Babysitters

[couldtryharder]

We've always been lucky that my inlaws, who live relatively nearby, have been able to babysit for us. However they are not in the best of health and they are getting older, so we decided to check out some alternatives. One of the girls at their old nursery (the kids that is, not the inlaws) has told us that she babysits at a cost of £8 an hour. Although I don't think it's unreasonable to charge £8 an hour, it just means that a night out might now cost us £35-£40 more, which suddenly sounds like an awful lot before we've even eaten a bit of food, bought a cinema ticket or got a taxi home. Just wondered what others pay for babysitting and is it less if the teenager over the road type person does it that a qualified nursery nurse.

We too pay £8 an hour for one of the staff from DD's nursery. I know what you mean about it being expensive, and we only use her maybe once a month, if that.

A friend pays the neighbours' teenage daughter £5 an hour, and I definitely wouldn't pay someone unqualified more than that. (Once saw a student advertise in local shop demanding £10/h and thought 'you must be having a laugh'!)

We pay our babysitter a flat rate of £12 for the evening. It used to be £10 when it was just one dc. We aren't out late though so its for 3 hours or so only. We've had a succession of teenage girls (min age 15) who are always very local so no need to take them home. She reads the dc a story and then is just sat on the sofa. If your kids need returning to bed you may want someone with more experience. We are in the Midlands

Im looking at doing babysitting and will charge between £6-8per hour depending on location/requirements.

Im just a mature student whos is a mum of two looking to boost the family income.

Can you make you own baby sitting circle up? It's really quite easy to do and means the costs are kept down on a night out. My circle is made up of about 4 mums who I know and trust.

Mine are older now - indeed, the one is looking to get into a bit of babysitting herself but we were like tourdefrance and used teens.
Min wage for a teen is £3.82ish, so if you work on about £4ph, most will be very chuffed.
Fair enough for an adult, using her qualifications, to work into the night after a day at work, I can see that £8ph is reasonable, but, depending on your children of course!!! babysitting isn't generally hard work, just money for 'being there' after the first hour of reading acouple of stories and tucking them in.