Lovely girl to look after dc on very occasional basis, should I pay her when she comes to get to know them?

[MinkyBorage]

I guess I know I should, but I know she'll refuse, so I wanted to check I wasn't being ott in insisting.
Also, what do you think is a reasonable pay for her.......guess that's another thread!

I usually invite babysitters to come and meet the children and have a cup of tea and a chat.

They usually stay an hour at the most and I don't offer to pay them anything.

It's kind of like a very informal interview and you don't get paid for going to interviews.

I was offered a job and then I went and visited for a couple of hours and just generally helped out. I was paid.

if you have already decided to give her the job, get her to come for a couple of hours and pay her.

If its an informal interview then don't pay. If she already has the job and is getting to know the children then yes definatly pay her.

For the first extended interview, no
for settling in sessions, yes
I pay £6 an hour - a friend pays £5