How much to pay babysitter for an overnight?

[AS19]

We have 2 children aged almost 5 and 18 months, we have used a babysitter from nursery who was my oldest child’s key worker and is brilliant. We haven’t used her often but are really happy to leave the kids with her (youngest is now at nursery with her) and she has a fee of £15 an hour.

We would like her to do an overnight for us in the summer while we go to a wedding meaning she will be alone with the kids for just over 24 hours. She has asked us to suggest a flat fee just wondering if anyone has paid an overnight babysitter and what would be fair? We live in Surrey, she is well trained as does this for her day job and I don’t want to underpay her but equally don’t want to pay over the odds especially if we might do this again in future (we don’t have any family that can babysit). Thanks!

I would offer £250. Its minimum wage, which sounds tight, so you'll have to provide extra for meals, but based on the fact that it's a 24 hour run I think its worth her while.

£250 is fair.

I would charge day/babysitting rate from arrival until 12am. Then half rate overnight, 12am until whenever the children wake. Then day rate again the next day.

This is based on looking after children who sleep through.

I think £250 seems very generous and a lot of money for that!! Babysitting at £15 an hour is toppish but that's her giving up am evening for a small number of hours. For the whole day I wouldn't expect to earn that much per hour and think £150 would be quite enough unless your children are non-sleepers or otherwise very full-on.

We've still got a Sitters membership and where we live (also in Surrey) they suggest £11.25 per hour so £15 is a bit of a premium for someone you know.

I'd ask her what she suggests as it's something one of the others at nursery has probably done before for another family.

I used an overnight babysitter and she charged her hourly rate until midnight and then there was a flat fee from midnight until 6 and then hourly rate from 6am. I can't remember the amounts but something like £10 per hour plus £30 flat fee. Think it used to cost me about£100 in total but that was over 10 years ago.

Yes I’ve been discussing with my husband and we thought maybe £250 but that does seem like a lot of money! It would be fine for a one off but would probably mean we wouldn’t do it again. I also know the £15 an hour is the top end for babysitting but we’re happy to pay that for someone we trust and the children know. Both children usually sleep through although obviously if one of them did wake up it would be the babysitter in charge and responsible for them. I will ask her if she has anyone she can ask who has done it before, thank you.

That is a lot of money but then it is a lot of responsibility and with the children's ages they are more likely to wake up than say a 9 year old and 7 year old. However it is a special occasion and you would be reassured that you had someone excellent looking after them. I think your idea about asking them what others charge is good.

£200 perhaps? 12 hours at her normal rate then £20 overnight?

I would also offer money or choice of food you will get in plus £10 on the side in case she wants to take them out to the park for coffee and ice creams. It's a pretty high rate to start with

I've only paid for overnight once and mine were much older, (as in my dd cooked dinner, she was studying food tech gcse) we paid £300 on a John Lewis gift card (she had just moved) as it was a favour, was very grateful.

I'm a Childminder and have just gone through one of my Registered Childminder Facebook groups looking at what people charge for overnight babysitting. Generally speaking it seems to be £40 as a flat evening rate and then between £10-15/hour after midnight and then time and a half of their normal hourly childminding rate if it's the weekend (more for more children). However that's for more like 12 hours care and I suspect people would adjust that

Personally if it were me, for 24 hours I'd charge £10/hour and a flat rate of £40 between midnight and 7am. This works out as less than minimum wage.

I think between £200-250 is about right for 24 hours. However you say you're looking to do it again and £250 is too much. Why not say to her that you're not too sure and ask if £200 sounds reasonable? That gives you scope to offer more.

I think I might become an overnight babysitter... 👀 👀

If she is looking after the children for a full 24 hours, then this is a nanny job and not just babysitting (as in, listening out for children whilst they are sleeping). £15 per hour is a fair rate. I would do £15 ph whilst the children are awake (7am-9pm) and a flat rate whilst they are sleeping (£70)(assuming that they don't routinely wake during the night).

We paid £150 for a nursery worker to live at our house for about 25 hours while we went to a wedding - her suggestion. This was 5 years ago and my children were about 4 and 7. I think it’s reasonable to offer £200.

I also left lots of nice food for the babysitter, but she brought her own anyway.

Thanks everyone, it’s a tricky balance because I don’t want to underpay her but thanks for confirming it seems to be the norm that there is some kind of reduction for the overnight hours or a flat rate so I’ll take this into account. Hopefully it will all work out!

@AS19

just wondering if you did it? What did you pay? How did it go? Will you do it again??

Me too. Easy money.

it hasn’t happened yet but it is all booked in for July. In the end I suggested £250 and she agreed straight away so I’m hoping that was a reasonably good offer! If it all goes well I think we’d do it again but probably not until next year as the cost of that on top of a night away is a lot for us but as we don’t have any family options and never have time without kids it’s def something I would save for as a treat!

If I were doing this I'd hardly sleep as you will be worrying someone will wake up children know when things are different. It's also not like being off duty in your own home you can't relax.