[DK615617]

I saw another thread and it got me wondering. What do you pay for a babysitter? We don't go out much without Tiffany, and if we do my nextdoor neighbor is "Grammy" so she won't let me pay. And now my parents have moved to town, so in a pinch they would help out too. I teach piano lessons to a ton of kids, some of whom are old enough to babysit. But I would like to have a better idea of what it would cost. I don't want someone too charge me too little. I want to be fare.
And I also thought it might be interesting too see if there is a huge difference in price from region to region.

[deedee1231]

I have often wondered that very thing myself. This is pretty funny, but I have never paid a babysitter! My oldest is 15. When she was little, my mom, grandma, little sister, or various inlaws would care for her if we needed to leave her. At times, it seemed as if we were forced to go out somewhere to give family members time to play with the baby!


Now that she is 15, she "babysits" her little brother and sisters if we need her to but I don't pay her for that above her regular allowance for chores.


I have had friends and neighbors both ask me what she would charge for babysitting services and I just don't know what an appropriate figure would be. Besides, I don't really want to encourage her to babysit for other people's children. So I will be interested in what others have to say on this subject!

[twinzplus3]

You're lucky! We pay $10 to $15 per hour. We have people from church babysit but my dh thinks it's horribly tacky to not offer to pay them. So we offer and if they accept that's what we pay depending on who they're watching and how old the babysitter is. If they refuse the money--we're always grateful!

[wanna be a young mother]

To be honest I have NEVER left Nevy with anyone! Well except 3 times with Dh! But my mom always has someone watch her kids. She pays about $30-40 for a night out and about $50 for an over night(thats for 2 kids ages 3 & 7) type of thing. She usually asks the teens to watch the kids which is why its so cheap! (I live in Chicago)

[ruthann8]

Around here (central part of Iowa) daycare it is $25 to $38 per day, up to 10 hours a day. But we don't need 10 hours, only 4 hours twice a week. But we did find someone willing to take her for $20 a day. She went there on Wednesday last week and it didn't go very well. She is very fussy and demanding, very hard to manage when you are watching a few other children as well. She is getting better, so hopefully by the time my dh's hours pick up she will be better. For now my dh gets to be Mr. mom!

As far as babysitting for "date night" I have know idea what the going rate is around here.

[LovingJesusinAZ]

My parents live about 35 miles away so we generally use them for "date nights" but that's not the most practical solution since it's about a 45 minute drive each way--even if we go out to dinner on their end of town it makes for a long evening.

There have been a couple times (once while house hunting, and once for our anniversary while my parents were out of town) we've used the teenage daughter of one of DH's friends from work. We paid her $10/hr for our 1 toddler. Honestly, I don't know if that was too much for 1 kid, but she wouldn't tell us how much to pay her so we figured we'd better be safe than sorry.

[lavatea]

Originally Posted by LovingJesusinAZ

We paid her $10/hr for our 1 toddler. Honestly, I don't know if that was too much for 1 kid, but she wouldn't tell us how much to pay her so we figured we'd better be safe than sorry.

Before I had my daughter, I babysat for several different families. I was getting paid about $10 per hour then - and that was over 4 years ago. I would think the rate might have gone up a little since then. Sometimes I only had one child to watch; sometimes it would be two. The youngest I babysat was a baby at the time (under 1). I live in the DFW, TX area.

ETA - I have never paid a babysitter since having kids. I really need a babysitter since moving away from my family, but that brings up the issue of finding someone you feel comfortable leaving your young kids with. Scary!

[floresazules]

I just moved to Milwaukee but when I was living in NY work for this nice family for a year and the pay was 12 and hour, but I was also helping with some cleaning when the baby was taking a nap, Although some nannys I knew they were geting pay up to 18 and hour, but again this was Manhatan and it all depends where you live, the most important thing is to find some one that you thrust. good luck

[mrmnmom82]

We're talking about teenagers right? Minimum wage is $7.50 here, I pay $5 an hr. Am I just cheap? When I babysat, I only charged $3 an hr., this was 10 yrs. ago. Usually it's for 2hrs. or so, long enough for a date. Now we have 2 kids and we pay $7 an hr. Mind you this is usually after bed time, the teen is sitting there watching tv while we're gone.

[stephanienminnesota]

I live in the Minneapolis area. (MN) And I have only had to get a babysitter twice for 2 boys and the first time we had a funeral to go to and Dh ( almost ex) gave her $50 for like 2 1/2-3 hrs. I seriously think he overpaid her . I had to get her a 2nd time and I said bottomline I would pay $30 and leave money for pizza. Any other time I need a sitter we leave the 3 boys with family since both of us grew up here in MN. And I am only like 10 miles from DH's family so I have many options for sitters and luckily no of them ever take money when it's offered.