I had an interesting experience this week. A freshman at a local college responded to an ad I’d posted for occasional care for the Punks. She sounded energized and excited about working with our family. I was thrilled, too.
Then pay came up. She was charging $5-6 per hour for sitting services. WOW! Less than I expected. I expected $8 to maybe $10 an hour. Then I read on and discovered it was per child. $15-18 per hour for babysitting. I was floored. I knew a college kid would charge more than a high schooler, but at almost $20 per hour I had to question who was employing her. And maybe I asked for their name and number. Because I would take that job in a heartbeat.
Am I right to be shocked? I’ve talked to family and friends from here to there and back and have discovered a huge variance. From $4-15 depending on circumstance and location. I’d like to know more. So, my questions for you are:
Where do you find your babysitters?
How old are they?
How often do you use them?
How much do you pay them?
What do they do with your kids? Is it a backpack of activities they tote along or is is tv city?
When I lived in Boston I paid $10 an hour for a teacher from my son’s childcare to take care of him on the rare occasions we went out. Now, in semi-rural Maine I pay my neighbor’s high schoolers $6 an hour. I don’t use them often because the senior just graduated and is busier than an accountant on tax day, and the sophomore is just getting into sitting. Oh, and I have the world’s most gracious in-laws who are always willing to hang out with my kids.
Tell me… please?
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by Megin Hatch
Photo graciously provided by Orbitgal, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved.
11 responses so far ↓
MrsH. // Jun 19, 2008 at 4:46 am
Where do you find your babysitters?
The local college publishes a pamphlet with bios of interested & available sitters — mostly elementary ed., early childhood or psychology majors.
How old are they?
I only hire ones 20 or older.
How often do you use them?
Rarely (3-5 times in the last 1.5 years).
How much do you pay them?
$20 an hour.
What do they do with your kids?
Usually play for an hour, then dinner, bath, bed.
Is it a backpack of activities they tote along or is is tv city? No TV in our house. They play with the toys we have.
The way I look at it is, I want sitters who WANT to come stay with my kids. They are my employees and deserve a living wage, plus the job they are doing is FAR more important than flipping burgers or running a cash register, so should be compensated accordingly. They have more skill than a 15-year-old neighbor (Red Cross certification, criminal & child abuse clearances, etc.) and if I’m not happy with their performance, I can report them to the college’s babysitting service or to their academic supervisors. They have incentive to do a great job — cash and accountability!
The bottom line for me is, the sitter is in loco parentis. How much is that worth to me?
Lisa D. // Jun 19, 2008 at 4:50 am
We pay a college student $12 an hour– it is fairly pricey, way more than what day care would be hourly, but for us, we feel better knowing that we trust someone older to be there with Little Man. When we interviewed people, the prices ranged from $8-12/hour
InTheFastLane // Jun 19, 2008 at 7:23 am
We don’t use a babysitter very often, the very reason being the expense. But, when we do, we usually pay around $10/hour.
Chris // Jun 19, 2008 at 8:52 am
We do a lot of childcare swapping with friends. This is what I prefer to do–I know the kids are in excellent care and having a blast with their friends, plus it strengthens our ties with other families. I have a weekly swap with one friend; we alternate getting 5 hours “off” on Thursdays (her kid’s coming over in a few hours, in fact). For date nights, we swap with another family about once a month.
When we need childcare outside of those swap times, we pay a 12-year-old who lives across the street (how convenient is that?) $5/hour. She’s been coming over to play with our kids (now 2 and 5) since they were babies and though she’s a bit young and a flake at times (she has forgotten to show up twice), I have watched with the kids for years and trust her to be responsible with them. When she started that I would give her a $1/hour raise every birthday. We also take them to a drop-in place that charges about $6/hour/kid. I know a lot of people don’t like using drop-in daycare, but I feel more comfortable taking them to this place than I would hiring a stranger to come into our home. I know the providers have been screened, there’s always at least two adults around, plus the parents coming in at random times to pick up there kids. I feel there is less of a likelihood of neglect or abuse in such a situation than leaving someone we’ve just met alone with our kids.
We live in Portland, Oregon, and I’ve seen rates of $10/hour for babysitting advertised on craigslist and know people who pay that much and more.
A.L. Hatch // Jun 19, 2008 at 10:34 am
I earned $10 an hour as an almost full-time nanny/babysitter in Boston in 1993. I also drove the kids to and from school/lessons/activities in my own car, occasionally stayed overnight, and also cleaned the house and fed the kids some meals.
I pay my college girl $10 an hour to stay in my house with The Poo and simply entertain her. Occasionally she makes lunch, mac n’ cheese or chicken nuggets. No cleaning. If she takes The Poo somewhere, she takes my car.
She comes twice a week on the days we don’t have preschool, for three hours each day, so I can write offsite.
I found her on Craigslist and I had to kiss a lot of frogs first. And she still isn’t ideal.
slouching mom // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:06 am
Let’s see … between eight and ten an hour, depending on age and/or experience.
If we end up grooming a local teen (she’s 14), we’ll probably pay her more like five an hour.
Megin Hatch // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:32 am
Mrs. H: where can I send my resume? haha.
It’s not that I don’t think it’s an important job- they are my kids- nothing is more important.
Child care teachers in professional childcare settings make about 7-9/hour locally. School aged teachers? Severely underpaid. No doubt.
I am not looking to hire someone who does this full time. I want someone who will come over once a month and play engagingly with my kids for a couple of hours and make responsible choices in my absence.
If I come home to a mess, that is totally fine. I might sigh, but I sigh when I see my own messes, too.
Lisa/ITFL- agreed, it’s expensive, and that is the range I would expect to pay… but it’s also why we don’t go out a lot. We’re a (mostly one income family (by choice).
Chris- I like the idea of a swap. There is one family we’ve done that with a few times, but we’ve talked about doing it more regularly.
AL- in the 90s when I nannied it was “salaried” but it worked out to be 6-7 an hour for fulltime+ care. But I did use their car.
SM- we have a 12 year old next door that does some mothers helper stuff… groom, groom, groom…
Whitney // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:59 am
I pay between $8 and $10 an hour, plus dinner ordered in for most people; beyond minimum wage; once we ran out of local neighborhood kids, we’ve occasionally used resident physicians bringing their significant other over as well, or relatives, but most of ours live a distance away.
My oldest in now 13, so for short periods like an hour or so, I can trust him to keep the newly 10 yr old in line, but somehow not ready to leave them alone for periods longer than that , or to go out to dinner and a movie and leave kids alone- just not ready for that yet.
What is the age you can leave kids alone at home? Or does it depend on the kid?
Mar D // Jul 23, 2008 at 7:54 pm
i am 12 years old and not yet have taken red cross class. i have been trying to get a baby sitting job for a long time. People tend to not want to hire me because i am younger. i belive that if you are leaving your child at home for just and hour or so that a 12 yearold can be trusted. do you agree?
i have stopped looking for babysitting jobs and now looking for parent helper jobs. if you need a parent helper please e-mail me at kittycatkitten2004@yahoo.com with a subject like GNMparents. thank you!
Chris // Jul 24, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Hey, Mar D–
I do leave my kids with a 12-year-old for short periods of time, but we’ve known her for 5 years now and until she turned 12, she had worked for me occasionally as a mother’s helper. I think starting out as a helper is a great idea that will allow you to build up trust with the parents and relationship with the kids and inevitably, you will be asked by those parents to babysit once you’ve demonstrated how responsible you are. In the meantime, do the Red Cross class and check around and see if there’s a class for babysitters. I know here in Portland, the city parks & recreation department offers a short class on handling emergencies, children’s needs, etc. Credentials like that definitely give parents peace of mind and help you get those babysitting jobs.
Good luck with your endeavors!
Deb // Aug 12, 2008 at 5:18 pm
My 14 year old daughter has her babysitting course. She babysat a 4 and 6 year old from 3pm until 1145pm and was given $25.00 (She was suppose to be finished babysitting at 11pm)
I thought this was a little light. I was thinking she should be paid at least $4.00/hour. Am I wrong in thinking this? Please respond. She played with them, got them supper, did the dishes, neated things up and put them to bed.
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