My daughter has been asked to babysit a coworker's son. My daughter is 17 and the son is 2nd or 3rd grade age. She would be watching him at his house during the day from 7:30 am to 2:30 pm. My coworker asked how much and we told her $20. Too much? Too little? My coworker and I teach in one district, our kids go to a neighboring district that has a slightly different schedule. During the school year when we have to work but there's no school in the kids' district, she'll need babysitting for this child plus his kindergarten age brother. How much should she charge then? And does it matter if my 13 year old daughter goes with her. Should she charge more or is that just a bonus because both girls would just be going because they'd rather be there and playing with kids than sitting at home doing nothing. My coworker did ask if the girls would babysit, not just for the older one. My daughter's friends babysit but they get paid $100/day to watch 3 kids and I feel that's too much to ask, so I don't have a good price range to give her. I guess my biggest question is... we already told her $20 for both girls for one day. Are we overcharging her? And how much does the price increase when we add a second child?
So is that $20 for 7 hours work? I would have thought too little if anything. My 16 yo daughter has been babysitting regularly for the past 2 years and gets around $10 per hour - she has always left it up to the parents but they are happy with this. She only babysits at night though and usually for more than one child at a time. And it probably makes a difference the economic situation your friend is in as well. Good luck working it out! PS this is all Australian prices, it may be completely different where you are of course...
Yeah... $20 seem too little to me too. We have a 16 yo (almost 17 yo) girl who comes to our house during the day in the summers. She works from 8-noon, goes home for lunch and then works 1-5... so 8 hours and we pay her $40 a day for our two boys who are 7 and 9. They pretty much entertain themselves although she is great about playing with them too. Anyway, I always feel like we don't pay her enough as it is, even though it's easy work, she really only makes $5 an hour!
$20 is way too little! She should at least be making $5 per hour. So, $40 instead of $20. When we get a sitter (almost never) we pay $10 per hour.
Kim I hate to say this but it depends on where you live. Where I live $5 an hour for one child is outrageous. However, I know where my sister lives that is the going price. This is what i would do. i would call a local day care. Ask what their price is per child. Then i would adjust your daughters rate to be similar. Also I wouldn't raise the rate just because your younger daughter is going to tag along. I would assume what the mother meant was if your 17 year old can't watch the child your 13 year old would. I don't think she wants to pay for two people to watch him. KWIM? Babysitting charges are so cooky i hate trying to figure them out! Good luck!
$20 is way too little. My daughter makes $20 babysitting for a few hours in the evening and the kids are already in bed when she gets there.
The going rate here is about $10 an hour, but I would think $5 an hour for a "regular" job is fair. Now, that also includes basic cleaning up after the kids if needed. I wouldn't charge extra for the sister. $20 for a day is a STEAL for her . Can you send your DD to my house? hehe...
I looked it up and for one day of YMCA school age child care on an inservice day, it's $20. (Thanks for that idea Jewelle!), so I think that's probably about right.
Wow, Kimberly, where do you live... next time I am going on vacation... I am going there... leaving my kid at the YMCA and having some time with hubby.
Kansas. It's only $10 extra if you have a child already in before/after school care... which explains why I never had this problem when I had younger kids. My kids went to after school care and on days when they didn't have school and I did, they went to the Y's child care for $10/day. As I said, my kids are now teens and the prices haven't gone up in 10 years. It's a great deal!
The going rate here is $10 an hour, too. I see what you are saying about Y child care but your daughters are personally babysitting their child and giving that child a lot more attention than they would get at the Y. For seven hours I would ask for more, probably $40 a day.
If they were getting paid by the hour then $10 would be the rate....but since it is an all day thing....around here it's $35-40 per day. That is what daycare centers charge per child per day. I am going to be babysitting two boys, ages 2 and 4 starting next month...I will be getting $75 per day for both of them...hours 7-4. The cost always goes down the older the child is too.
