How much to pay babysitter?

[soon2bmomof3]

My coworker's son got Pink Eye from his daycare and cannot return until he is over it. She is a single mom that is running out of PTO, and has to work, so the neighbor's daughter is watching him. The daughter is 15 years old. The boy is 4 years old.

What's the going rate for babysitters?

[thyme4change]

I pay $10/hour, but I'm awesome.

I would say $50 per day, if she agrees.

[swasat]

We pay $10/hour too. And top it at $60/day when its for a whole 8 hour day.

[soon2bmomof3]

Thanks everyone!

I was going to suggest $8~$9/hour. It'll only be for 6 hours today since she had to take him to the doctor and the pick up the eye drops this morning.

[raeoflyte]

We pay $70 per day for a friend to watch the kiddo all day while we're at work. This is for an adult, who will choose babysitting for us over other jobs she has (temp work). For a teenager, I would stick with the $50-$60 per day range, especially if it will be for 2-3 days.

Is $10 an hour average now for 1 kid--for evenings/afternoons out?

[swasat]

Jun 2, 2011 13:11:10 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

Is $10 an hour average now for 1 kid--for evenings/afternoons out?

Seems to be the going rate where I live....

[Clever Username]

For a kid with pink eye, I'd charge less.
I'm just going to lock him in a room and slide pot stickers through the slat at Noon.
That and pray I've Purell'd the bejesus out of anything he touched before I got there.

[Deleted]

I pay $13 an hour, one kid, to a woman who owns a daycare and used to be a Gymboree teacher.

[doxieluvr]

Going rate in Md is $30 a day. Some of you pay insane amounts of money. If I paid $50 for each kid plus gas to get here, i might as well quit and stay home for the same income.

[thyme4change]

Going rate in Md is $30 a day. Some of you pay insane amounts of money.

I paid $25/day/kid for in-home daycare for a provider with other children.

For a stand-alone, come to my house, babysitter, I generally pay $10/hour at night. This is the first time I've ever had to hire someone for entire days. I have two kids, so $50/day would be the minimum I could possibly get away with. Paying $60 or $70/day wouldn't seem unreasonable given my alternatives.

One camp we are sending our kids to is $60/day! But, that is the really expensive one. I think the rest average in the $30-$35/day range x 2 kids. Yeah, I can afford to pay a babysitter $70.

[swasat]

For some of us who pay the insane amounts of money, our income exceeds the expense by a large amount.

My kids go to a daycare center. I pay around $1800 for both of them. $10/hour is the amount we pay for a babysitter who comes home, for the times my husband and I have to go out. Only once I have had to pay a babysitter $60/day, that too because the daycare was closed for that day.

[reader79]

$30/day is not even minimum wage, what kind of person do you get for that?

[thyme4change]

$30/day is not even minimum wage, what kind of person do you get for that?

One who is watching 4 or 5 other kids. When you use a multi-kid facility, you are sharing the expense of the provider. So, we are comparing apples and oranges when we compare a facility to an in-home babysitter.

From everything I've heard in my area - the break point is between child #2 and child #3. If you have two kids, a facility is cheaper. If you have 3 kids, you are probably better off with a nanny.

[doxieluvr]

Reader, i used a daycare provider that worker from jer home. Granted its been a few years since my daughter has been in a formal daycare setting.

So $10 an hour is the going rate per kid? Dh wants to start incorporating dates in our budget, so this is an expense I need to research. I have never used a traditional babysitter for evenings. I just stay home, take them or on a rare snd very important reason, ask a friend, but if he wants to do date monthly i should figure this out.

[CarolinaKat]

Doxie,

you can't incorperate anything else until you're NOT running in the red each month

[doxieluvr]

Carolina, he thinks we need to have time together where we can get away from the kids and just focus on us. His mom even got on me this past weekend how important it is for our well-being. This is important and he is really pushing for it. I agree with him, but i do not know what the affordable solution is. And before anyone suggests it, putting thr baby to bed does not offer free time. He sleeps very little, and we consider ourselves luckh if he sleeps for a three hour stretch. He is a very high energy, busy baby.

[CarolinaKat]

Doxie

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. I'm just saying before you spend MORE money you need to HAVE a budget where income is greater than outgo. If you can make 'date night' a part of that, that would be great. But until income is greater than outgo (plus saving for periodic expenses are taken care of) spending more money is not going to be a solution

[Deleted]

Doxie - a "date night in" might be the answer for you. Buy some steaks, some wine, some candles, and turn off the tv and cellphones. Eat and hold hands after your kids go to bed - even if it's for less than three hours.

[qofcc]

Until you start making more money or you lower your expenses, the only way you're going to be able to afford a date night is if it's free... trade babysitting or other services with someone else.

Perhaps date nights could be part of the incentive for him to take a job he's not in love with?

[soon2bmomof3]

Swasat, WOW, and I thought our daycare bill was high (compared everyone elses' here). Ours is $382.50/wk and that's with a discount on the older kid. The good thing is our inlaws live close to us so if we ever have an emergency or if the daycare is closed, we can send them there for a day or two (or week, my daughter got Hand, Foot Mouth a few weeks ago and was out the whole week). Those instances are rare though.

[thyme4change]

I thought our daycare bill was high (compared everyone elses' here).

Normal daycare is a totally different expense than one-on-one care for a sick child that needs to be quarantined. What we are talking about here is not "daycare" but special care for a couple of days (or weeks) while the child can't be mixed in with the general population.

[soon2bmomof3]

Quote:I thought our daycare bill was high (compared everyone elses' here).



Normal daycare is a totally different expense than one-on-one care for a sick child that needs to be quarantined. What we are talking about here is not "daycare" but special care for a couple of days (or weeks) while the child can't be mixed in with the general population.

I know...I was just comparing her $1800/month daycare for two kids to my $1530/month for two kids. The last time we had a daycare discussion, I think people were saying theirs were around $1000 or less, but it could be because many of you send your kids to at home providers, not facilities.

[dragonfly7]

The normal rate here (DFW) is about $10 / hr for an occasional baby-sitter. I've seen $6-$8 for drop-in childcare. A friend pays $2000 for a full-time nanny for her daughter.

Where I grew up, the normal hourly rate is $3.

[swasat]

soon2bmom, it has actually come down a bit now that my daughter is in preschool. Till about 1 year ago we were paying $2100 for the two of them. My son starts grade 1 this August, so my daycare bill drop down to $1200!! $900 for my daughter and $300 for after school care for him. Can't wait!!

Daycare centers are more expensive than home daycare. Plus the city and the area you live in also matters a lot. I am in a midwest city which is home to a ton of IT companies, a huge state university and HQ for some of the biggest insurance companies. Since the salaries are high, so are the expenses. But from what I hear about the east coast, $1800 for 2 kids is not much! A friend stays in Connecticut, has kids the same age as mine and pays $2400/month for daycare

[soon2bmomof3]

swasat,

We live in Houston, but in the suburbs. I can't wait for my son to start kindergarten in Fall of 2012. The elementary school is down the block from my inlaws (who live two miles from our house), so they will walk him to and from school every day. We will still have all three in daycare for about 6 months (depending on how long I take off from work).

[thyme4change]

Daycare centers are more expensive than home daycare.

I had the opposite experience. I interviewed 4 in-home daycare providers and they were all cheaper than the 3 facilities I looked into.

[soon2bmomof3]

Thyme, don't you mean the home daycares are more expensive than the facilities you looked it?

[thyme4change]

No. I meant what I said. The 4 in-homes I looked at were $125 - $135/week. The 3 facilities I looked at were $175-$225/week.

That is why I said I had the opposite experience as the person who proclaimed that daycare centers are more expensive than home daycares.

However - nannies are the most expensive, for the reason listed before. You have to pay the full salary of someone - and they will probably make around $20k per year.

[pig]

$30/day is not even minimum wage, what kind of person do you get for that?

A 13 year old girl.

[swasat]

thyme, by daycare centers I mean daycare facilities.

So I think you and I are in agreement. That daycare centers/facilities are more expensive than home daycares.