How much do you pay your babysitter?

[Rumpel]

Never had a babysitter before LOL so clueless!
Have 2 dcs aged 3 and 20 months. We have an evening out and wondered how much to pay. We live in a city in Scotland and our sitter is 18.

Do you pay a set rate per hour, per evening and I would like to get her to sit occassionaly during daytime to let me get out.

What do you all do?

TIA

Does she have childcare experience?

A little - she is a very mature intelligent 18 yr old (smile) and lives in the same street. It will be herself and her older sis depending on who's available at any given time. Her big sis has a lot of childcare experience.

before or after midnight, will she be expected to put them to bed?

I'd say at least £5 an hour if it's in the evening when the children are in bed. In the daytime then at least £6.

My ds sometimes babysits from about 8pm til about 12 ish and will offer to put the child to bed etc .....he gets £20 plus lots of perks ie use of the dads extensive dvd and x box games,lifts anywhere from the mum and the dad and v good borthday gifts.

we'll be home about 10pm (out at 6)yes she'll be putting the dcs to bed. I've shown her the dvd collection etc and told her to help herself - also to food etc etc.

We sometimes ask the girl next door to babysit. She is 17 and her mum is a cm, so she has lots of experience. She sits for lots of other people in the street. Last time was a week before Christmas, we went out at 7.30, were back at midnight and we paid her £20. DS was 15 months, in bed when we left and didn't stir.

We sometimes ask the girl next door to babysit. She is 17 and her mum is a cm, so she has lots of experience. She sits for lots of other people in the street. Last time was a week before Christmas, we went out at 7.30, were back at midnight and we paid her £20. DS was 15 months, in bed when we left and didn't stir.

My DD babysits for next door neighbours and gets £8 an hour. I was when she first did it as she is only 15!!

She has babysat for them a few time and regularly gets £40 a night.

My best friend sometimes asks her to babysit and that pays £20 a night, flat fee.

DH thinks £10 per hour but I think that's too much! I was thinking £30 for the 4 hours?

I feel it's up to the babysitter to tell you how much they want to be paid.

For 4 hours, given her age, experience then I'd say offer £20 and see if she accepts... if not, offer £25.

As a nanny, it would cost £32 to have me to babysit for 4 hours. Mind you, I'm not near Scotland!

£30 for 4 hours sounds very reasonable - £10 an hour is the kind of money an experienced nanny makes.

Rumpel, £10 per hour is ridiculously high! I wish I got that when I babysat! I ask for £6 an hour, I'm 20 with stupid amounts of experience with kids for my age!

When I was 17/18 I used to get £20 for the night to look after one hyperactive girl!

Im a NNEB and id babysit for £10 an hour lol.

What's an NNEB? What's minimum wage these days anyway (no idea)?

An NNEB is a qualified nursery nurse .

I remember one new years eve,I was halfway through my first year of the NNEB course and a family with a newborn asked me to babysit.

So I did.

When I got there,there was a newborn .....3 brothers and sisters and 4 'friends' children all hyped up and running rampant later my little halfsister knocked on the door in her nighty -her dad had decided to go out and was dropping her off to me.

I had to sleep on the floor the settee was full of kids and got woken by all the parents arguing at about 4am when the tia maria had run out.

Later I went to my step sisters for lunch and had to peel 50l/b sprouts and amputate my left thumb doing so-she insists on the cross being carved in at christmas time .

Anyway this is turning into a very long story ....this was 1990 and I was 'paid' £2!!!!

nickschick . Before I had ds, I used to babysit privately sometimes (in surrey) for parents of kids I teach and I was always paid £10/hour. I never asked for it, that's just what they offered and paid. But I was a few years older than 18

They just took the mickey I think.....and I did the sprouts out of the goodness of my heart lol.

Before I had ds and when I was qualified I used to do it for about £5 an hour depending on situations etc-babysit that is not sprout peel .

Nickschick !

I thought my babysitting horror story was bad. Babysitting for my boss's friends with 4 kids and bosses child too (I normally looked after her anyway), two kids were in bed and the other two would be up. Easy as pie I thought!

Two older ones spent the entire time running up and down the stairs, went out on the freezing cold and wet trampoline, tracked mud through the house and were basically horrors, to be blunt. Woke up their siblings so I had to deal with them screaming for their Mum for hours on end whilst older two were smashing plates and glasses in the kitchen and trying to cut one anothers hair with these massive scissors. They also raided the fridge and fed their younger siblings god knows what that made them hyper active so had all four of them plus bosses daughter running around the house which, unfortunately, has every room downstairs linked in a circle.

The parents and my boss eventually came back, boss paid me my usual £20 and everybody turned to his mate expecting him to pay me something for looking after his four monsters children and he didn't even look at me

Cheap and nasty bastard. Didn't even say thank you That was when I realised that I should be setting a minimum per hour and per child if there are more than two/three children!

if you are happy to pay an 18yr with little exp £6ph then you may be better off going through sitters and using someone with lots of exp and prob qualified

i feel you need someone with exp as your children are so young, esp if during the day

rem nmw for an 18 is £4.83

i charge £10ph and have a minimum of 4hrs and im an old fart at 36 and nneb qual with 18 nearly 19years sole charge exp

When I was young (not that I'm terribly old) I had a first aid certificate and that was it and got around £20 an evening, then I started charging per hour at £5 an hour and now babysit for around £8 an hour, have a minimum booking period and max numbers of children.

I did, however, babysit for a neighbour as an emergency out of the goodness of my heart and was pleasantly suprised by the £20 she gave me as I just played scrabble with her DD2, chivvied her DD1 off to bed at 9pm and sat on her floor making wedding favours! I'd have had a more boring evening at home...

I'm a CM and mum of 2, I babysit for various aged children and I charge £6.50 per hour.

I'm in Surrey.

Hey Blondes, less of the 'old fart' at 36!!!!
What does that make me (40+) and I charge £10 per hour and £6.50/£8 to friends and regular on the doorstep bookings.
My 15 year old daughter gets £5 per hour.