How much do you pay your babysitter?

[Lonelymum]

I know this depends on where you live, so let me give you a comparison. Where I live, it is standard to pay a childminder £3 an hour per child. My neighbour's 16 y/o daughter occasionally babysits for us but we have never agreed a rate of pay and I don't know what to suggest. The trouble is we have 4 children, one of whom is only 15 months. Do you pay a babysitter more if they are looking after 4 children than you would to look after, say, 2? Do you pay less if the children are in bed before the sitter arrives? How much do you think would be appropriate? If we had to pay £3 an hour per child, as we would a childminder, we would never be able to afford to go out! And yet our sitter is very competent for her age and seems to manage very well at bathing the children and putting them to bed. I really don't know what to pay. I don't think she sits for anybody else so can't ask her what she is paid by anyone else, and when we asked her how much she expected, it embarrassed her and we got no clear answer. What do you think?

When I used to babysit eons ago, I used to get paid a straight rate no matter how many kids or whether the kids were in bed or not. However, if you feel that babysitting your four, including the little one, deserves a higher rate than the local average, I think it's fair to pay a bit more. What about £4 an hour? I don't think she'll be expecting an amount per child - that would be highly unusual and you wouldn't even pay a professional babysitting service that amount!
hth

I'd be prepared to pay a sitter £5+ an hour for 4 kids. Although I have to say that I'm not sure I'd feel confident about leaving a 16 year old responsible for 4 children, but that's just me.

And yes, I'd up the amount for an increased number of kids.

Lonelymum, tbh I think a 16 year old would just be glad of extra money for clothes, going out etc. As babysitting involves mostly nothing more than spending a bit of time with the children and then sitting in front of the tv eating biscuits and drinking all their coffee! I do think £3 an hour is a fair rate. If your babysitter had to work in a job she would have to a lot more for her money than sitting in someone's living room for a few hours.. If she does 4-5 hours I would agree to £15 (because she wouldn't get £12 an hour in the real world) and if she did that for a couple of nights a week then £30 is a lot to a 16 year old.. If you think that is to little agree to £20, but really babysitting is supposed to be something you do for someone so that they can go out and enjoy themselves and not spend more money on babysitters than the night out itself (£4 max!! an hour I would say)...hope some help btw

I'd say £5 an hour is fine. Or fix an amount for the whole night (not on hourly basis), ie £15 - £20 for the night or whatever. I think if you pitch it to her as a lump sum rather than an hourly sum, you'll be able to get away with paying slightly less !

Message withdrawn

I know it must sound bad leaving four children with a 16 y/o but we do it very rarely (last time was when dh was away and I needed to attend a school meeting). We have never been more than 5 minutes drive away. And her mother is next door and she is a qualified childminder.
Oops - I am not sure we have been paying her enough!

Why don't you have a word with her mum and ask her what she thinks is reasonable? Say you don't want to underpay her daughter but neither do you want to end up paying so much that you can't afford to have her babysit!

I suppose insofar as we have a rate, it has been £3 an hour plus a bit, so that nearly 3 hours would be paid £10.
I find it hard to weigh up the argument that a teenager would find £10 for watching someone else's tv a good deal, against the thought that you are asking them to bear the huge responsibility of caring for your precious children.

If the girls' mum lives next door and has qualifications, then my qualms about leaving her with them would fade significantly !

Thanks NDP. You have made me feel better about my choice of babysitter. If I didn't use her, I would only have other teenagers to ask.

Sorry, lonleymum. It really wasn't my intention for my original post to sound preachy or critical. I was just thinking out loud !

We pay £3ph as rough guideline. Couldn't afford more really. We have three (though baby still comes with us mostly unless my sister babysits).The young girl we've used is more than capable and very responsible. Our kids are usually in bed before we go though not asleep. I think she's been glad of the extra pocket money.
Having said that, I realize that any of you who live in London and perhaps other big cities will more than likely be paying more. Many professional babysitters/nannies won't do it for less than £6ph!! Astronomical - glad we moved out!

I pay Eu 5 per hour (not sure what this converts to), for an au pair, aged about 20, to look after our 3 kids. I always round up to the next hour, even if we are only 5 mins late. We got home at 11.30 last night and our babysitter was going to go out clubbing!!! Oh to be young!

We pay our holiday childminder's daughter approx £5 p.h. We used to pay DD's keyworker that to babysit when she was in day nursery and TBH I remember feeling that some parents i babysat for (as a teenager)really took the P**s. Babysitting is actually pretty dull and there is no way you can really just relax and watch someone else's TV.