What do you pay your Babysitter ?

[Catchawave]

My son has twin toddlers and pays the 12 year old babysitter $5.00/hour. His adult/granny types charge $10.00/hr. I think he should pay the tweener the adult rate !

Thoughts, experiences ?

[Akoto]

1. I don't have kids, but personally, I'd ...

Start somewhere in-between those two figures and, if she ends up doing well and the kids like her, give her a raise. :)

[Catchawave]

2. I agree !

More for twins too....but my son won't listen, as his mom, he gets mad when I call him a cheap dickwad :)

[philosophie_en_rose]

3. Rates have gone up since I was a kid.

Seven years ago, I was paid 3.00 per hour.

[Left Is Write]

7. I used to get 75 cents an hour, and was thrilled when most people

started paying a dollar.

[Capn Sunshine]

4. 50 bucks a day

but the baby is a huge (170 lbs) labrador who is diabetic & gets fed twice a day in addition to meds.

Going rate for dog sitters in this town. ( So Cal, Ventura County)

[Missy Vixen]

5. Used to do this, don't anymore

I was getting $10.00 per hour in the late 80's because of mucho ECE certifications, first aid, baby CPR, etcetera.

If your son wants to hang on to a great babysitter (and I'm sure he or she is, or they wouldn't have the patience to deal with toddler twins,) the babysitter needs to get paid more than $5.00 per hour. Those children are the most precious thing in his life. At the very least, the sitter should be paid minimum wage. The parents we currently know pay their sitters well because they're hard to find.

Does the babysitter have first aid training?

Julie

[Left Is Write]

6. I'm not the best example to go by.

We pay our babysitter $5 an hour, but she is the children's sister and does it to help out and make a little extra money. She also lives here, and the kids go to bed ridiculously easily for her.

I honestly do not know what the going rate is around here.

[JimmyJazz]

8. For twin toddlers? I don't think that's quite enough.

I pay $10.00 for the first hour and then it depends on the circumstances as to the rest. If the person is active with my children (i.e., a daytime sitting job), I continue to pay $10.00. However, if they kids are in bed for the better portion of an evening, I pay $5.00 for each additional hour until midnight - then I pay $10.00 after that. Of course, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been out past midnight.

[MediumBrownDog]

9. $5 an hour for one 13 month old toddler.

The sitter is 13.

[Catchawave]

10. Thank you all very much for your responses!

I will definitely lobby a pay hike for the babysitter!

[Arugula Latte]

11. usually $7 an hour for two kids (ages 5 & 8)