babysitters

Hello everyone
I'm looking into getting a list of potential sitters together so that my DH and I can get out once in a while...I was wondering how much do you pay sitters? Does it depend on how long you are gone, time of day, what they have to do with the babies ie no feedings etc....

 

WE have a nanny (while I work) and we also have a babysitter every other Saturday so we can go out. We usually go out around 7pm. The babies are already fed, the sitter just needs to put them in their crib at 8:30 (literally just that, we don't rock, sing, etc!!). WE don't stay out late just because we are past that stage in life and we are TIRED! We pay $10 an hour.

 

is that $10 per child or total?

 

The going rate around here is $7/hour, from what I hear. That's for a college age sitter.

 

When I need a sitter I pay $15 per child for one day..SO I pay $30 a day and that's from 7:30a-5:30p..But if we are just going out then it really depends on how long we are gone..I just kinda guessed on what to pay..I still dont know if that's too much or too little..

 

QUOTE(Tina Ross @ Jul 11 2007, 04:52 PM) [snapback]326188[/snapback]
When I need a sitter I pay $15 per child for one day..SO I pay $30 a day and that's from 7:30a-5:30p..But if we are just going out then it really depends on how long we are gone..I just kinda guessed on what to pay..I still dont know if that's too much or too little..


We pay $15 an hour for adult (post-college) sitters. I think that is pretty generous!! I got $10 an hour as a graduate student for 2 children 5 years ago...
When we leave for several hours, it adds up really fast - last Saturday night we paid our sitter $75 to sit and watch tv, because we put them to bed before she came.

 

We pay $10/hour in general.

 

We pay our friends nanny (an older lady) $12 an hour mainly because that is what our friend pays. I am planning to look for someone that I can pay $10 - I feel like that is more than enough when the kids are already asleep when they get here!

 

I pay $10 for a college student (Early Childhood Education) to only watch my oldest and occassionally the twins when I pick my oldest up at school (45 minutes or so) and $15 for my experienced nanny who watches the twins during the day. Evening hours (kids in bed) I pay $10 as well. That really seems to be the minimum here in the big city for everybody over 21. Experienced nannies and if they watch 2+ children it's often $13-15 an hour.

 

The teenagers in my neighborhood are getting $15 per hour, for evening type babysitting, not full time. We pay $225 a week, for Wed. 7:30 - 6:00 and Friday 7:30 - 2:00.

 

QUOTE(Tina Ross @ Jul 11 2007, 04:52 PM) [snapback]326188[/snapback]
When I need a sitter I pay $15 per child for one day..SO I pay $30 a day and that's from 7:30a-5:30p..But if we are just going out then it really depends on how long we are gone..I just kinda guessed on what to pay..I still dont know if that's too much or too little..

For that money I would have a sitter every day of the week. That's $3.00 an hour (or am I missing something?) ... I got paid more when I was 12 years old. I am really surprised you can still find somebody for that little ... I may need to move!

 

Ok Maybe I need to pay more..My MIL is the one who watches them..Then if we go out on Sat.(which has only happend one time) We payed a college student $75 from 9p-3a..But that's what she wanted..

 

We pay the 15-year-old kid next door $10 an hour to watch our older DD -- this is in the evening while she's awake, though, so she is responsible for playing with her, getting dinner into her (I usually order a pizza for both DD and the sitter), and supervising the potty situation, etc.

I wouldn't leave all three kiddos with a 15-year-old -- but I have an older nanny starting next week, who will really be acting as a mother's helper at first, since I'm at home. But, once I'm comfortable with her, I will likely leave the babies at home while I take my older DD out, or vice versa -- and I hope to take the nanny on outings with all three. She charges $13 an hour.

 

I'll need to pay someone for an all day event (8-330)..so should I be paying by the hour? My day care provider (once they start) will be getting paid less per day if I pay this person $10 per hour...

 

I was going to say that it varies a lot regionally -- but then I read the other responses and saw that $10/hr is pretty common. We live in Boulder, CO (a pretty upscale market ) and that's what I usually pay. Our sitters are teachers at my DDs' daycare who babysit for extra cash, so they are very highly qualified.

But I've also paid a teenager $10/hr, which was probably too much, but I didn't know any better. In fact I even paid $15/hr for her to bring a friend to help. I'm sure that was too much, but they did a good job, and DH and I got to go out! And I wouldn't have felt comfortable having just one teenager when the girls were babies. (I might try it now, but I'd warn her to expect a challenge!)

QUOTE
I'll need to pay someone for an all day event (8-330)..so should I be paying by the hour? My day care provider (once they start) will be getting paid less per day if I pay this person $10 per hour...

I think if you're getting someone for a full day just this once, you can negotiate an amount with her. $10/hr for the whole day would certainly add up to a lot! But you will still probably have to pay her more than what your DCP earns in a day.