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Fellow Parents. How much do you pay a baby sitter per hour?

lokiju

lokiju

Lifer
I know a lot of people will answer "nothing" since they have relatives around that watch the kids for them.

I'm asking to those parents that don't have built in free baby sitters and actually have to pay someone to watch the kids. How much per hour do you pay?

Trying to figure out if I'm around the average price point for what we're paying our sitter.

She's a "teacher" from the room before his current on at his daycare. Makes it nice since he knows her and she loves him and we trusted her to provide all day care for about a year at daycare while he was in her room.

We're paying her $10 an hour, which doesn't sound that bad but an evening out for the wife and I will typically take 5 hours. Which usually is dinner and a movie.

When the nights done it's.

$50 for babysitter
$50-$100 for dinner
$20-$30 for movie and maybe some candy/drinks.

For a evening out for 5 hours we're looking at a $130-$180 a pop.

Adds up quick.

Starts to feel like $10 an hour is good but after 5 hours it's not so great.

What is everyone else paying?

Also leads me to wonder, how old were your kids when you started taking them to the movies with you?

My son turned 2 almost a month ago, I figure it's still to soon but would be fine bringing him with us once he's at the point he'd actually sit and watch the movie.
 
I'm not a parent, but from what I've heard $10 an hour is a pretty good price from your end. That all depends on the sitter's age and experience and I'm assuming they're younger in this case.
 
It's based on sitter's experience and qualifications(cpr/first aid trained, ability to respond in emergency kids situations). $10 is more than fair. Yea, it adds up quick...my wife and I ask our parents or my brother usually.
 
Costs me $7.99 a month for netflix + $.68 for a can of Alpo.

When we leave and the 7 year old stays at home, i turn a movie on netflix (usually power rangers the movie) and put the dog food in a bowl next to him. The movie keeps him occupied, the dog food is so the dog stays next to him and keeps an eye on him. She's 12, so really that makes her 84, which is old enough to be a very responsibile babysitter.
 
wow, expensive "night out".

are you friends with other parents where you could do a trade off? you watch their kids so they can have couple time and then vice versa?
 
$10 an hr is high in my opinion unless they are well qualified and bring you a peace of mind.

$10 an hour is a starting out nanny rate (I know some nanny's).
 
Depends on the sitter. We have one that we use regularly that works at our youngest son's day care. She's 20 and we pay her $10/hr. If she's not available, we'll use a teen in the neighborhood, and we pay them $7/hr.
 
We have been using a sitter for the summer. At least one day a week, sometimes two. I can't remember what my wife pays her but it's a bit above minimum wage. I think it's $8/hour. And sometimes it's one kid, other times it's two.

The girl is young (~16) but was highly recommended.
 
we pay anywhere from $5-10 it really depends on who is available.


edit: i forgot to mention thats for 2 kids. a 9 yr old and a 5 yr old (well 4 but his birthday is in 3 weeks)
 
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So perhaps you'd be able to shave off a buck or two an hour, but that's only going to save you $10 at most, so lets look at the rest of your math:

lokiju said:
$50 for babysitter
$50-$100 for dinner
$20-$30 for movie and maybe some candy/drinks.

For a evening out for 5 hours we're looking at a $130-$180 a pop.
Click to expand...

It obviously depends on what part of town/the country you're in (a decent burger in Manhattan costs $20, for example), but $50-$100 is a lot of money to spend on dinner for two when you have a young kid and are tight on money. There are less expensive, hole-in-the wall type restaurants all over the place that have surprisingly good food and are cheap. It just takes some time to find them.

Another option, if you are looking to go out with friends, is to start a rotating dinner club. Making a meal for 6 or 8 is only marginally more stressful than cooking for two, and by rotating around a group, you're only cooking a small fraction of the time. You can still leave the baby with a sitter so you can relax, without running up such a bill. Each time you cook, it will likely only cost you $50 (or less), so you end up bringing down the overall cost of going out by 3/4.

Also, there are many cheaper alternatives to going out to a movie. If you get weekends off, go enjoy something outside for free, and make the dinner the end cap to your evening. Or, if you really want to see a movie, spring for DVDs/Netflix instead of a theater. You're not being social during the movie anyway, and it's not as if you're likely to run into lots of people there. There's more than enough good movies out there that you haven't seen yet.

I understand that these options are not for everyone, particularly if you're used to a particular kind of lifestyle, but they are an option that will make your social life a lot cheaper.
 
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We paid $9/hour as of last weekend. It was the first time we had ever had a babysitter(outside of family members) for our 2.5 year old son.

Went well except I was forced into seeing Harry Potter, vomit......
 
Depends on the sitter and length of time they're watching the kids. More per hour if it's a short amount of time, and older sitter = more. $6-10.

When asked, I've never had a sitter give me any answer other than, "whatever you think is fair." Which is annoying because I'm probably paying them a lot more than they'd take otherwise.
 
My cousin and his inlaws both paid $15 an hour to retired teachers to baby sit at their house. 40 hours a week. That's in Vinings, GA.

I also have an older cousin lives in Sugarloaf Country Club and they have live-in nanny. They pay lot less than the above. It's cheaper to get live-in nanny but you have to give up some of your privacy and provide free housing, food, etc.
 
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