My dd is almost 12 and has started babysitting. She is Red Cross certified and has been doing Mommy Helper for some time. She and her friend do Team Babysitting where they both will go and take care of the kids. My question is how much would you be willing to pay for this service? They charge $3 per hour for Mommy Helper. Do you think $4 each per hour is reasonable for babysitting? $5 an hour each? I guess it depends on how many kids, but they need to have rates ready when people ask. People have been really excited about the team babysitting and think it's a great idea. I just don't know how much for them to charge. We typically paid $7 per hour for 2 kids but would most of the time just round it up. They were thinking of giving a discount if they babysit before 5pm. They could potentially have alot of work so I want to be ready when people ask. HELP!!

By Kate on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 08:56 am:

No, I don't think $4 EACH per hour is reasonable at all. That's $8 an hour! I'd just hire an older girl who could do it herself, for less money, rather than hire two younger girls who charge so much each. Sorry!!

By Tonya on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 09:06 am:

I think $5 per hour is enough even though there are 2 girls they can split the money down the middle. $8 per hour is too much money to pay a sitter for kids.

By Amecmom on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 09:11 am:

I pay $5 per hour each when I have team sitters. It gives me peace of mind to know that there are two pairs of hands and eyes on my kids. There is no difference in price when one of the sitters works alone.
I'm not sure about mommy's helper. I think I'd just have the same rate of pay. After all, the girls are still in charge of the children, mommy just happens to be around rather than being out.
Ame

By My2girlygirls on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 09:19 am:

The going rate here is almost $10 an hour for a teenager. So I thought getting two girls for less than what you would normally pay for one would be a good deal. I guess I will also ask the moms that they will be sitting for what is reasonable for them.

By Debbie on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 09:30 am:

I pay our sitter $8.00 an hour, but she is a freshman in college. I feel completely comfortable with leaving my boys with her. She plays with them constantly, and even brings fun activities for them to do. She really goes above and beyond with them. We got really lucky when we found her.

I don't think I would pay that for two 12 yr. olds. When we lived in Texas, I had a 13yr. old girl and her 11 yr. old sister that used to babysit for the boys. I paid them $6.00 an hour.

By Juli4 on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 10:51 am:

I would not pay 8 or 10 dollars for a babysitter because we could not afford that. I would pay about 5-6 if it was for 2 hours or less, but if it was longer then I would pay a little more. It also depends on how old your kids are. If they are toddlers then they require more work, but it is a 6 year old or older then you just talk with them, get them food, and stuff like that. You are not taking them to the bathroom, worrying about nap and stuff.

By Yjja123 on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 10:59 am:

$6.00 an hour ($3.00 per girl) is reasonable.

By Tink on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 11:17 am:

It would depend on how many kids were being watched but my upper limit would be $6/hr for both girls. $5/hr is standard here for a high school girl so $3 for a 12yo sounds right to me. If the rates are double that in your area, I guess you'd be able to ask for more.

By Tarable on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 11:52 am:

I haven't paid for a babysitter in years but my sister does frequently and she has 3 kids.. I think she pays either 10 or 12 an hour. I would think that they should get the same rate as one person and just split it. When my sister has someone watch just one of her sons she normally pays around 8 an hour... But she is not training my 12 yr old DD to be in charge of the boys as a mommy's helper and then probably in the fall to start watching them some without her there, but I am less than a mile away. I would think that 4 an hour per girl would be reasonable but I know different parts of the country pay different.

By Kaye on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 02:09 pm:

I think the age of the sitter makes a huge difference. My dd just turned 13, I do not let her accept more than 6 an hour. If asked she says 5 an hour.

One thing to be careful of, in ohio, you must be 12 to babysit, in texas the laws are a little more lenient. Red cross has always done their cetification for age 11 though. Causes lots of issues.

I will also add, my dd is certified has lots of experience helping out with me on jobs, doing mommy helper stuff, at church etc, she turned 13 in feb and this summer is the first time she is really being used. Most people prefer older sitters.

By Karen~admin on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 03:39 pm:

IMO, the rate you pay is relative to where you live. My sister tells me that babysitters in her area (Mill Valley, CA - Marin County) are up to $15 an hour!

I know in my area, where the cost of living is MUCH lower than in CA, babysitters are now getting around $8 an hour.

On the one hand, I think babysitting costs are sort of outrageous, but on the other hand - hey, you are paying to literally trust someone with your kids' lives, so how do you put a price on that?

I know everyone needs time away from the kids, date nights, has appointments and shopping to do that are easier or necessary to do without kids, so naturally we are looking for a reasonably priced sitter. And so if you are gone 3 or 4 or even 6 or so hours, it adds up quickly.

So I think you need to gauge what the average is in your area.

I would think that team babysitters (younger, albeit responsible girls) would earn less than a college freshman, simply due to their age.

I am all for kids earning their own money and learning financial responsibility. But something I've noticed with a few people I know personally is they pay their kids (or their kids' friends) - and I am talking in the 12-14 year old age range - ridiculous amounts of money for things like mowing the lawn, cleaning homes or offices, etc., and these kids are learning to expect a high dollar amount for everything they do, and that is just realistic.

IMO, two 12-year olds, as team babysitters, should be paid $5 or $6 an hour to SPLIT between them.

By Rayelle on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 04:04 pm:

Wow! I can't believe its a going rate for teens to get $8-$10 a hour babysitting in some places. I shouldn't be surprised since I live in a small town cut off from the rest of the world,lol. My mil and sil work in a child care facility and had to take college child card classes. They've worked there for about 7 years and get $8.50 per hour. I always thought teen sitters were supposed to be less than minimum wage, but I don't know why I thought that.

By Kym on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 04:46 pm:

My dd is the Babysitting Queen, all of my friends use her and she often gets 2-3 calls for the same evening. She never says her rates, she understands some can pay her more than others and she is happy with what she gets. She gets great referrals and lots of jobs, which she understands to be important as she wants to continue babysitting through high school to stay active in clubs and sports rather than a "job". For us, we pay $6.00 an hour with a $20.00 minimum for our younger 3 boys, so if we are only gone for an hour or two we'll pay $20.00 than to into the hourly after that. We only use one sitter besideds DD and when shes not available (yes we pay her the same) we use her freind and they are both happy with the pay.
I would say on average she gets 6-12 per hour, only two clients pay her $12.00, they love her and can afford it, and one is our financial adviser so he knows she'll put it in her college fund

By My2girlygirls on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 10:26 am:

Thanks for the info. I think we will stick with the $3 per hour per girl. Actually, I know that the people she would sit for know her and know us well and would not take advantage of her. I am confident that she probably won't even have to tell "how much" she charges, they will just be fair. Thanks for the input.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 11:25 am:

I pretty much never had a set price as a teen sitter. I trusted that the people would do right by me and they always did the best they could do. I was happy with any amount of pocket money I could get because it was more than I would make sitting at home... And between the ages of 12 and 17 I had saved up enough money to buy my first car out right, so I did something right even though I didn't always get paid the big bucks for my services...

I know one mom I watched for couldn't have afforded to pay me if I had had a set rate.. She wouldn't have been able to have any time away from her kids because her income was low (SAHM). I am glad I took what she could afford to give me because I know what it is like to be the mom that couldn't afford a night out and a sitter, so I just didn't go... I looked at my services as more than just an income, it was a way I could help out and give back.

Best of luck to your DD and her sitting buddy..

By Claire on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 12:11 pm:

I think 4 dollars each per hour is more that reasonable. My daughter (almost 15) gets 10.00 an hour.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 02:45 pm:

When I babysat, in the 70's, a good rate of pay, was $2/hr and low pay was $.50/hr! LOL! Wow, how times have changed.

My kids babysat for the small members of the family, for a wedding we went to, recently. The wife called to ask, if my kids would want to do this, and what would they charge. I said $5/hr for each. I didn't want to seem greedy, but I figured they needed to make more than I did, per hour, when I babysat 30 years ago. They ended up getting about $12/hr EACH!

They got $140 each, for 11 hours of babysitting. This was one of the doctors that I work for. He even asked me if they thought it was fair. I said it was more than fair. He REALLY appreciated that they helped out like that, and has told me that more than once!

Sarah has had a babysitting course and was CPR certified last summer. Most of the time, the babies/kids they were watching were sleeping, but just needed someone in the house, while they were there. The wedding reception was only a block from the house.

The night of the rehearsal, they had more kids to watch, but they were in the church nursery and had instructions that if babies got too fussy, they could take them back to mom. It all worked out quite well.

By Marcia on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 11:35 pm:

Dawn, I remember making .75/hr in the 70's, and I babysat almost every night.
My 14 year old started babysitting at 12. She told people she charged $5/hr, and each family argued and insisted on paying her at least $7.50. She makes $10/hr for a couple of families who have kids with special needs. She really rakes it in!

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, June 16, 2007 - 10:01 am:

I would say, because even with the much lower rates I made in the 70's, I always had a little box full of cash! I often paid the paperboy, if my folks weren't home! (weekly collection fee).

My sisters and I, plus one other girl, had a monopoly in our subdivision full of little kids! We were soooo popular and often had jobs just about every Friday and Saturday. People had to book us long in advance! (What's funny is that the other girl was born in the year my parents didn't have a baby, so we were little stairsteps in age! Me 16, Cheryl 15, Theresa-the other girl 14, and Margaret 13!)

It was a teenager's paradise, for making money!

By Crystal915 on Saturday, June 16, 2007 - 11:42 am:

I usually got a flat rate when I was her age. For example, I would often watch my dad's co-worker's 2 children from just before bedtime, until early morning. I would put them to bed, spend the night, and their mom would drive me home in the am. I was paid $50 for the night, and usually given money to order pizza. I pay my sitter $40 if I'm going out on the weekend, and that's for 8pm (just around bedtime) until 2am if I stay out late. For hourly care, I would say $4 per child per hour is fair, but that also depends on your area.

By Crystal915 on Saturday, June 16, 2007 - 11:44 am:

Oh, I should clarify, that's $4 an hour per child watched, not per sitter. Honestly, even with my kids, I don't know that I would feel a need for 2 sitters, if they really wanted to split the money, that's fine, but I agree with Kate, I could hire an adult or an older teen for the same price.

By Jjb on Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 10:55 pm:

I would pay them whatever the current going rate is and have the girls split it- where we live it's $7-10 per hour for 1-4 kids. $10 per hour for college or post college sitters, $7 for younger sitters. Now if a few families get together and have many kids I would up the rate.

By My2girlygirls on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 11:25 am:

We were planning to have them split whatever they get. We were not going to tell people that they were charging per hour/ per sitter, I just wanted to know what is fair. I think that they will be well compensated regardless. We have alot of people in the neighborhood who like the idea of having 2 sitters, it makes them feel more secure when there are multiple children, atleast that is what everyone is saying to us. I appreciate all of the input, I think they will have a busy summer. Thanks.

By Annie2 on Monday, June 18, 2007 - 08:40 pm:

My 13 and 11 year old dds sat today, around the corner, for a 3,4 and 5 year old. They each made $3.00/hour. They sat from 9-6. They are thrilled with their money.

They are sitting again later this week.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 - 08:47 am:

Sarah, I agree that two sitters are better than one.. four hands, four arms, four eyes.. Can't beat that...

I hope they have a busy summer...