What's a night out without the kids worth?

We pay $10 an hour...we have 3 children 7, 3, 1

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In the Boston area, the rates are just crazy. I will be the first to say, babysitters have a very important job, what with placing our off-spring in their care and all, but c'mon! Good babysitters will run you $12-15/hr depending on how many kids. This is a far cry from the $2/hr I was paid back in the early 90's!

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We ran into this problem just last night. After months of searching we finally found a wonderful sitter and went out for only the second time since our son was born 11 months ago. (Just in case my sister sees this, I mean while at home...she watched our son twice during a trip with the extended family.)

She would not give us an hourly rate but we opted for $10 an hour, which now seems utterly ridiculous since she spent 10 minutes rocking him to sleep and the rest of the time working on her laptop (which we registered on our home wireless net).

I'd happily pay double that amount if she were not moving out of state next month. Anyone know of a good sitter in Pittsburgh? :)

MetroDad recently covered this topic. We could all make a mint babysitting in New York.

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We don't use a babysitter often, but in Portland,Oregon we pay $5/hour to a high schooler (who does not have her own transportation) for two kids, aged two and five. $10/hour seems pretty crazy to me.

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We pay $13 an hour, but Paul loves our sitter. By the time we're ready to leave, she has him playing a game and he just wants to get his bye-byes over with so he can go back to it. She also includes our puppy in the games too, so both he and Paul are in bed by the time we get back. She works in a daycare during the week, so she's certified in cpr and first aid. She sits for a few of our other friends, and she's their kids' favorite sitter also.

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I live on the MA/RI border, and I have paid a high schooler $8/hr (she asked for $7) to watch my 15-month-old and $12/hr for a preschool teacher to watch him.

I had to pick up and drop off the high schooler and out son was still awake when we got home at 10 p.m. (She couldn't bear to let him cry for more than 5 minutes when she put him down, so she read to him for a while. A long while.)

The more expensive sitter is 24, has her own car, can feed him, play with him and put him to bed with no fuss.

It's v. expensive in our book, but, honestly, with another baby on the way, I would pay more sometimes just to get out of the house with my husband.

Michele

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We pay $12/hour for our 2 kids, and since we use college students with no car, we have to drive them to & fro. Usually, we have the kids asleep already by the time a sitter shows up; we literally pay for them to surf our TIVO and evacuate babes in event of fire. It is totally ridiculous, but that's life in DC. $12 is actually on the lower end- I know rates can go up to $15 or $18.

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We have a part-time nanny working for us 25 hours a week. She's taking a year off between highschool and college and we pay her $10 an hour. She does quite a bit though, as far as taking care of the four year old and the four month old in addition to tidying up. I'd eagerly pay her more so she wouldn't go off to further her education or whatnot. ; )

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I also read about this over at MetroDad's and posted. As a 23 year old who has been babysitting since I was 13 I've had good experience in the "paying the sitter" field. I can remember being 13 and making like $3 an hour babysitting 3 kids all day long and I thought it was good money at the time.

Today, at 23, I typically make $7-$8 an hour for one child and the one family I babysit for who have three children pay me $10 for babysitting the 2 and when the 4 week old is added that will increase to $12. I honestly don't think that's too much to ask especially when you're talking about getting an older, more experienced teenager or older sitter for a weekend night. I know I've given up time at my job to babysit so I feel I should be making at least as much as I would have made had I been there. And the parents always set the rate, not me.

When I babysit, I usually feed the children, clean up after their dinner, give them baths if they need them, read to them, maybe watch a movie with them, play with them, get them ready for bed and in bed and then clean up a bit more after they go to bed so the house is as clean (minus the dishes) as it was when the parents left. I feel that I'm doing plenty to earn what I'm paid and I absolutely adore the kids.

As the woman I sit for said "If you can find a babysitter that you trust, who your kids love, then take care of them... they're hard to come by!"

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Oh, this one made me laugh! We have an awesome sitter: she is a Montessori teacher-in-training. We pay her $8 an hour and she is worth it. I'm always worried that we are giving her the right/enough food for lunch or dinner which is a silly concern, really. Excellent care is worth it, but we try not to add up the total cost of the time out.
I know what you are saying about the rate negotiation. We didn't come home until one a.m. after a birthday party and I felt so guilty (our daughter was up from 12-1 and refused to go back to bed) that I told her we'd pay $10 an hour for any time after midnight. This was my suggestion because I don't want to lose her!

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I live in Israel. We pay the equivalet of $3 and hour for teens and $5 for adult babysitters. True all the salaries are less but coming from NYC it seems rediculously low to pay someone with 20 years of expiriance five bucks!

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We've only had one paid sitter (aside from my baby sister, who we'll sometimes pay cash to, in addition to treats and movies). The rate I normally offer is $20 for the first 3 hours and $5 an our after that. We have one child. If we had more, I would bump the overage to $7 an hour.

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I've babysat for 8.5 years for children of all ages. I make between $6-8 but I know that I'm the most inexpensive babysitter around. Maybe that's why I sometimes work 40+ hours a week in extra jobs! Rates vary greatly depending on where you live, I live in a small town so I can't charge as much as if I babysat in a large city.

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I've hired our next-door neighbor as a mother's helper while I work from home. Since I'm still on the premises and still field a lot of "Where is the (fill in the blank)" questions, I pay $6 an hour.

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we don't really have "babysitters". when we go out my daughter usually goes to grandmoms or my aunts. we have tried to pay them but they won't except it. they love having her and she loves going over there. she usually ends up staying the night and we either pick her up or they drop her off.

if she's not going over there when we need a sitter we usually use my fiance's neice or my sister and they won't take no more than $20 for however long they have her so i guess(well I know) we have it really easy and cheap. although I know if we ever have another child that will change.

i really don't trust sending her anywhere but with family.

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We live in Northern VA - We pay a day care teacher $15/hour to watch our 3 kids and I know this isn't unusually high. Needless to say - we don't use her much and rely on the kindness of friends and family for the oh too infrequent escapes.

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I live outside of Tacoma, WA, and I pay $5/hour to teenage babysitters. I've wondered if this is enough, but none of the girls have ever said anything. I have a friend in CA who pays $10 without batting an eye. It really is location.

Also--to Rachel--why don't you do the dishes?

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To answer "the girls' moma's" question, the reason I don't do the dishes is because there's a dishwasher. I clear the dishes from the table after the kids eat and rinse them, and if I cook something in a pan I'll wash that. :O) I don't know how they like their dishwasher loaded (I don't have the luxury of owning one) so I stack them nicely in the sink until they get home. Usually it's only dishes from one meal for the two kids so it's really no big deal.

Also, it's not something they've ever asked me to do. I usually have my hands pretty full and with two demanding kids and a now 6 week old, I honestly wouldn't have the time to wash them anyway. (I mean... isn't that why they own a dishwasher to begin with?)

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