How much should I pay for babysitting?

My niece (25) babysat my two kids (3 and 1) this morning from 530am-7am. The 3 year old slept the entire time and the 1 year old did nap during that time for a bit but was awake the rest of the time.

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For 2 kids, I’d hand her 15.00

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Man I get paid 100 a week and it’s from 4 am to 8 am, Monday through Friday. On Sunday it’s 4am to 3 pm. That’s getting him bathed for school, feeding him, and taking him to school. Sunday I feed and provide any care needed.

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Doesn’t matter whether asleep or awake. Your rate needs to be flat regardless

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Should of discussed a rate before hand, I’d say 10/15 only had to watch 1 child for a small amount of time basically

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I think its funny people cant believe how much people pay their sitters …these people are caring for your child or children I want the best care for my child so I will pay well for that!!! Sleeping or not I want someone responsible and its a huge responsibility taking care of another persons child.

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I’d never expect money to look after my nephews.
If I’m feeding them for days on end and taking them out, the parents may contribute to help… but that’s my family😩

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What would u want to b paid I mean ask urself what it’s worth to keep ur 1 and 3 uear old safe and sound duhhh

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That’s more than I make an hour

Give her 20 , its super early for in the am , at least let her stop and have coffee and a breakfast sandwich to thank her for her time

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It blows my mind knowing so many grandmothers or great grandparents who take care of the children. They’ve raised their children and now they raise their grands.
I know I’ll be hated but this doesn’t seem right to me. And yes, I adore my grands!

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Im in NYC where the minimum wage is $15 an hour. I make $30 and hour as a nanny. So anywhere in between would be what I would pay her. It depends on the state.

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You are paying for the comfort of having an adult with your child weather their sleeping or not. Period !! How much is that worth to you??

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Finding someone to do that shift time wouldn’t be easy

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Probably due to the hour, I’d give $40 minimum.

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When I was young I occasionally looked after a neighbours kids. I never asked, or expected to get money and they never offered. No one had much money then, and it was rare to get out for an occasional evening.

I would have given $45. Due to the time and you want someone reliable. Especially asking those hours.

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Because it was so early and she did do her job rather they were sleep or not you should pay her at least $50

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Two kids, early morning hours, driving there to take care of your kids, her gas and time, in San Francisco this would cost 35 plus and hour.

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Yikes babysitters get more an hour than I make an hour working at my job.

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$20 per hour per child.
In home care is the more expensive, could always use a care facility or centre which are much cheaper …

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Pay her well she’s doing u a favor and giving her time up to help my family watched my son’s and I always pay by the day and no they didnt want paid but I worked and they g ave me the opportunity to do so

Sleeping or not she is there because you can’t be she should be paid at least $10 if not and you take advantage she will watch other kids or just stay home. Her time she valuable too.

I would ask her how much she charges.

I’d pay 35. Cause it was 530am. If it was 230-4 I’d pay 20

Jeez how much do y’all make an hour to be able to pay your baby sitter 25/hr lmao

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Whether they’re sleeping or not, you’re paying her for her time not what gets done

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Doesn’t matter if kids was asleep or not they still needed to be looked over. I would ask if she wants anything for her help or make her lunch or breakfast before she leaves ect

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$25 sounds good since she’s family and basically had 1 kid for an hour

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Honestly I’d pay $15 an hour if they slept the whole time and around $20 an hour if feeding, bathing, diaper changing were involved.

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I think $40 just because 5:30 is early. But, I’m not a morning person.

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She had to get up early 5.30am to be there :flushed: pay her what ever she asks, you need her, you are very lucky, to have a niece like her.

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I pay my sitters either a flat pre determined/ discussed amount or $15 an hour on up depending on times and how many kids she’s watching.

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I’m in Missouri and we pay $25 a day for an infant and $147.50 a week for a toddler that is only there from 8 am-11:30 am. Daycares do not care if it’s only an hour and a half 95 % of them charge for a full or half day and being that it’s so early that would add to orice.

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If it’s family for that short of a time my niece wouldn’t take money from me ,in fact it could be a week.My family would never charge for babysitting.

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I’d offer $10 an hour…

The people saying “what would you pay to keep your kids safe and sound” are asinine.

I would drain my bank accounts, sell my house and every procession, drain our retirements, and sell my cars to pay to keep my kids safe and sound. But I ain’t doing that for 2.5 hrs of someone’s time.

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Discuss with her a rate everyone is different c

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The sleep part doesnt matter. At a minimum 10 per hour. Probably more like 15. Imho, youre asking someone to watch over your most precious babies. Thats worth some money. :woman_shrugging:

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It doesn’t matter what the kids did while you had someone else caring for them.
I would probably do $40. Two and a half hours of care, starting quite early.

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Gee I never got paid when I watched my sister’s kids.

Doesn’t matter if they are asleep or not. Her time is her time. If it were my niece I’d give her $40 cause its my niece and I love her for being there for me.

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The comments here are why is damn near impossible to find childcare if you are low income. I make 13 an hour. How am I supposed to pay someone more then I make :rofl: We just struggle try to work around each other’s schedules and if we can’t find a baby sitter and there’s a time lapse between jobs we call in late or call out cause at that point it costs us less then hiring a babysitter

You pay babysitters for their TIME. It doesn’t matter if the children are sleeping or not. The sitter is still their doing her JOB. Pay should be discussed before the babysitting happens. Just keep in mind you pay PEOPLE for their Time!!:jack_o_lantern:

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Idk I’d give her like $40 to be NICE or if money was super tight and she offered to help out essentially then like $20. That really wasn’t that long AT ALL.

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I’d say $15 for the first child and $10 for each additional child time the hour. But ask her, you don’t want to rip her off. College kids need money, chances are if you treat her right she’d help you out again.

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The going rate is 18-20$ an hour. The way I see it, it doesn’t matter if she is family or not. She provided a service to you, and has her own bills ect to pay. Weither the children were sleeping or not has nothing to do with it. She still was there watching them, ensuring they were safe, and took time to do it for you. I’d say 17/18$ and hour would be reasonable, as thats the medium of what you would pay anyone else, if not more. I’d also offer to make her dinner, or give her gas/bus money if she used a vehicle to get there. I feel because she is your family you should do that extra gesture…

At least 15 an hour per child, doesn’t matter if they were asleep, she had to give up her time to be available for your kids, 50 dollars sounds fair. You can google what is average for a baby sitter. It’s like 17 a hour per child :woman_shrugging:

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I can’t stand people saying they don’t even make that. These children are not dogs.

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$30. That’s $20 an hour and plenty for such a short stay.

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Here daycares charge $40/day….per child
Even on days they do not attend (to keep their place at the daycare)
Was pay/hours discussed ahead of time?

I would need to know more on the 25 year old? Did she get out of her bed and drive to your house for an hour and half of work? Not about kids sleeping. And how far did she come to watch them at your house for only hour and 30 minutes. If she really went out of her way to help you that early, I’d pay 30$ at bare minimum.

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I’m not sure what the going rate is but I’m thinking at least $10-15 an hour. And having to be “on duty” at 5:30 am - I’d say deserves an extra $20 just because. It doesn’t matter if your kids are sleeping- the person has committed to being there for your children- as long as you aren’t there the sitter is on duty and technically working.

I’ve not babysat since my college days 40 years ago- I made $10 an hour or more way back then. I never had the need to hire a babysitter for my own children.

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$50 I’m sure would be plenty.

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Is it 530 am to 730 pm or am.

If the child is sleeping she shouldn’t make less because of it.

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When it’s family I don’t believe they should charge you, but if you feel you should maybe ask her how much she would like?
UK i would say £30?

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
In quite a few prayer groups and thought I read, how much should I pray for babysitting.

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My babysitter charges me $40 a 9 hour day and that’s all the things. I’d do a rate for the week. $40-50 a week $200 a month. One time $20 bucks

Children being asleep or not isn’t relevant
They have nap times at daycare, can the employee’s just leave for an hour because the kids are sleeping?
Do they prorate your payments based on sleep/awake time?

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$20 max… it was just a short time

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You do not pay a sitter based on the time the kids are awake , you pay for her time .
You should consider if she drive to your house ( how far she lives from you ) and also the time , more daycares are not open that early in the morning.
I will not give her less than 30

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I go to school from 6pm-8:30pm and pay my sitter $20 for not last minute or $25 if it’s last minute because I’ve had a couple sitters cancel last minute, my son is 6 and pretty much does his own thing and helps with his sister a lot and I also feed them before I drop them off, leave drinks and snacks, and my school is in a different state a hour and 30 mins from where I live, but up where I actually live people want hourly rates like $15 and up, I refuse to pay that so I stay on nights, that right there is why a lot of mothers stay home because by the time they work they are practically paying pretty much all they have made that one shift! It’s ridiculous! I remember when my mom use to baby sit kids and only asked for $20-30 a day!

Goodness some of these rates are outrageous. Do you all live in California or something. Minimum wage isn’t anywhere close to these rates and neither are most childcare places. I would have probably offered $20.00. I would have also asked her how much she charges in advance. The fact that it was only 1 1/2 hours and she’s family I think she should have offered for free.

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God no wonder people can’t work and afford to live! I can’t get a job for this reason! Babysitters want everything I’d bring home except $90 once you figure in gas I’d be left with $20…. What’s that paying?..…… I was watching a child for like $60 (10+yrs ago) a week and they’d be there 11hrs. I tried to charge more cuz it was my whole day of not being able to do anything. And they found someone else to do it for free…… baby sitters use to be just stay at home moms who wanted some of their own money. So a couple bucks was no big deal. Babysitting isn’t or at least wasn’t supposed to be a full time job just someone helping others out! I couldn’t see charging more than $20 (1 kid) - $30 (2kids) a day.

I paid 20$ a day a kid at a daycare
So 40$ for her

For that amount of time my babysitter would charge me $40

It dosen’t matter if she’s family. Look up how much that time would of costed you at a daycare center. And see how much is fair.

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We need a full time job on top of the full time job for bills just to pay the babysitters!:woman_facepalming:t4:

I used to pay my niece $20 for 2 hours but my mom only wanted $10 per day so if my niece volunteered on her own it was only $10. But I’d say pay her $20 for the time she was there.

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Depending on your country but I’d pay her $18-$20 per hour awake or asleep. Basically she did u a favor. Don’t do family bad

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How much would you pay the creche

My niece wouldn’t charge me anything for a one time sitting, I would buy her breakfast and something small as a thank you. If this was an on-going sitting job then I would make her take money for it. The amount I paid would depend on a few things. One being how far she lived from me. You have to make it worth it for her to wake up at 4:45/5am. Would you get up at 4:45 am to make 15 dollars? Most people wouldn’t do that. I would pay her 40 dollars. When I offered in-home services I charged 30 a day, but they had to bring their kids to me and I didn’t start my day until 7:30 am.

Awake or asleep she’s responsible for them equally during the time you’re not there, so just keep that in mind when deciding what that’s worth to you :heart:

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Geez, my mom forced me all through high school to babysit for $1 an hour per kid all summer. I think I was getting shafted :rofl::rofl:

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in the 60s I earned .25 an hour

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like $10 she barely did anything lol and she’s family

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Most babysitters get paid $20/hr PER CHILD

REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY NAP

Which means you owe her $60.

The going rate is 18-20$ an hour. The way I see it, it doesn’t matter if she is family or not. She provided a service to you, and has her own bills ect to pay. Weither the children were sleeping or not has nothing to do with it. She still was there watching them, ensuring they were safe, and took time to do it for you. I’d say 17/18$ and hour would be reasonable, as thats in the middle of what you would pay anyone else, if not more. I’d also offer to make her dinner, or give her gas/bus money if she used a vehicle to get there. I feel because she is your family you should do that extra gesture because she got up that early to do that for you.
Also, keep in mind normal Reputable babysitters/ nannys charge a 2 or 3 hour minimum, regardless if it was only an hour and half. So, really you would have paid 60$ for anyone else verse the 25$/30$ you’ll pay her plus travel cost…
Again, thats my opinion, to each their own, but I’d pay her 30$ and travel for her time…

At least $20 an hour. It doesn’t matter if the kids are asleep, you’re leaving them in her care in case of emergency right? She’s there for that reason too.

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I would pay her $30 a day for that. Do you know how hard getting someone to come for those hours is? And then to say it’s only from 5:30 to 7:00. Then you are trying to down play what she does for you by saying one child is sleeping the whole time. So if the child is asleep can you just leave that 3 year old home alone, no you can’t and if that child wakes up, she is there. Stop trying to minimize what she is doing for you. I would pay $150 for a 5 day week. If you try to minimize her she can quit then you have no one. Appreciate someone going out of their way to help you. I would also give her special gifts every now and then for her help.

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$30/hr babysitting for 2 kids seems fair to me

From personal experience, most people don’t want to just babysit your kids and give up their day for crumbs. So I always pay good if someone will watch the kids regardless if the kid slept the whole time or not. You still took their day away that they could be doing what they want to do rather than helping you out.

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$50 a hour per kid. Does not matter her relationship to you or your kids nor does it matter what your kids did during the hours she watched them that’s also very early in the morning. You should pay her fair wages. If you can’t do not get a sitter.

I get $10 a day and I have him 6:45am to 8:40am. 3 days a week

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Around here it’s $20-$25 an hour.

Atleast $50 but if it were me I’d give $100 because who else watching your kids at that hr doesn’t matter if the kids slept she still needed to be available for them at any given time… I will say this a millions times there’s no amount of money over peace of mind an safety of my children… she did a safe great job pay her :wink:

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So please consider that you hired her whether they slept or not . She was responsible for YOUR kids . I assume she drove to your home so she needs to be compensated for her gas and time . In 1997 , I paid $10 an hour plus I bought whatever the sitter wanted for dinner and I tipped an extra $15 minimum . It is now 2023 . Pay her well and maybe you will be lucky enough to have her come again

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try to do a flat fee minimum they show up more consistently

Even if it’s a short time, it’s the convenience and trust. Don’t rule out reaching out to other moms for the little things!

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I can see you’re trying to be stingy or you wouldn’t of mentioned them sleeping . But awake or not, someone else took care of your children.

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40-60$ it doesn’t matter what the kids do… Its for time judt like any other job…20 per hr is the least.

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$15 hr with minimum of 2 hours.

also I pay good for when mine are looked after cause they’re my children, I wouldn’t dare pay peanuts

My daughter is 15 and babysat for $15.00/hour two kids so imagine adult rate probably a bit higher

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Should discuss this beforehand.

Sould have agreed on this from the start

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Gosh i am fortunate to have such close family!

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I love how people often point out how long kids slept for, in an attempt to make the effort seem less… If you believed that you’d leave the kids alone.

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I don’t charge family for babysitting lol that’s why they say it takes a village. If it was everyday maybe but most likely not

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Rates should be agreed upon before hand. Relative or not, you don’t want hard feelings due to misunderstandings over money. Treat it as a business transaction and be appreciative that she’s even willing to do it.

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My oldest son (26) watches my 4 year old from 9a - 12p and then puts him on the bus for pre school. He picks up my 6 year old a few hours later and then picks up the 4 year old an hour after that… either myself or my husband are home shortly after that. He doesn’t have them much and I get them ready for school, pack lunches and all that. I use him 2 or 3 days a week and pay $100 for his time. He says those are my little brothers and you don’t have to give me anything. Except yes I do. He doesn’t live with me and drives 20 min to take care of them and then goes to work himself. I appreciate his help and it’s worth $100 or more to keep them out of daycare and safe at home.

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