How to be a babysitter

[chelle792]

Probably a silly question in the scheme of things.

I am a qualified teacher (no longer teaching), nearly 29. Just after some additional cash doing some evening babysitting.

I don't really know any families apart from those I work for (I'm a tutor). Any tips on how to find families who are after babysitters? I've signed up with childcare.co.uk but don't want to become a premium member for something as ad hoc as babysitting.

I think there is an agency called sitters that provide baby sitters for families. I don't know anything else about it and I guess how many families/work you get from it depends where abouts you live. You could put adverts up, drop flyers through local doors. Once you have one family word of mouth would help, but it's hard to get that one family I guess.

sitters.co.uk I use them. It's good income top up however their suggested hourly fees are rather low. Register with them but also look for work yourself.

Register yourself on childcare.co.uk
I'm a childminder and have no end of job offers for babysitting jobs on there

You can try advertising in local cafes/libraries etc. Gumtree can be good if you are in London. Sitters hourly rate is probably too low for it to be worth it for you.

Look for jobs gumtree and advertise on gumtree.

A ask the famlies you tutor for if they need a
babysitter.

Have ask at hotels.

Thankyou all for the tips. Interesting about sitters. Do you think I would be able to charge £10ph?

I think I'm going to subscribe to childcare.co.uk. Have also mentioned to some of the families I teach but it felt a little cheeky. Never mind, hey. They've mostly said that they will spread the word

I hate being so broke that I have to babysit to help pay my bills.

Hi op. I do babysitting and charge £8 per hour. Some people do have a moan and say it's too much but I am not short of families so do not worry about this. I am only charging what the going rate is. If they want an unqualified teenager then that's fine by me, we all have to start somewhere.

I use a variety of methods, mainly word of mouth through my job. But I also use childcare.co.uk. you can pay for 1 week. so wait until you find a good few families then pay and message them all. I think this is better than sitters as sitters you don't get paid as much. If you charge between 8 and 10 pounds then you've already paid back the subscription fee with 1 hour of babysitting. it's hard to get started but once you start then it should get easier. January has been a quiet month but I have some work lined up in feb. Good luck

Hi @chelle792 and all- Hope this helps...we are a group of parents actually launching an app for babysitters
The app is called Gemesitter and we are recruiting babysitters with 2 -3 years of experience in babysitting, references (and DBS certificate even better). There's no agency fees or subscription fees and we are offering to waive the joining fee to the first 300 babysitters. Please if you are interested you can email us : [email protected]

I think £10 an hour is pretty steep for babysitting, though you might end up getting close to that by people rounding up, depending on where you live. I am in the home counties and pay my babysitter £8 an hour (which she told me was the going rate). If she comes for 2 hours I will usually just give her £20 though, as it seems a bit stingy to be counting out the change. That said, as I do round up for her habitually, I wouldn't feel the need to pay more if, for example, I had said 2 hours but arrived home 15 minutes late.

How about posting on MN local or NMs?

£10/hr I feel is too expensive as well. I won't pay more than 8.

In terms of what you charge, you are self employed as a babysitter, so you'll be paying tax etc on this sum. £10 p/h sounds about right in London. We pay our babysitter £8 but we are in Wales and she is employed by us so we pay tax and NI.

Hi all, thankyou so much for your input.

I live in Hampshire so not sure if £10p/h is ok here.

I'm already self employed so, yes, it would be declared. I am a qualified teacher and currently work tutor and also work in the holidays managing a kids camp. Am DBS registered, first aid trained and also volunteer for children's services supporting families.

Not sure if any of this makes any difference. I've just signed up to childcare.co.uk so will see where that takes me.

Thankyou

Oh yeh, I forgot to say. I had an interview arranged with sitters but cancelled it as the woman on the phone sounded so disinterested and a little rude that I got too scared couldn't be bothered to meet her