Babysitter questions

[Amber1279]

When you hire a babysitter ...

How much do you pay per hour?
Do you leave a list of "house rules"
Do you expect the babysitter to pick up (toys, dishes, ect)

[scrappurple]

Originally Posted by Amber1279

When you hire a babysitter ...

How much do you pay per hour?
Do you leave a list of "house rules"
Do you expect the babysitter to pick up (toys, dishes, ect)

My dd was paid $8 an hour.
Yes, house rules were left (and I left them for my babysitter when they were younger)
Yes, I expected by dd when she babysat and my babysitter to clean up the mess that THEY made. If there was a huge mess in the sink from earlier, I didn't expect her to be my maid. But she did need to clean up what mess she made. I did tell my dd that when she was babysitting to go above and beyond when babysitting. That cleaning up a little and doing that extra step will go a long way in the long run.

[NatalieKW]

I remember making a $1 an hour per kid. I don't think that's the standard anymore, but I'm only 28 and that's what I made as a teenager. Unfortunately, I think times have changed...

[farrijc]

I pay $10 for three kids. I don't leave a list of rules, just go over general do/dont's for the kids when I have someone new sitting. My 8 year old will be quick to tell the babysitter if his brother or sister are doing something wrong. lol I do expect the house to be in the same condition as when I left it. I have never said that, but I find that most do pick up before we get home.

[luckyme]

Originally Posted by Amber1279

When you hire a babysitter ...

How much do you pay per hour?
Do you leave a list of "house rules"
Do you expect the babysitter to pick up (toys, dishes, ect)

We paid $9 per hour for our (then) 3 year old (3 years ago!) -- we don't go out much, LOL!

No house rules. I did give the sitters a list of ideas of things to do (like walk to the park, watch a DVD) and some "special treats" to share with my DD (like popcorn with the movie).

The only thing I expected a teen sitter to do was watch my DD for a few hours in the evening. That said, the girls we had did tidy up without us ever asking them to. They were great teens!

[Sarah8914]

I use younger babysitters (12-14) and think you can pay them a little less. And I know my kids are easy to babysit, but if they were hard, it may be different (or we probably wouldn't ever get sitters).

I used to leave rules sometimes... mostly just when bedtime was and what they needed to do before bedtime. My oldest two are 7 and 5 and they can tell the sitter all of that now, so all I leave is our number. Also, 99% of the time we get a sitter, my kids are sleeping more than half of the time (or supposed to be). So I take that into consideration also. They just have to sit out my house once the kids are in bed.

So all that being said, we generally pay $2/hr/kid. I personally think making $20-25 for 3 hours is good for young babysitters. Especially because they usually LOVE babysitting and have fun with the kids... and only for an hour and then they're in bed. I have to say... we do have 4 kids (though I usually put the baby to bed first, so I just count 3)... and it would be harder to pay $2/hour for only 1. I think when we had 2 kids we did $5/hr.

And yes, I expect the house to be as clean as it was when I left! But I will teach my children to leave the house better than they found it.
I don't tell them to clean, I just assume they would. And if they don't, it's not a big deal--but I would probably pick someone else over them if they left my house a mess!

[julifish]

My DD is 13. She babysits for the neighbors and they pay her $5/hr. Sometimes if she does it last minute or stays late they give her a little more.
I've taught her to ask for a list of the house rules, bed times and to ask questions about what they are allowed and not allowed to eat.
She always picks up the house a little bit (any kind of mess the kids make) and she sometimes does extra dishes, etc.

My good friend has 1 child, 7 yo girl. She uses sitters that can drive themselves so that she and her husband never have to drive the sitter home. They live in a more upper class area than us. She pays no less than $10/hr for these sitters so they are always available to sit for her. They also try to go out earlier in the evening so the sitter doesn't have to stay late. If I was a sitter I'd be chosing to sit for them every time. What an easy, nice paying gig!

[nun69]

I never really had a set fee but I remember paying one of the girls like $40 to watch Sam & Ben (Sam was 9, Ben was 2 1/2) to basicallt just watch them so we could go to a Chrsitmas party...and I didn't leave any actual rules other than to call us if she needed something...now I use my DD (19) and have been for awhile, but since we pay her to get her brother and sister up for school, she is also expected to watch all of them when we want to go out (generally about once a month) and she does not get any extra It is part of her "rent"

[emmasmommy]

How much do you pay per hour?
we pay $8/hr for our 2. our babysitter is also 19 though, so i feel we need to pay her a little more than i would a 12 or 13 yr old.

Do you leave a list of "house rules"
the only "rule" we have is no friends allowed in the house while we're gone.

Do you expect the babysitter to pick up (toys, dishes, ect)
i don't expect it, but if they do it, we'll ask them to sit again.

[Amber1279]

a local friend had a teenager sit babysit and came home to the house worse than she left it. Her boys are 3 & 1. Sitter was ready to walk out the door the minute they got home and barely gave details of the evening. I used this same sitter and had a similar experience but I have 3 kids.

I paid her about $10/h ... it was $30 for 3 1/2 hours
She pays this sitter $7/hr

The friend ask this morning if cleaning up after the kids was a high expectation because another teen at church did the same.

[nun69]

now that is not kewl...I would expect the house to look like it did when I left....so I would expect her to pick up toys and at least put dishes and such in the sink.....

[lovely1m]

I've never hired a teenage babysitter. I am thinking of doing it though soon so this is good information.

[glumirk]

I don't really trust our babysitter that can drive anymore, but it has more to do with life choices than babysitting.

Our favorite babysitters are the girls who would love to watch our kids regardless of money. We have two from church that we alternate between. Neither of them has complained about our kids and they always have a long list of things to report the fun things they did. Our house always looks at least the same, if not better when they get home. I even found out once that one of them accidentally melted butter in the wrapper in our microwave, but she cleaned it up so well that I didn't know until she was telling the story a few weeks later. Total bonus, even if it was a little bit of wasted butter!

We pay $5 for our two kids, and that usually includes a lot of sleep time.

[MommaTrish]

I use my 16 year old sister and I can pay her in Starbucks. lol

However, if we ever needed a sitter I'd ask the youth pastor at our church who he would recommend. I know a lot of the other parents in the church have done that and always are really happy about the sitters they use.

Pay.... I dunno. I guess we'd probably go for $10/hour or so.

[rach3975]

I think going rates for babysitters must be higher here. A few years ago we used a young teen as a mother's helper and paid her about $8/hr. I think older teens get at least $10.

Condition of the house would depend. If a babysitter was there after the kids were asleep, I'd expect the house to look like I left it. If the kids were awake the whole time I'd be a lot more forgiving of a mess, since juggling my 3 kids would keep anyone pretty busy.

Not to hikack, but do those of you with more difficult kids use teen sitters? I don't personally know any teenagers or have any friends with teens, so I've never felt brave enough to try. My oldest (8) would be fine and very helpful. My youngest (3) might have a hard time at bedtime without a familiar adult, but she would try to be cooperative. But it's my 6 year old that I never know what to expect from. I've thought about hiring 2 teens (asking 1 to bring a friend who also babysits), but then it gets too expensive to be worth it.

[dana]

it's expensive where i live - we pay $15/hour (for 2 kids) ... and i do expect them to clean up after themselves, especially if its in the evening and the kids have gone to bed (i.e., they have time to go around and pick up toys, etc). i have a younger girl on the street (11 years old) who comes over sometimes to act as a 'mothers helper' while i'm here (basically playing with kids while i do some chores around the house for a few hours) - i pay her $5/hr - but she's just trying to get experience before she's old enough to really babysit.

[Sherri Tierney]

It has only been recently that we have hired a baby-sitter for our two (10 and 6). In years past if we were to go out (like 3 times in 9 years) then we would just trade baby-sitting services with a friend. It was nice because we never paid one another and we always dropped the kids off at the other person's home too.

Now we have a baby-sitter who is 14. She watches our kids at her house and that is perfectly fine by us. We give her $5 to $10 an hour per child (2 kids so $10 - $20 an hour). Since she is watching them at her house we don't expect her to put them to bed, her house rules apply more than ours (our kids will tell her if they aren't allowed to do something) and no mess to worry about. We would have no problem with her watching them at our house but she feels more comfortable watching them at her house and my kids prefer going to her house too as she has 4 step-siblings and a nephew who lives with them and two of the step-siblings are the same ages/grades as my two kids so it makes for built in entertainment when they are there (they aren't always since they have every other weekend with their dad and we've managed to have her watch them on their dad's weekend a time or two). Our baby-sitter is something special though. I used to baby-sit her when she and her brother were tiny. I held her the day she was born and she walked down the aisle with her parents as part of the wedding party at my wedding, she was 3 months old. DH and I were friends with her parents in high school and we are still pretty close with her dad. When her and her brother were little they practically lived at my house and were like my own children so I'd do anything for them. I'd give her $100 an hour if I had it, honestly. At Christmas time she watched our son while we went to a company Christmas party and the little stinker refused to take any money for it. The next time she watched the kids I paid her extra. She still tried to refuse but she is going in to her freshman year in high school, she'll need some spending money

[newfiemountiewife]

I pay $10 an hour for my three, who are 11, 9 and 7, so it's not even like baby sitting. They don't need help with anything. My son is almost 12 and is quite responsible, so I let him help with his sisters during the day if my shift overlaps with Tony's, but in the night time I have someone there with them. I don't require any extra cleaning, only that they clean up anything that got messed up while they were there. I don't think that's a lot to ask.

I had a couple of great teen babysitters, but the one I had asked to sit for me (and who agreed to!) for the summer has decided she only wants to sit when it's convenient for her, and it's put me in an awful spot for child care. Very annoying.

[cbettua]

I have only had adult babysitters, around 20-21. I have one that is 7 dollars an hour and one that is 10 an hour. I have a 1year old and a 2.5 year old. I prefer the 10 dollar an hour one since she cleans my house lol (I never asked her to but she just does everytime)

I leave a sheet with instructions and contacts, dr info, hospital etc Never had to leave rules for them, I guess since they are adults.