Babysitting cost per hour for an evening out....

Can you ladies give me an idea of what you pay per hour when you go out in the evening with your hubby? I live in Utah. I have never left my babies with a sitter other than family yet. Do you pay per child or per hour? It gets so expensive by the time you add dinner, movie etc. Do you hire one or two sitters? I do have a 10 DS who is really good with the babies so he would be a help to a sitter. If you ladies could give me an idea and also tell me which state you are from since I do realize that the costs would vary because of our different costs of living etc. Thank you ~Mary~

 

Until my girls where 2 I used two babysitters. Now they are more independent so I only use on and I pay 5-10 dollars an hour. My babies lives are in their hands when I am gone and I beleive in paying them well to take good care of them. It depends on the time of day I need help on the amount I pay. Most of them are shocked by the amount I pay. We RARELY get a babysitter though maybe that is also why I pay what I do. I usually feel so generous after getting such a needed break!

 

I pay between $8 and $10 an hour and that is the norm here.

 

I pay between $5 and $10 an hour. Generally, I ask the sitters mom what they usually get and pay that. I do always round up to the nearest $5.

 

I usually ask the sitter... one charges $5/hour, but I only use her if the babes are already asleep! One charges 8, another 7.... so it varies... HTH!

 

I pay $5 per hour and I don't have an older child to help out.

If we double date with another couple we will have a central location for baby sitting and then pay $1.50 per hour per child.

all of my sitters are teenagers with babysitting courses.

WI

 

During the weekdays, we pay our babysitter $5.00 per hour.

When she started to sit at night, she said she would charge the same as during the day.....$5.00!!! Well, DH & I give her $10 per hour for a weekend night.

I sometimes wish we accepted her $5.00 per hour rate!!!!!

She will be going off to college in September and we will all be so sad. Luckily her younger sister said she is ready to start babysitting!!!! And they both took a child CPR/babysitting course.

BTW, our sitter's father is one of my DH's best friends from childhood.

 

In CA it is around $10/hour or more!

 

We pay our gal $12 an hour!!! She has a college degree though and tons of experience.

 

We live in Boulder (CO), which is one of the more expensive places in the country other than the coasts. We pay $10/hr.

So far we've mostly used teachers at the girls' daycare -- so they are adults with formal childcare training and lots of experience at being outnumbered!

We have occasionally used a local teenager who also has tons of experience and Red Cross cert. When the girls were little, the sitter brought a friend to help out, and we paid them (as a team) $15/hr for when the girls are awake, and $10/hr after they go to sleep. Now that the girls are a little older, we probably won't pay for the friend if we do this again.

It does get very expensive. DH and I had date night last week and we spent $50 for the sitter (4-9pm), $20 for the movie, and $20 for a fairly cheap dinner -- so it was almost $100 for the night!

Fortunately we have a dear neighbor lady who has small children herself (slightly older than ours) who comes over once a month just to sit in our house after the girls go to bed, so DH and I can go out to a quick dinner. It's a win-win because she gets some quiet time to read a book or watch a movie!

 

I think it depends on where you live (metro vs. small town) and the age and experience of your sitter. We have a regular sitter who we love who is in her 20's and has quite a bit of experience. We pay her $12 per hour. Sounds like quite a bit but I really want to keep her happy!

 

In the Boston area I've gotten anywhere from 10-18 dollars an hour. I'm 20 and have lots of experience, including twins and newborns.
When I was younger (12-17) I got anywhere from 7-11 dollars a hour

Boston is fairly expensive. I was a mother's helper for newborn twins and the mom was always there to help and I still got 10-12 an hour

 

wow "HANKNBEANS" "We pay our gal $12 an hour!!! She has a college degree though and tons of experience." i will babysit your children anytime lol

 

We live in a suburb of Chicago.

When we go out at night after we've put the boys to bed, we pay the neighbor girls $10 each for the evening. They are 11 and 12, and usually watch TV and eat snacks. Basically they are there to make sure the house doesn't burn down, you know?

If we were leave them with a sitter awake, I'd want to hire an older high school student or college student, and I'd anticipate paying $10-20 an hour.

 

We live in the Providence RI area and we pay between $10 and $12 an hour. Our sitters are college age or slightly older.

 

Yeah I think it is all about the same no matter where you live, the price difference is in the age and experience of the sitter.

We have teenage girls that we use, they are 15-16 years old. They charge $4-5 an hour but we always pay them extra, it comes out to probably $6-7 an hour. Two of them go to our church every week and the other one is the best friend of one of the church girls since kindergarten. So I trust them all immensely.

The college girls around here charge between $7-10 an hour. The nanny-type sitters charge between $12-15 an hour.

So we always use the teenage girls because they are the cheapest, and honestly, we are usually not very far away so I feel fine about it. And also, a lot of the time, they are only here for an hour or two before the kids bedtime so they end up house sitting for the majority of the time. I can't see paying other folks $10-15 an hour to sit at my house and watch TV!!!

Karen

 

We don't pay my sisters/SIL/grandparents, etc. BUT we do pay my niece. She's 14 and usually doesn't come until the kiddos are already asleep- $10 an hour.

 

We live in Indiana and usually pay $3/hour/kids that are awake with a minimum of $5/hour. Does that make sense? If just oldest is awake and twins are sleeping when we go out we pay $5/hour. If oldest is with us and twins are awake we pay $6/hour. If all 3 are awake we pay $9/hour. I know, I should have been an accountant , but it makes me feel like I am being fair.

 

had to ask "jacobs mom" wot do u pay if they are all sleeping???

We just pay $5.00 per hour to the 19 year old girl across the street and usually $6.00 to an older lady who sometimes watches them. So if we got our for 3 or 4 hours usually around $20 so not too bad

Sounds like going out is expensive in the States!! yikes


amanda (jorja and jessica 3)

 

yikes i am embarrassed that i pay so little but i get the feeling that I pay well for our community. Or maybe everyone sees me as charity project.

 

We have only had to hire someone once, typically our families watch the kids and I paid her $12/hour. She is in college, pursing a teaching degree and had CPR & First Aid courses.

 

We pay 10 dollars an hour here.

 

We pay about 5 per hour, but usually round it off to the nearest 10...so for 3 hours, we'd pay $20. We usually pay each sitter, if we have 2 sitters, but I have found that one 17 year old can with 6 siblings of own, can handle them both! I also have called on a 14 year old to look after the kids - from church and works with them in nursery. My dh and I are youth directors, so we try to ask a few of the girls to look after the kids. They pretty much all work with the twins in nursery.
Most times we have had to hire a sitter has been at night and involves feeding, bathing and putting the bed.
We have asked my parents to baby sit often and we don't pay them.
There is an older, OR Nurse who offers to baby sit the kids for free - she has even given US money to go out! When she is not working, she loves to look after the kids and does a great job! She would never let us pay her, but we try to bless her in other ways. It's almost relaxing for her to look after the kids because they are on such a regular schedule and quite easy. When they go to bed, she gets some quiet time to read the Bible.

THANK GOD FOR FREE SITTERS!!!!

 

Where we are from... we pay them 20 for the evening, sometimes we are gone for one hour, sometimes 4, so it all evens out in the end...

 

We pay 15.00 hr if all 3 are up. If the twins are asleep we pay 10.00/hr but she is 21 and an education major and really wonderful. If I were to hire someone else I would pay 10.00/hr-you want them to feel well compensated not to mention I know how hard of a job it is.

 

Between 8-10 bucks an hour, depending on what they have to do. We have a great sitter, she is young, 16, but is amazingly mature! She will feed them dinner, clean up, get them ready for bed and put them to bed. All four. Without breaking a sweat. Plus, the house is spotless when we get back. She will sometimes even unload the dishwasher!! I love her!

 

We live in idaho & the going rate around here is $2 per hour per child... roughly. My twins are 2 1/2 & I have an 8 year old son. I usually pay $5 an hour, but I set a price if the time is going to be extended ( all day etc).
I have an all day sitter that takes the twins 1 day a week for $30 (9 am to 5 pm) Sanity day.
As for the # of sitters, I have always used one sitter. I had a teenage girl that lived across the street for a while & she was great, plus her Mom was there if anything odd came up. My regular sitter is a college student (24) and can handle anything. She's even stayed overnight with the kids. We don't have any family close.