Babysitting

[OneForNow]

I'm looking for opinions, one of my colleagues' daughters is going to be babysitting my 1 year old for a few hours (2 2 1/2 hours) on a Saturday evening (around 6-8ish). She's 16, super responsible and keen to do it. I'm wondering what the going rate is for babysitting? I don't want to under pay her at all! And since that's awkward timing, so I leave her some dinner? Like a pizza or something? What's the done thing?

How lovely!

I think the key here is communicating FIRST - see what she'll be happy with. I paid around £12 an hour for a 16yo with no qualifications (though I was around in the house, just working!) Qualified babysitters in my area average £18-20 🫠 I'd also leave a pizza in the fridge for if she wants it, and maybe have a few soft drinks in too.

Good shout! It's tricky because I'm 90% sure her mother will do the "oh you don't need to pay her" thing, but I absolutely do!

I'll add - I'll probably feed him his tea a bit early, so she'd need to give him some milk and put him to bed after an hour or so.

We pay £8 for our 16yo babysitter. I would round up/add a little extra for a short time frame though, to make it worth her while. A good babysitter is worth her weight in gold, you want her to want to come back!😂
Qualified babysitters are more like £15 an hour.
I'd leave some snacks, a pot noodle, little frozen pizza or something but not a proper meal.