should be cheaper!! I want the people,looking after my kids to be as well paid and motivated as possible!!
Nit to day it's not a challenge meeting the cost but that's life.

£5 an hour is more than many childminders charge for looking after your children (when they are wide awake and active and need feeding and changing) and jumping through all the Ofsted hoops to boot.

minty yes you're right, except childminders, and I'm one, charge per child, so I have 4 children a day, effectively for £20p/h (obviously from this I have expenses and buisness costs) a CM never has one child a day, that's a nanny, and as already said they can charge up to £15p/h

ACM88 yes, I know all that, but I was just making the point that childminders charge an incredibly low rate for minding children and yet people still moan about the cost of childcare! I mean, how little do they think they should spend?

I earn roughly what you do without having to look after 4 children all day every day! I take my hat off to you.

Yes so true, parents wants great quality childcare, for less than they would pay a dog sitter!

Artandco - It depends where you are. Nursery work here is a lot more skilled than minding children as it is dealing with children with such varied needs eg age 4/5 in nappies, cant use cutlery, cant talk, sexual abuse, neglected, emotionally abused and all the way up to teens. They will try and beat you, swear at you, bite you etc. I would say 70% of the children I have cared for have had 1 or multiple of these.

My dd 16 got £5 an hour but that was because it was only 1.5 hours a week. For a lot more hours she would have got less per hour IFWIM.
She has just been offered a 4 hour a week job doing respite care for a little boy she has known for a long time for £10 an hour (we think she hasnt actually started yet but that was the figure mentioned)

My DD (17) gets £10 for the evening so 7-11pm kind of time. She has lots of experience of all ages including from newborn and has done overnights too, including getting children up and to school. She is fantastic with children and does lots of other things with them too (Rainbow leader, teaches guitar, etc.) She doesn't have a first aid qualification though.

We live in a small town in the North East and people here won't pay more than that.

Seems reasonable to me - that would be £20 for a whole evening which is what I would expect to pay.

Yes so true, parents wants great quality childcare, for less than they would pay a dog sitter

No, they don't. They want childcare that isn't going to make them bankrupt. Dog sitters cost £10/day round these parts. Nursery is £35/day. Average wage for full time work is £22,000.

Nobody is going to pay more than £5/hour for a babysitter.

duchese

Have to disagree unfortunately, I babysit for £7.50p/h (sometimes £10) and I am asked to babysit on average 3times a week, for 4+hrs at a time. I'm in NLondon.

If someone wanted me to babysit and said they would only pay me £5p/h I wouldn't do it. If you are happy for an unqualified 16yr old to babysit you, then £5 is ideal, but not for someone who is qualified, experienced, and older.

During the day I CM, I charge £5p/h, per child, and I am constantly full. For this I provide meals and activities, and yet some parents still ask if I would charge them less per hour, my answer is always the same, if you can find outstanding childcare, by an experienced professional, by all means use their services, but my fees will not be decreasing. Same goes for my babysitting fees. Quality costs.

You made my point quite clearly in your post, dog sitters cost £10, but you would only pay £5 for a babysitter- it astounds me!

Just to add, your point about nursery fees, you may be charged that, depending where you are in the UK, but nursery nurses aren't paid £35 per day, they will work on average 9hr shifts, for minimum wage, which depending on their age,could be £6.30p/h. So to do evening babysitting for £5p/h sounds very unattractive to most.

£10 per day
£5 per hour

There is a difference.