Babysitting - going rate in London?

[Flum]

Anyone know it or thereabouts?

we pay a 15 year old £4 / hour but usually round it up, so it's usually £20 every night out!

Ok thanks. Do you pay for a cab home? That would easily be another 20 quid i guess.

We use our nieces (late teens) and pay £5 + tube fare - or taxi if it's very late.

She lives around the corner so DH or I walk her home ( although have been know to drive her the v v short distance as well!) Would def pay for cab if they aren't local.

hi,

Sadly it depends where you live and where sitter lives. Also depends on sitters age and relationship to you ie; niece or agency etc...

I used to babysit in Hampstead, Primrose Hill, Regents park area £8 p.hr and taxi home. If I babysat local to me the rate dropped to about 6-7 p.hr and taxi home.

I suppose it would be in your best interest to have someone youngish -24 and local for economically sound costs!

We pay £6.50 per hour (use staff from dds' nursery) plus pay for taxi home if late at night.

Jeez 8p/h, 6.50 !!!!

Its my cousin but she lives Brixton, we are Spitalfields.

I'm gonna offer her 5 quid and see if she takes the bait. I can always put another worm on the line if she doesn't go for it.

It pays to have a stock of teenagers. We pay £4 p/hr.

The thought of a stock of teenagers conjures up a strange vision in my mind.

Is the word for multiple teenagers not 'rabble'?

Au-pairs are £5/£6 per hour. Nannies seem to be able to charge £8/hour, although I can't underand why anyone would employ them at that rate. I have managed to book babysitter for NYE for £7/hour.

Taxi home on top.

We pay our nanny £7.50 p/h but she babysits loads for other people and charges £8.50!

We pay our childminder £15 for a night out. PLus no cab as she lives around the corner. Reading this it sounds like a bargain!!

Although I am trying to cultivate next doors teenage daughters for the future!

haha,

Many seemed shocked and aggreieved by £8p.hr I know 'career nannies' in Marylebone and Chelsea etc.. who get their own flat, £500-600 p.wk clear and £10 p.hr babysitting. They work for diplomats and travelling foreign dignitaries etc... Its good money but in my personal opinion not worth it. Not that the nanny isnt worth it, but you are treated like the hired hand amd work every hour god sends. I'd prefer less and be a member of the family.

Wow. You guys pay how much?!?! I pay our live-in nanny an additional £4 for babysitting. But, I always give her a minimum of about £10 even if we are only out for an hour and a half.

But, there will soon be a whole barrage of mumsnetters knocking on my door with "slave driver" signs any minute now.

I'm going to stray from the topic slightly sorry, but I sometimes find it worrying that people are so downcast about childcare.

I have always enjoyed working with children, I didnt choose this line of work because I couldnt do anything else, or beacuse its easy or anything else other than children is what I enjoy, I always have.

Why shouldn't nannies deserve to make a career out of their chosen profession? As you all know our children are our all, we could lose our homes and re-build, our jobs and get another one but our children are the very essence of why we live. So naturally childcare is important. Why then are nannies almost in the cleaners and housekeeper department?! Its shocking.

We are an invaluable necessity for many families, in many cases doing what parents cannot! but its perfectly fine and respectable for the Tesco supervisor to work less hours and earn more than us? We are not brain dead, we too can supervise Tesco's but we prefer children.

It reminds me of the age old adage of the husband coming home from work and expecting his dinner on the table and him being mortified should it not be, suggesting that all his wife does is sit at home and play with the kids.

Except now women do it to other women, I have worked for heads of various tv departments and doctors and lawyers, that could not for the life of them discipline or control their children until the nanny arrives!

Lets face it your not gonna hear of the nanny that worked their way up to his or her first million, but it would be nice to not be bunched up with the maid, butler or cleaner!!!!

Granted I can fully appreciate that some people simply cannot afford to pay certain amounts for a nanny, but there's no need to be grudgeful and remark 'why would you pay a nanny so much?' My argument is why wouldnt you?

Tamula - I agree with you. I pay my cleaner £8 an hour yet pay the babysitter £6.50. There is no correlation in terms of qualifications/trust/importance of role IMO. Last Saturday, dh and I both had to be out of the house during the day, so the nursery nurse looked after both dds for 4 hours (dd2 was asleep for about an hour of that). When I got home, dd1 proudly showed me a small cake that the two of them had iced for me. All that and peace of mind for £6.50 an hour - bargain.

Tamula, I think nannying is a bit different to babysitting. To me babysitting is just that, SITTING!! ie would hope baby in bed and sitter not really needed. Therefore they really are doing nothing. I used to do it when I was a student so could study while there.

Now nannying is far more active.

People always complain about what they have to pay for everything. It doesn't mean they don't value it, its just that its difficult to pay 'staff' out of normal salaries.

I actually think the same duties for babysitting as for nanny aare fair game. But, babysitting tends to be just a few hours, which is far less taxing then a nanny who works 10 - 12 hours per day every day.

I think nannies are not so poorly paid. A lot of parents go to work and make only enough money to pay the nanny. If I havd a nanny who made £10/hour gross, and then I paid her taxes and mine on top of that, I would cost me more to go to work than I get paid. Somewhere people need to look at what families actually have left to live on after paying the childcare.

Also, if I had a choice of working as a maid or working a nanny, you would have to pay me a heck of a lot more to be your maid because I would HATE the work. Whereas I could enjoy being a nanny.

Tamula - did not mean to imply that nannies were in some way inferior. But we are talking about babysitting here, and frankly if all you are doing is watching the box and listening in case one of the babes wake up then why should we pay more.

Nanny wages etc are VERY high, and they work hard for them, but this does not apply to babysitters.

We have an au-pair who is very much part of the family. She babysits two nights a week as part of her contract, but should we need her to do more, we pay her £6/hr.

I'm a childminder who also babysits at night for another family.I play board games/colouring in etc. with the children before bed then I get them ready,read stories to the youngest and settle them down.Then I tidy up any mess we've made. I am responsible for their safekeeping until their parents come home.I drive home,don't ask for a taxi.

So I don't just sit watching TV and listening for a baby....

I pay our Au pair £4 hour for babysitting any additional nights.

I always put the children to bed and ensure they are asleep and make it as easy as possible for her. She does babysit for another family periodically, they pay her a flat rate of £10 - £15 depending on how late they are, she is usually expected to put the eldest to bed.

A friends nanny use to babysit for us and we paid her £10 - £15 depending on how late we were plus taxi.

I think choosing the right person to look after your children is extremely important. if it is nanny, cleaner, neighbour - but does,nt mean you have to pay more for the more qualified.

I agree with yuletide and also understand where Tamula is coming from.

If you use, for example, a friends kid/neighbour, someone who doesn't do it as living obviously you are not going to pay them loads. I am sure most of you use people you know and trust however I would never never my children with someone that does not have enough experience and maturity to take on such an important task.
Some of you have said that babysitting is easy and one doesnt really do anything but I would not take chances.
What if something happens? If your child has a convulsion or god knows what.. Looking after someone's children is an enormous responsibility doesnt matter if they spend all night in bed or not. You just never know and my kids are too precious to me to risk that.
I feel better knowing that whoever is 'sitting' watching telly is also mature enough and prepared in case of an emergency.
I was a nanny for 5 years and have come across so many horrible stories. Sometimes even the person you trust can let you down. Just a quick story to share, I had a friend who I trusted and recommended to a family. The mum was late one day and the nanny had to go so she locked the door and left the boy sleeping in his cot... I would never ever imagine that she could have been so stupid to that point!
Anyway, most of the time, paying more means you are getting a more qualified and experienced person.
I am teacher and do occasional babysitting for the parents, I charge £10/hr but always get a little extra, they feel their children are safe with me and that HAS NO PRICE or has it?
Just a little food for thought....

You realise this thread and all of the rates quoted on it are 6 years old?

where the hell did Kapaxiana drga this up from

and more to the point some were paying £5/6 6 yrs ago - wonder if they still pay that amount?

Oh believe me, the way some people see babysitters will never change and some parents do think more about how much they are paying than who their are paying it to! This is the main point I wanted to make..no I had not checked the date lol, bliss of search engines, brought me to this thread, but it is just to show that the topic is still current :-)