Babysitting rates?

[RacerDeac]

$50? No chance I pay that much to go to a Christmas party for a company that Matt is only going to be working for for 2 more weeks.

Just drink $50 worth of booze and eat lots of food. :thumbsup:

 

[awakeandready]

For an offer to a friend (who likely won't take it), $10 sounds fine to me. I think $15 is closer to the going rate around here (especially for a more responsible person than the 16 year old next door), based upon what my co-worker pays for her sitter (the sitter is a grad student in child psych or something like that at Emory and my co-worker has a 2 year old and 6 month old - they pay her $16 with a 3 hour minimum) and what my other co-workers' kids make per hour (2 co-workers have 14-15 year old girls - they make $12).

Apparently I should have been charging more!

 

[DirtySouthDeacon]

$12-15 is what we pay, but we have two kids. We do tip as well and usually end up rounding to the nearest whole number or $5 increment. My honest advice would be that if you like the sitter and plan to use her/him again on any regularity, overpay. I mean, why be tight on the care of your first born child. Save money elsewhere.

 

[ConnorEl]

Agree with the advice to insist on paying.


I always found it difficult to feel very sure about what was a good rate. I think I tended to overpay, especially if I wanted the sitter to return for future opportunities. Nowadays, my kids are old enough to stay alone for a few hours. los:


I got to thinking...wonder what ~ 50,000 dollars is divided by the number of hours a student spends at Wake per year comes out to. Silly comparison, for sure, but I think it comes out to maybe somewhere in the range of 10 bucks/hour (!?). Depends on how you count the hours, of course.


Anyhow, enjoy your party.

 

[ConnorEl]

$12-15 is what we pay, but we have two kids. We do tip as well and usually end up rounding to the nearest whole number or $5 increment. My honest advice would be that if you like the sitter and plan to use her/him again on any regularity, overpay. I mean, why be tight on the care of your first born child. Save money elsewhere.

Exactly. Didn't see this post before I made my first one above.

My thinking has always been along the line that if I'm willing to pay upwards of 100 bucks for dinner or whatever is the indulgence of the day, why be cheap when it comes to paying for a good sitter?

 

[ITK]

$12-15 is what we pay, but we have two kids. We do tip as well and usually end up rounding to the nearest whole number or $5 increment. My honest advice would be that if you like the sitter and plan to use her/him again on any regularity, overpay. I mean, why be tight on the care of your first born child. Save money elsewhere.

Wait till your third born to start skrimping'.
-says the third born

 

[DirtySouthDeacon]

Wait till your third born to start skrimping'.
-says the third born

He/She will be here late March. I will let ya know.

 

[bojanglefunk]

He/She will be here late March. I will let ya know.

Uh oh. Now you'll be outnumbered.

 

[deaconson]

$50? No chance I pay that much to go to a Christmas party for a company that Matt is only going to be working for for 2 more weeks.

you aren't paying 50 bucks for that party. you are paying 50 bucks to be a couple again (rather than mom/dad) for an evening.

being the parent of a 2 year old i recommend you take advantage of having a baby sitter (and a job he's leaving) and skip out of the party early to have drinks at a favorite spot together, see a movie etc. anything you did together before mini me came a long and enjoy each others non baby company. it only gets tougher to make that time together.

 

[captruss24]

We're paying our nanny overtime tonight to keep our son so that we can go to a Christmas party as well. We generally pay her 1.5x per hour "overtime" what we normally pay per hour. I've found $10 to be a great starting point when dealing with a new babysitter.

 

[ChicdeaC]

you aren't paying 50 bucks for that party. you are paying 50 bucks to be a couple again (rather than mom/dad) for an evening.

being the parent of a 2 year old i recommend you take advantage of having a baby sitter (and a job he's leaving) and skip out of the party early to have drinks at a favorite spot together, see a movie etc. anything you did together before mini me came a long and enjoy each others non baby company. it only gets tougher to make that time together.

That's a good point. Though we're kind of homebodies and watching sports while the baby sleeps is pretty much the same as it was before the baby came.

Seriously though, I am definitely trying to keep this in mind and luckily we don't have long enough left here to worry about having a sitter with regularity, etc.

and she's a good enough friend that I think this will all end up being moot because there's virtually no chance she accepts payment (especially since she's been begging to spend time with the baby since she visited us in the hospital) but thanks for weighing in, now I will know what to offer AWaR when we move

 

[Matt'sFeelings]

Boy, chic and I have been fighting a lot about this subject. She even made me sleep in the guest room last night, and it was monthly hand job night. I got nothing. I tried to do it to myself, but it just wasn't the same thing so I gave up after about 45 minutes.:tear:

I found this lovely Mrs. Doubtfire type to be our nanny, but chic'll have none of it.

She's been looking for a nanny on some special site she found through a friend.

Anyway, she's been doing the interviewing while I am at work at the humane society.

She tells me she's found this awesome candidate. His name is Adam.

I say I want to meet the guy, so I take my lunch hour off to come home and meet him. I get home and there is some old yellow Toyota Corolla in the driveway.

I walk in and I hear these loud noises coming from the bedroom. Little "E" (not sure where she got the idea for that name, or where his curly fro like hair and dark complexion comes from) is in his play pen in the living room screaming and carrying on.

Well I run upstairs and find them sitting on our bed with messed up hair and looking nervous. Chic says she just finished the interview and Adam has to "be going."

Adam hustles out of there, and barely looks me in the eye. He drives off and of course leaves a giant oil stain in our driveway. Well gosh darnit, I am pretty steamed right about then because that means a trip to the hardware store for some sawdust.

I get back and chic says she wants to hire the guy. I ask about references and she says that all of her sorority sister moms in town swear by him.

So, how can I argue with that logic?

So later, out of curiosity, I look the guy up and this is what I find on the nanny website:

But that's not what started our fight. It seems like a strange picture for a nanny website, but if chic says Adam knows what he is doing, then that's good enough for me.

No, what really grinds my gears, and why I slept in the guest room last night (and probably all weekend) and why I didn't get my monthly handy is that I put my foot down when I saw that Adam is $15 an hour while Mrs. Doubtfire is only $12 an hour.

What do you guys think? Am I in the wrong? Should I just apologize and pay the extra $3 an hour?

I hate fighting with chic and she really seems to want Adam to do the job.

Please Pit help me out.

 

[PhDeac]

That's a good point. Though we're kind of homebodies and watching sports while the baby sleeps is pretty much the same as it was before the baby came.

Seriously though, I am definitely trying to keep this in mind and luckily we don't have long enough left here to worry about having a sitter with regularity, etc.

and she's a good enough friend that I think this will all end up being moot because there's virtually no chance she accepts payment (especially since she's been begging to spend time with the baby since she visited us in the hospital) but thanks for weighing in, now I will know what to offer AWaR when we move

That was us two years ago. He went to sleep around 7-8 and we still had time to hang out. Now he goes to sleep around 10 (maybe a little earlier since the time change) and my wife goes to sleep before he does, so we don't get that same time.

Take advantage of the babysitter. It's worth it.

 

[awakeandready]

but thanks for weighing in, now I will know what to offer AWaR when we move

:woot:

I addressed that in my first post! \/

For you, I would accept booze/dinner los:

 

[HeavyPetter]

That was us two years ago. He went to sleep around 7-8 and we still had time to hang out. Now he goes to sleep around 10 (maybe a little earlier since the time change) and my wife goes to sleep before he does, so we don't get that same time.

Take advantage of the babysitter. It's worth it.

Huh? My kids go to bed between 7:45 and 8:00 every night and have since they were old enough to establish a regular bedtime. Daylight Savings Time threw us off for about two days. They're 4 and 5 now.

 

[marquee moon]

Huh? My kids go to bed between 7:45 and 8:00 every night and have since they were old enough to establish a regular bedtime. Daylight Savings Time threw us off for about two days. They're 4 and 5 now.

Don't get me started on this subject or I will piss off 75% of the parents on these boards.

Good work, HP.

 

[RacerDeac]

Huh? My kids go to bed between 7:45 and 8:00 every night and have since they were old enough to establish a regular bedtime. Daylight Savings Time threw us off for about two days. They're 4 and 5 now.

Word...no way my kids are going to be up any later than 8 for a long time. Mine are 3 and 1.5 and we put them down between 6:30 and 7:30 right now. I've got friends with 10-11+ year olds who still put their kids to bed at 8 and swear by it.

I figure once my kids are old enough to be given a bed time that they can abide by themselves, they can stay up a little later. Until then, early to bed it is.

 

[DeacHoops]

Word...no way my kids are going to be up any later than 8 for a long time. Mine are 3 and 1.5 and we put them down between 6:30 and 7:30 right now. I've got friends with 10-11+ year olds who still put their kids to bed at 8 and swear by it.

my parents tell me i used to lie to my friends about my bedtime, because it was 8:30 until i went to middle school (at which point it became 9). i was embarrassed by it, apparently, so i lied to everybody. but they swore it was why we never, ever got sick.

 

[deaconson]

Boy, chic and I have been fighting a lot about this subject. She even made me sleep in the guest room last night, and it was monthly hand job night. I got nothing. I tried to do it to myself, but it just wasn't the same thing so I gave up after about 45 minutes.:tear:

did you try sitting on your hand for a few minutes? that really spices things up!

 

[DirtySouthDeacon]

Word...no way my kids are going to be up any later than 8 for a long time. Mine are 3 and 1.5 and we put them down between 6:30 and 7:30 right now. I've got friends with 10-11+ year olds who still put their kids to bed at 8 and swear by it.

I figure once my kids are old enough to be given a bed time that they can abide by themselves, they can stay up a little later. Until then, early to bed it is.

My 6 and 7.5 year old go to bed by 730 on weekdays and 8:00 on weekends. I mean, on special occasions they can stay up later, but bedtime is 730 on the reg.