What do you pay your adult babysitter?

[jgenie]

$25 an hour for 4 hours one afternoon. This is for 2 10 year olds.

I checked with 4 sitters and all quoted me this price. I was gobsmacked.

That is high!! I pay more than most of my friends because of the no screen time.

[magnoliaparadise]

HCOL area - Depending upon the sitter, for 2 kids, I pay anywhere between $17 and $20 (I pay one person $15, but that's unusual - and she just lets them sit around and watch TV so she doesn't do much)...

I pay $20 to one sitter and that was a huge amount for me - she asked for it - she promised me fluid hours every week. I am required to find her 10 hours and can go up to 20 hours within a large number of hours in her schedule every week that she reserves for us. Within those 'reserved hours' she doesn't book or plan anything else ever.

So... part of the reason the rate is so high for her is because 1) I am 'paying' for the right to have her available to me for a lot of the week and for me to be able to make arrangements last minute (I sometimes text her the morning of and because she reserves the time for me, she is available! It's like having extended family around in some ways - except, umm, I pay...). It's not perfect because she does have a lot of 'black out' times which she doesn't reserve for me and some of those times I greatly need, but she will babysit during those times, too, if I give her a lot of notice and she doesn't have other plans, and 2) I just really really like her and don't want to lose her. She is GREAT with the kids and young and plays with them a lot. And they adore her. And she doesn't do screen time, etc etc.

If I have a friend's child over, I pay my $20 an hour sitter a bit more for the friend (like $3-5 extra - ie $23 or $25 an hour - cr*p, this sounds like a lot, especially given that they probably don't declare it for tax purposes so it's untaxed)... but I don't know if I really need to. I just feel uncomfortable not paying for her watching another child - and, also, I want her to be happy with us and stay. I have had many sitters and know now that when I find one who I like, it's important to make them very happy - that additional expense makes me life much easier and my kids very happy.

For one kid, mostly $15 at this point. One or two sitters have demanded $20 for 1 kid, but generally, I don't use them.

I give sitters a holiday Xmas bonus, but don't pay them for vacation days, or when I don't need them, or sick days, or health benefits.

If I had a full time nanny (ie 30 to 50 hours a week with benefits such as sick days, etc), I would not pay the rates that I pay my sitters.

I LOVE my mother's helpers - I have a (very very mature) just-turned 12 year old and another 13 year old and I pay them $5 for 2 kids and $7 for 3 kids. They don't 'do' anything in terms of making dinner or cleaning up - they basically make the place a mess and then leave - but my kids LOVE them and I love them and they are so inexpensive - and they are a whiz at making 'movies' or MTV type videos of my kids on their iphones!

[pastrygirl]

MCOL, $10-15/hr. The $15 was for post-college caretakers, especially if they plan to file taxes for it.