Child care rates?

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

I have a question for the parents and/or child care workers in the community. What is a reasonable rate to charge parents for babysitting? I'm a grad student looking to supplement my loans and TA job with some evening babysitting, but I haven't done any in the Boston area since I was in high school.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

Comments

[sissychrissy1.livejournal.com]

Assuming you have some experience, I wouldn't go lower than $10, and I would go higher if you are sitting multiple kids.

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

cool. i definitely don't think it would be wrth it at this point for less than $10/hour.

[lissie930.livejournal.com]

I live in Somerville, and the going rate for grownup sitters seems to be $12 an hour or so. For example, I pay my sitter $40 for 3 hours sitting for my two kids (aged 3 and 1).

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

Great. I'll use that as my standard.

[lissie930.livejournal.com]

By the way, I meant to say, since you're located in the Davis Square area, there is a yahoo group dedicated to Lexington Park (it has some huge turf wars going on, but you can ignore that), where people occasionally post looking for sitters. Honestly, I don't know the etiquette of posting "Hey! I'm available" there, but it might be a resource.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexingtonpark/

HTH!

[xmasfruitcake.livejournal.com]

a family in cambridge pays me $14 for two, while another family in belmont gives me $15 for one or two. if someone asked me what i'd like to get, it would have to depend on the children. but i'd probably say $13-$14.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Damn, I used to get $1 an hour when I was a teenage sitter, no matter how many kids. And it wasn't even all that long ago....

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

yeah, I grew up around here and got $5/hr to babysit 2 kids at a time. (about 4 years ago...)

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

$1/hour?!?!?!!??!

I can't believe people would pay someone so little to look after their children. That's sort of horrifying.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

That's what my partner's parents paid. That was only 15 years ago. Of course her sitter was an abusive asshat so maybe that's also a strike against $1/hour.

12 years ago, I was getting $6/hour to watch a really sweet 3 year-old and they bought me dinner plus usually tipped me 10% on top of the total.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

It was in the 80s, in rural Upstate New York. Teenage babysitters never got more than $1 an hour -- we would never have even thought to ask. I did secretly wish it was $2, but I couldn't have imagined $15 an hour in my wildest dreams. $15 was like...a million. :-)

I'm sure professional nannies were paid much better. But usually adult sitters sat for free, and were relatives or friends of the parents. As an adult I babysat for free a few times for my friends. But then I moved to Boston, and it doesn't work that way here.

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[kjc.livejournal.com]

A friend who sits in Concord said she gets $16-17 per hour. But that's for multiple kids. And, of course, it's Concord.

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember when I would babysit as a teenager and get around $6-$8/hour, then this family from Newton moved in, and they started paying me $12/hour, and this was 10 years ago. I loved them!

[kelmit.livejournal.com]

I get $12/hr sitting for 1-2 kids, for a family I'm pretty much friends with. They also pay me if they cancel or come home early (their idea). Really awesome people. I have a friend who babysits out in Newton and gets $20-30/hr.

Yeah, I remember in high school being SO excited about a $1 raise to $5/hr for 2 kids when I figured out how to make the toddler go to bed without howling every night (something his parents didn't even know how to do-- they used to put him to bed, read him a story, and then race out of the room and quickly shut the door behind them while he wailed and pounded on it, until he finally got so pooped that he fell asleep on the floor next to the door... contrary to how it might sound, they too were awesome people).

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

haHA! I used to babysit for a family with an awesome mom who used to suggest I do the same thing. Incidentally, I was also able to get him down without screaming, which was unusual. Kids are funny with babysitters - his mom used to joke that he had a crush on me and wanted to impress me. lol.

[kelmit.livejournal.com]

dude, but my trick was transferrable to the parents, whereas my stunning good looks, a litte less so. I'll sell it to you for a dollah.

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

if i do end up doing some babysitting, i may take you up on that. ;)

[kelmit.livejournal.com]

ok, how do you feel about narcotics? ;)

$30 an hour?!

[azores.livejournal.com]

Wow, what does that job entail? Wet nurse to a brood of baby ocelots?... Actually, in thinking about it, that job in Newton would be $40/hr.

Re: $30 an hour?!

[kelmit.livejournal.com]

lol! There's apparently fierce competition for college-educated nannies in Newton. :)

Re: $30 an hour?!

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I teach in Newton. It's another universe.

Don't even think too hard of what they'll pay for tutors...

[tracy-rolling.livejournal.com]

I couldn't afford to hire any babysitter until a 13-year-old boy and his mom moved into our building. He's wonderful. He's too young to be having going-out plans most weekends, so he's usually available. If anything goes wrong, his mom is upstairs to step in. We don't have to drive him home, so we can drink if we want to. And best of all, when I told him I'd pay him $6 an hour he got wide-eyed and said that was *twice* as much as he had expected to be offered.

Teenage babysitters rule. I know all the arguments for paying babysitters 10-16 bucks an hour, but frankly who can afford that? And going out at night you are paying the person to sit in your house and watch TV or study while your kid sleeps. Most of the time since my son was born I barely made $10 an hour myself.