Babysitters

[redcrx]

I am thinking of asking a family friend to babysit for my 1 year old in a few weeks time. It will be a saturday eve and due to the time that we need to be away from house she will be needed to give him his bottle and put him to bed. He is pretty good once he goes to bed and she should be able to watch tv without interruption from about 8.30pm.
We would hope to be home by 12pm. My question is what sort of rates to babysitters get nowadays? i have no experience of using a babysitter as my mum (who is free of charge) usually does it for us.
any advice welcome.

[PinkFizz]

I have only used the girl who lives in my road and she is wonderful.Don;t know what the going rate is and I may be paying the totally wrong amount but I pay her �3 per hour and roung it up to the nearest fiver,so say I was out for 4 and a bit hours which is just over �12 then I would give her �15.

[Iz66]

hi, i use a girl frm my sons nursery...so she is experienced and has a qualification in childcare...but above all i really like the girl and trust her completly with my 3 yr old son. i pay her �5 an hour....therfore i dont go out often! hahaha.

On the other hand, my friend who has 2 daughters has a family friend who baby sits, the girl who sits is only 15 yrs old and my friend pays her �10 for the evening.

�5 an hour seems to be the average to top end of sitting prices...if its a friend then of course would be not as much as that.

[redcrx]

The girl i am thinking of asking is 21 and is the girlfriend of my partners nephew. We would feel safe if she sat as she is used to looking after her young nephews (overnight at times) and because if they have any concerns they can call us or my partners sister who is in same town. She cant babysit as she is a firewoman on call.
So im looking at abou5-6 hours so around �30?

[PinkFizz]

�30 seems an awful lot of money to me.Have you asked her what she is expecting,in a tactful way ie: " Im new to this babysitting thing - what do you usually charge per hour?"

[redcrx]

Shes not a babysitter or childminder, shes a hairdresser, although shes just been made redundant so i assume the money would come in handy. i was thinking of asking her as when she last came over my son loved her and i know she sits for her nephews.
I shall have to pop by and see her at weekend and sound her out i suppose. She may even have plans for that night and i shall have to rethink.

[PinkFizz]

Well the girl I use is 16 and she is fantastic with kids so if you ever need her she's your girl!

[dancecaller]

The cheaper alternative is to belong to a babysitting circle.
You get to know other mums and children that way too.
We did this when my children were young (but maybe more Mums work now so have less time and more money)
We had a monthly coffee evening, one group I was in gave everyone 12 tokens (curtain rings) worth 1 hour and you sorted out your own sitter, then after I moved I joined one where we took turns to be secratary and find sitters, & keep record of points. (double after 12? or 11?)
The snag was that the people who didn't go out much were the one's who were free to sit, so some people were short of points, others did more than their share.
I suppose you might get round this if you had someone who would sit for cash, and you could use them when stuck, sell points to people who couldn't keep up.

[redcrx]

Thats a good idea in theory but i have no friends here where my partner lives (my son and I live here part time, long story) except for his family and work colleagues. I work full time so i dont have a chance to join baby groups which only occur on weekdays.

[tradey]

my baby sitter gets �15 from 7.30 till about 12. that seems to be the going rate these days if were late i give her an extra �5.im the same as you my mum has her most of the times and i dont pay her i get her flowers from my little girl as she wont take money

[redcrx]

tradey thats just what my son does. She loves santuary products which hes bought her.
After his birthday he sent her a gorgeous bouquet from interflora of pink roses and lilies which were breast cancer charity ones.
I always think its nice to thank the grandparents for what they do in cases like this.

[janeyxx]

im 16 and i babysit loads! i usually ger paid about 5 pound an hour because a few people took the mic abit and atsrted paying me 5 pound for 7 hours...but i no some of my friends babysit and they dont even check on the child/ren and they have their mates round etc. so i think you would have to no the person alot and trust them...