Let's say that you have a two-year-old. You also have a husband, with whom you'd like to go out on dates occasionally. Doing so requires a babysitter. But your lovely son goes to bed easily at 6:45 p.m. In theory, babysitter could come over at 7 p.m. and when you get home around 10 or 11, all sitter would have done is sat and watched TV, played Wii, checked Facebook, read, texted...whatever. But no feedings, no playings, no diaper changes; no interaction with the kid at all. Once the kid is asleep, he's asleep.
Question: What do you pay the babysitter for this? (Remember, where you live, the going rate for babysitting is $10/hour.)
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$5/hr. i think that's what i'd do. for one kid - one asleep kid - that's a great rate.
ReplyDeleteI have no answer for you, but would like to know what you end up doing for future references......wouldn't it be nice if you could do something like j's call pay- a percentage of base pay for being there, and then a certain rate if they ( the babysitter) gets "called in" (kid wakes up).......way to complicated for a date night
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like we should get a babysitting co-op together, that way it doesn't cost anything!
ReplyDeleteWhen we used the Franks girls a couple years ago, I didn't know what to charge. I asked Marisol and she told me her girls were happy with $3 per child per hour. Now, when you have 4 that gets pricey, especially if the children are mostly in bed by the time you leave (which is what we try to do).
ReplyDeleteIf it's an adult watch the child, you should offer more. But if you're using a teenage girl, I'd go no more than $5 per hour.
$10/hour makes me want to barf.
ReplyDeleteWhat???? WOW. Yep, for a teenager who is monitoring breathing and nothing more........I think $5 is beyond fair!!! Good luck. I'd just be up front with the one your asking, making sure expectations are the same.
ReplyDeleteI give $10 an hour for 3 kids who are awake. Therefore, I would even say $4 an hour for a sleeping child. When I babysat a family one time they had 3 kids and I only got $2 an hour. Even back then (20+ years ago) I thought that was being a bit stingy. You could also ask the sitter what their rate is. My husband always wishes girls would. It would make everyone much happier.
ReplyDelete5 bucks an hour. no question. you want them to be willing to come back.
ReplyDeleteI offer a "for the night" rate which usually works out to $5/hr no matter how many kids we have awake or asleep. When I ask for the sitter, "So are you available Friday around 6? We're doing dinner and a movie so probably back around 11 or 12. Is $20 for the night good for you?" And then if there was extra craziness from my not so angelic foursome, we'll throw in an extra 5 or 10 bucks. Or if the house was tidied up more than we left it, etc. And then she knows we paid her "extra" so hopefully she comes back again!
ReplyDeletefor your easy little man, more than that is overpaying.
and then there's always The Swap where you find (ideally) a couple with child(ren) of equivalent age and temperament and bedtime so that you feel "even stevens" and set up a regular night of the month where mommy watches their kids while daddy puts yours to bed. switch and repeat. free!