The other day, in the comments on this post about phone calls, an interesting side-conversation about babysitting started up. It got me thinking about the current state of babysitting.
At our house, we haven’t had to hire a babysitter in ages. Instead, our kids have become babysitters themselves. Maude and Olive babysit for other families regularly — and they have for years. Beyond local babysitting, Maude was an Au Pair in Paris for a year, and Olive has traveled with a family during their spring breaks (to Mexico one year, and DisneyWorld another year) as the nanny. Oscar started babysitting this year too. Little kids LOVE hanging out with Oscar and he’s a really fun babysitter. Betty just turned twelve last month, and I imagine she’ll start getting asked to babysit as well.
That leaves June, who just turned 8 years old, and probably has no memories of any babysitters beyond her siblings. : )
Babysitting in the Bay Area typically pays $10 to $15 per hour depending on how many kids are involved. Maude has one family in the city who pays $20 an hour. That’s a higher rate than I’ve heard in other areas, and is definitely reflective of the insane cost of living here. As Oscar started babysitting he offered a discounted rate for the first few times because he wanted the practice.
In order for our kids to start babysitting, we’ve required them to take a Red Cross Babysitting course (which includes CPR), and to practice changing a diaper. That was easy to do for our older kids, because they had younger siblings to practice on. But it’s been harder to figure out how to help Oscar or Betty practice diaper changes. We started with dolls.
What are responsibilities while babysitting? Mostly it’s playing with the kids and keeping them off screens. My kids say one of the best strategies is thinking up or introducing new games. Or adding new stuff on to basic games — like you play soccer but every time you get a goal, you have to run around the net twice. I know Maude will often teach the kids how to play guitar. And if she’s in a walkable neighborhood, she’ll take them on outings to the library or park. Oscar likes to bring a babysitting bag with stickers and coloring books and other activities.
Beyond keeping the kids active and entertained, the next priority is feeding. Our kids expect to make dinner (or heat up the dinner the parents have made), and take care of snacks throughout the day. Cleaning is more flexible. Olive says she generally cleans up dinner if she made it, but might not clean the kitchen if it’s already messy when she arrives. For her, It depends on the kids and how much attention they need — giving the kids attention takes priority over cleaning.
Oscar (age 13) doesn’t have a cell phone yet, and Olive didn’t either when she started babysitting here in Oakland. Most families they babysit for don’t have a landline, so that can be tricky. Olive has a cell phone now, and Oscar has an iPod (an old phone without a sim card), that he can text with if there’s wifi. Once in awhile, we’ve sent them with one of our cell phones. And sometimes, the parents of the house they’re babysitting at will leave a cell phone.
I’d love to discuss the current state of babysitting with you. These are the questions I’m curious about when you hire a babysitter:
– At what age would you let your kids babysit for hire? And what age is the youngest babysitter you’ve ever hired? Do you trust young teens to watch your kids, or only adults when you hire a babysitter?
– If you don’t have a landline, or your sitter doesn’t have a cell phone, how do you handle communication?
– How much are babysitters paid in your area? Do you feel like it’s a fair rate? Do people pay cash to hire a babysitter? Write checks? Send payments via Venmo? (Our kids have received all three.)
– Is it hard to find sitters where you live? Do you have a regular babysitter that you rely on? If you have a full or part time nanny while you’re at work, do you hire them to do other babysitting too? Like date night or over the weekend?
– Are you uncomfortable with sitters altogether and basically only let your parents watch the kids (and rarely that)?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
I have a seven yr. old and have never paid a sitter. I’ve heard local ranges of about $7 + $1 per additional child/hr, up to $15/hr. Honestly there is nothing I want to do enough to pay that – plus the cost of whatever our date is! We’re very lucky to have two sets of grandparents who take our girl for regular weekend sleepovers, so we know we have a free 36 hours every 4-6 weeks.
We live south of you in the San Jose area and the going rate here is minimum $15/hr. I’ve had people quote me $25/hr for watching two kids. Crazy that the rates are so different only an hour or so away…because of that, we tend to do babysitting swaps with our friends rather than hire a babysitter. Though, we do have a favorite sitter from our church we’ll call if we’re in a bind! I’m on the hunt for responsible high schoolers who would sit our kids. I used to babysit all the time!
We’re in Palo Alto and the fast food places near us pay ~$18/hr, so young teens here expect to make $15/hr while my 2 girls sleep upstairs. Older teens are usually too busy with extracurriculars and adults generally charge over $25/hr. It’s usually just too expensive for a date night. Our local YMCA offers a monthly parent’s night out and entertains our children for free for 3 hours, so we do get one short date night a month.
I took the Red Cross babysitting class as a kid, before my parents would let me babysit, too, and I was so glad they did. I was 14 or 15 and babysitting for two kids- the oldest was 3 or 4. The kids were eating dinner, left by the parents, when the oldest started to choke (really, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t cough, choke). I remembered the Heimlich maneuver from babysitting class and was able to dislodge the hot dog. It was terrifying, but I was so glad I had explicitly learned what to do.
I called the parents emergency number, the parents came home, and took their daughter to the ER just to be sure everything was okay- and they let me stay home and keep babysitting the youngest! They called me to babysit for years after that.
I’ll toss in my comment because I suspect it’s different than many: I live in rural Ontario with many Amish and farming neighbors. We do a lot of trading babysitting favours, but I often do hire my Amish neighbor teenage girls to babysit. Their pay for 4-6 hours? $40.00. Yes that’s a fair price in my area.
Also, if they are babysitting during the day they aren’t just watching the kids—they are doing whatever jobs I have around for them to do, like folding laundry, light cleaning, meal prep, weeding flowerbeds.
If they are babysitting for an evening, I typically make supper and have it ready to serve when they come. Then they eat with the kids, clean up the kitchen, and just spend time with the kids until bedtime.
I’m so grateful for their help since we don’t live near either set of grandparents!
Weeding flowerbeds? Am I the only one who finds this a strange task to ask of a babysitter?
I started babysitting at age 10, and had worked as a mother’s helper for several years prior to that. I can’t imagine hiring someone that young now!!
I usually start my sitters as mothers helpers in 7th or 8th grade. My husband & I like to have them over on a weekend to entertain our child while we do home improvement projects together. Then, as they get older, they become date night sitters.
We pay the grade (a 7th grader gets $7/hr, for example) so they also make increasingly more as responsibilities increase.
What great questions! We live in Belgium with our three boys ages 3, 6, and 8. The going rate for babysitters here is an astoundingly low 6-7 euros an hour. We usually pay 8+ because we have three rambunctious boys, and because I tend to hire older babysitters (undergraduates or graduate students, which there are plenty of in our university town). I don’t quite feel comfortable leaving them with a younger babysitter, although we did hire our current babysitter (now 18) four years ago when I was pregnant and with a newborn, as a mother’s helper. In between, we rarely got babysitters, since I didn’t feel comfortable leaving a baby, and because bedtimes, the primary time that we would need/want to go out, were IMPOSSIBLE for many years, even for TWO parents, I couldn’t imagine how one younger person would do it. There were usually two or three separate bedtime routines going on, and it took forever, and someone would usually wake up not long after… So for quite a few years our only real dates were when grandparents were here to visit or we were visiting grandparents. Now it feels like a whole new world! We have a reliable babysitter, bedtime “hour” goes on for a long time but is manageable for one person, and everyone stays asleep once they’re asleep. Hallelujah! Now we’re moving to France (I’ve been reading your old France posts lately!), and I’m bummed we’ll have to find babysitters again….
I would let my kids start babysitting for hire at 12. I have hired a 12 year old before, but I was in the house. At the time, my kids were 13 months, 3, 5, and 7. When leaving them alone, I have preferred older teens due to the number of kids. Now that they are a bit older 3,5,7,9, I would be ok with a younger teen, though still would be a lot for an average 12 year old (in my opinion).
We don’t have a landline, so if a sitter doesn’t have a personal cell phone, I leave mine. (I have only hired when going out with my husband. Now, he is away for a few month on business, and I hadn’t considered what I’ll do if a sitter doesn’t have a phone now since I would need to be taking mine. Hmmm…..)
I have no idea what sitters are paid in my area because we don’t go out much, and I don’t really have a good network of friends I could consult, but I did recently find out that my $10/hr seems low to older teens I was hiring. I have asked “how much do you charge?” to sitters before and quite often they say “Whatever is fine.” I think a sitter should assess what they think they are worth and be willing to share that confidently if asked. It could even be phrased as “Well, I feel I am worth $XX.” That leaves room for accepting less, but showing confidence in abilities. Often, we work for less than we are worth, but knowing you are worth more also can convince others to recognize your worth and may surprise you with being met with your request.
It has been hard to find a sitter since we are in an area with a lot of young families. Most of the teens in our area are the oldest sibling, so they are often busy babysitting their own siblings. No regular sitter, but a pool of a small handful. I always try first the sitter who does things with my kids other than rely on screens for entertainment.
I wish I could rely on my parents, but they live too far away.
Another question for readers, how do you feel about relying on parents/family for babysitting? Do you feel it is their duty? Are they compensated other than time with grandkids? Is this their main “time with grandkids” or an added bonus outside of family visits? Do they have regular times they will babysit for you? Do you expect them to make themselves available to babysit?
As mentioned, I don’t live close enough for that benefit, however, I have siblings who do. One expects my parents to be available to babysit when they need them, even with short notice, and it is usually to accommodate their work schedules (not just for date nights), and they are upset when they aren’t available because my parents are actually busy with various other commitments in their lives. Sometimes, I am annoyed hearing their annoyance that they had to pay a babysitter because “Mom & Dad couldn’t do it” especially because it is for them to work.
My 13 year old daughter would like to start babysitting . . . but here in Germany the Red Cross course (or similar) are only open to age 14 and over! As a kid in Canada, I remember doing the course when I was about 12.
I live in a small city in Maine, where most people pay $8-15/hour for a 14-18 year old to babysit. I pay $5/hour, and say that up front when I hire a new sitter. I tell them I am not offended if they don’t want to sit, because I know that is lower than the vast majority of people. I have yet to have anyone not want to sit. If I’m gone for 2.5 hours, I will round up to $15, usually. I also tell the sitters they are not to do the dishes, or anything extra, as I’m not paying them enough to do that.
I live in Ga and have 6 kids, aged 13 years to 18 months. I would probably handle babysitters differently, but we foster and adopted, so our kids have some very specific safety rules that have not been followed by babysitters, in the past. As a result, I only leave them with a grandma or very responsible friend if necessary during the day. We only hire a babysitter for date nights. I feed the kids and put them to bed before I leave (usually they’re watching watching a movie in bed) so all the sitter has to do is watch TV and make sure the kids stay put. For that, I pay about $5 per hour. Right now, we primarily use my husband’s aunt. She lives around the corner, and works a full time job. She doesn’t seem to mind coming over, visiting with the kids for a few minutes and then relaxing with a movie until we get home. I don’t have to worry about the kids breaking house rules, and as a bonus the house is in the same condition I left it in and the pantry hasn’t been decimated. (I didn’t have a problem on principle with hiring boys, but they generally ate all the junk food and left the kids to take care of themselves- a big no-no. Also, babysitters letting my kids change the baby’s diapers, etc was a common problem, with sitters of both genders.) I have only ever used adults or teens over the age of 17.
I live in Washington D.C. and have three kids under 5 years old. For daytime sitting I pay around $20 an hour for a college-aged person to watch the kids (most of the time at least one of the kids is napping!) It feels steep, but babysitters who I know and feel comfortable with are scarce! For evenings, I have a friend I swap nights with once a month. It saves us SO MUCH money! So I’ll go watch her 4 kids so they can have a date night, and then she’ll come watch mine the next week. It’s a lifesaver!
I swear when I was a kid, I got $20 no matter how many hours I was at someone’s house! :-D Now we pay $12-$15/hour for two kids (aged 2 and 6). Our favorite babysitters are people who worked at our kid’s daycare or preschool. We know our kids love them, we know they love kids, and we can really trust them. It does make a night out quite expensive, though, so we only rarely have a babysitter! I always feel jealous of people whose families are close by and can babysit.
I live in the rural Midwest and pay $10 and then give a generous tip. It’s just too much for us to afford a night out plus the babysitting, so my husband and I have only been on 4 dates in the 8 years that we’ve been married. We don’t have family close by that we can rely on and our kids are too young to stay late at their friends’ houses. I always feel a jealous when I read about couples that can have a ‘date night’ or about how important a date night is to your relationship because it’s such a luxury if you don’t have family. When my parents do visit, I don’t want to miss the chance of spending time with them to take time out for a date!
That’s $10/hr, of course.
I live in Marina Del Rey, California, and it’s incredibly expensive here. We rarely go out because a sitter runs anywhere from $15-25 an hour, generally more towards $25. We did finally find a local college student who only charged us $12. I would have happily hired a teenager if I had been able to find one
I am a college student babysitter from South Dakota and make two dollars an hour for watching a five-year-old four times a week. I get him at 3:30 and watch him until 10:30. His mom brings supper for him because I barely have enough food to make for myself or times when I don’t eat.
I also babysit for a eight month old occasionally. She’s an old classmate of mine and it depends on how long they are gone. For overnight its 30 per a day. But it varies if its just a few hours. I’ve been paid 15 for two hours one time than another 10 than 20 another time.
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Loved reading these comments. We live in Minnesota and pay $12-$15/hour for our 5yo and 7yo. Will also give a tip if they clean up a messy house or we stay out later than expected. Our son has severe food allergies, so when he was a toddler and preschooler, we primarily hired teachers from his daycare center. Now we have teens babysit regularly, one whom also has food allergies, which is comforting. We also will leave them with a pre-teen friend if we’re in the neighborhood. We often get feedback that we’re overpaying, but they have big responsibility, and I want them to say yes when I call:)
I’m in Chicago, and we play between $15 and $18 for two kids. For several years, we used Chime (a now-defunct service through SitterCity), where we selected babysitters based on experience, background check and proximity. We had several who would babysit repeatedly, and our kids had favorites. The best part about the app was that payment happened automatically via a credit card on file. When Chime closed, they sent us the direct contact info for several of our most frequent sitters, so they’ve remained our go-tos. There are also two teenagers who live in our building, and their mom’s rule is that we can pay the same number as the grade they’re in (so when the then-8-year-old was helping us out at a birthday party, we paid $8, etc.). In general, I prefer someone with more experience if it’s daytime or early evening (dinner & bedtime can be effort-intensive), but if we’re going out after the kids are already in bed, it’s not as important.
$15-$18 per hour