Monday, July 19, 2010

Babysitters

Colby & I have been very lucky to live close to all of our family...which has meant a lot of free babysitting. Well, now some of that family is gone and our options are very limited. Not in a bad way. Just in a way that we don't feel like we can use them every time we need someone to watch our kids. We've been very unlucky to live in a ward where the girls just aren't very trustworthy, or responsible enough to use. That's sad to say. But now there are some girls who are getting old enough to babysit, and I would trust them. Trust that they wouldn't go through our things, trust that they would play with my kids, and most importantly trust that they would watch my kids. Now my problem is I don't know how much to pay them. We've used Colby's neice quite a bit, and I pay her a good chunk of cash each time because she plays with them and watches them. Doesn't just plop them down in front of the tv or shoo them outside. Anyway...my question is...
how much should I pay a babysitter per hour for my 3 kids? 

7 comments:

Makayla & Cory Curtis said...

I wish I was there to watch them. I miss them so much! I have had to use a lot of babysitters when we lived in Cedar and i paid them about $1.00-$2.00 per kid per hour depenging on how good they were with the kids. And thats about what I got paid when I babysat kids when I was younger!

Kristen said...

Yup, 1 -2 dollars per kid an hour works. When you come home and find them pretending to sail in an empty cardboard box then you give them more!!! Wish my girls could help out.

Jenny said...

Babysitters are so overpriced. We paid 10 bucks an hour for a girl who plopped the kids in front of the tv while we were gone. The babysitter was more than our date!! I think 1-2 per hour per kid is good and a little more if they play, with the kids, and clean up. My mom always said I better leave the house in better condition than I found it. We don't have any family close and so we have to use sitters...bummer! We do not go out much because they are way too pricey!!

ROB AND HOLLY said...

Krista Olmstead is an awesome babysitter, and I pay her $2-$3 per kid per hour and think she is TOTALLY worth it! She plays with kids, cooks, cleans, and the kids LOVE her!

The Millers said...

Unfortunately we have to get a lot of babysitters too. We usually pay $2-$2.50 an hour/per kid. And no less than $5 an hour(you know, if it's just Kambree) More than that if I call them last minute or they are super good, my kids love them and we want them to come back. But, we have been told by a few parents that we paid their kids too much, so really I don't know either!
You really should use us more often, we're free and our kids love it!

Allison said...

I've always done $2 per kid per hour. Let me know if you find a girl close that is great, maybe I'll steal her when you are not using her!

Elisa said...

I think it depends on the babysitter. I have two kids and I normally pay $5/hr. That's the norm around here. We have an over abundance of 12-14 yr old girls in our ward, but you have to weed through them to find the ones that actually play with the kids and do a good job. I work with Matt on Mondays, and in the summer I have a standing babysitter once a week for 5 hours. She is WONDERFUL and my kids LOVE her. She has 10 siblings (only in utah valley!) and she thinks 2 kids is a breeze! I pay her $5 an hr and normally add a little tip on there or at least round up because she does a good job. She watches the kids once a month on a weekend so we can go out on a real date.