How much to pay a babysitter

hermum

My friend's going to need a sitter for her 10 year old, at the moment she has someone occasionally for evenings and pays £25 a time.
Now she's going to need some overnights for when she's on night shift & she has no idea how much to offer pay wise.
It would be from 8pm until around 4pm the next day, so that she can get some sleep before going back to work again. He would then be with the sitter again for the late evening overnight.
If anyone else is in a similar position it would be great to know how much you pay or charge.
Thank you.

Elle7

Hmm...by babysitter does she mean an unqualified friend, or someone such as a childminder who has been OFSTED approved to care for children overnight? She might be better off finding someone like that if it's going to be a regular occurrence, so she knows he is well looked after, and he gets used to the same person looking after him.

Anyway, to find out prices, phone around a few local childminders. They seem to vary wildly by area - I expect it would be quite a bit if they only get 4 hours off, however.

jamespir

not sure but 10 pounds per hour

though im sure the 10 year old would be pretty narked to hear the sitter called a babysitter

McKneff

jamespir wrote: »

not sure but 10 pounds per hour

though im sure the 10 year old would be pretty narked to hear the sitter called a babysitter

£10 a chuffing hour:eek:


I think Im going to start doing babysitting.

mrcow

Overnight like that, they are probably going to be sleeping and not doing muh else. Is it a family friend? If so, I'd offer £30 and see if they were happy with that.

hermum

Elle7 wrote: »

Hmm...by babysitter does she mean an unqualified friend, or someone such as a childminder who has been OFSTED approved to care for children overnight? She might be better off finding someone like that if it's going to be a regular occurrence, so she knows he is well looked after, and he gets used to the same person looking after him.

Anyway, to find out prices, phone around a few local childminders. They seem to vary wildly by area - I expect it would be quite a bit if they only get 4 hours off, however.

It will be the same lady who looks after him at the moment, who he gets on really well with.
No local childminders that she can find who do overnights.

jamespir wrote: »

not sure but 10 pounds per hour

though im sure the 10 year old would be pretty narked to hear the sitter called a babysitter

Yes I guess it should be titled child minding. £10 an hour sounds a lot.

McKneff wrote: »

£10 a chuffing hour:eek:


I think Im going to start doing babysitting.

For £10 an hour per child I could look after a whole heap of sleeping children.

Thanks all

hermum

mrcow wrote: »

Overnight like that, they are probably going to be sleeping and not doing muh else. Is it a family friend? If so, I'd offer £30 and see if they were happy with that.

Not really a family friend as such, the lady already looks after him sometimes for the odd evening & she pays her £25 an evening, up to midnight.
She's never had to get anyone to have him later than that before.
She doesn't want to offend the sitter by offering a daft amount & she would be having him the following day & the same again that night, so would be the whole weekend taken up.
I don't think £30 would be enough unless that was just for the night, & an hourly rate from 7am until collection & the £25 for the evening.

KiKi

I'd say around £7 an hour, for the day (7am to 4pm) = £63. For the evening before = £25. For the overnight, a nominal £20, for dealing with any issues and the inconvenience of sleeping away from home. Comes to £108, maybe round up to £110? After all, it's 10-11 definite hours of 'work', then having to be there in case of any problems whilst the child is sleeping.

KiKi

ali-t

OP, is it worth your friend working these shifts if she is potentially paying out £100+ of her wages per day for childcare? If it is occassional, does she not have school friends she could stay with and your friend could return the favour some other time for them?

Spendless

hermum wrote: »

Not really a family friend as such, the lady already looks after him sometimes for the odd evening & she pays her £25 an evening, up to midnight.
She's never had to get anyone to have him later than that before.
She doesn't want to offend the sitter by offering a daft amount & she would be having him the following day & the same again that night, so would be the whole weekend taken up.
I don't think £30 would be enough unless that was just for the night, & an hourly rate from 7am until collection & the £25 for the evening.

What time does she start having your friend's son on the evenings she works? That might be an idea to base what to offer on.

hermum

KiKi wrote: »

I'd say around £7 an hour, for the day (7am to 4pm) = £63. For the evening before = £25. For the overnight, a nominal £20, for dealing with any issues and the inconvenience of sleeping away from home. Comes to £108, maybe round up to £110? After all, it's 10-11 definite hours of 'work', then having to be there in case of any problems whilst the child is sleeping.

KiKi

That is a realistic amount in my eyes.

ali-t wrote: »

OP, is it worth your friend working these shifts if she is potentially paying out £100+ of her wages per day for childcare? If it is occassional, does she not have school friends she could stay with and your friend could return the favour some other time for them?

She's on good money anyway & has the chance to change jobs that will entail a weekend of night duty a month, she can only take the job if she can do the weekend a month.
Her lad does things weekends, so someone would need to be able to take & collect him from activities etc so a school friend wouldn't work as none of them all do the same clubs.
Also she'd rather do it properly.
The sitter's an older lady, so won't suddenly decide that going out with a friend is more important than working the weekend.
Even paying £200-250 per month in sitting she'll be better off financially & it's a step up the career ladder.