How much ££ to childmind for a weekend?

littleg_2

I have a fantastic girl who helps me with my disabled dd and toddler at parties /trips etc . Her mum works with sn children and mine have known her for a couple of years, she's brilliant with them.

We've never been away on our own - I've asked whether they would stay at ours for the weekend and look after our two, which they've said yes to:T. How much do you think we should pay....I was thinking £100 but I don't want to insult.

rachbc

Is that for both the mum and the 'girl'? if so i'm afraid i don't think thats enough. I guess it depends what you mean by 'the weekend' sat am to sun eve of sat eve to sun am? I'd pay a teenage babysitter £5 p/h, I know friends pay professional childcarers more - upto £10 p/h after 11pm...

So 2 x £5 p/h from sat evening til lunch time sunday - 18 hours - £180.

Angelicdevil

If you assume they will be doing a twelve hour day each day (x2), that's only £4 an hour between two people....

How much would you be paying for an agency carer for the two days?

It depends on your financial situation ultimately and the relationship you have with the mum and daughter.

littleg_2

It would be sat am to sun pm, the daughter is 12.

fluffnutter

I'm not sure if charging by the hour is the most appropriate way of doing things here. A weekend is quite different to a few hours, and at a tenner an hour (which is not unreasonable) you'd be looking at nearly 500 quid :eek:.

Having said that, you're asking someone to give up an awful lot of time for your children...

I assume both the mother and the daughter will be staying? If so, you need to factor in two 'wages'. What does the mother usually get paid for her job? (You might not know). This seems a reasonable starting point. Alternatively, you could always be honest and simply say 'I've no idea what's reasonable to pay you. What do you think?' and take it from there. It's open to negotiation after all.

Personally £100 for two people for a whole weekend seems a little light to me. Having said that, my husband and I looked after our friends' two last year so they could have a night away and we didn't expect a penny. But then childcare is not our normal job and we did offer.

Unless you get some great suggestions on this thread (which you might well do - people are a knowledgeable bunch) I'd probably just ask them what they thought was reasonable.

Angelicdevil

Personally, I'd go with what Rachbc has suggested. Decide on an hourly rate per person, work out hours et voila!

BitterAndTwisted

I wouldn't suggest any figure at all. I'd ask them in what way they would like to be rewarded and leave it up to the mother to come up with what she thinks is fair. If they're lovely kids they might not be thinking purely in monetary terms at all.

rachbc

So 24+ hrs - at 12 £3/4 ph is probably ok (so £100-£150 for the daughter for 36 hours) but as the mum is experienced in caring for SN kids I would expect to be paying her more - even min wage is £216 for 36 hours. Obviously they aren't actually 'working' over night - unless yoru kids are prone to be up in the night so maybe an hourly charge isn't the most appropriate

Alternatively look at what CM charge - £3 ph per child around here for normal working hours, more for weekends and evening. Not sure for overnight stays.

HappyMJ

£100 might be fair. I wouldn't offer £100 but I'd ask what do they want instead. Maybe you could return the favour on another weekend and no money need change hands.

teffers

£200 I think (my partner is a child-minder, although doesn't do weekends).

Nicki

I may be about to get flamed here, but I have a child with special needs and had a part time nanny who I paid £10 per hour to during the week. We went away for a weekend about 3 years ago and she moved into our house to look after the kids with her OH and her own child. We paid her £100 for that weekend, plus spending money for all the children (her own included) for a day trip and provided food for everyone for the weekend. I hope she was happy with that, she certainly didn't say it wasn't enough and worked for me for another couple of years afterwards, so didn't leave in umbrage.

I don't think an hourly rate is the right way to look at it for a weekend stay, because once the kids are in bed, their time is pretty much their own, subject to having to spend it in your house, and it's not like a normal babysit where you are expected to stay awake for the full time.

Maybe, given that it's a few years since I did this and prices have gone up a lot, and you are asking 2 people to work (my nanny's OH and son were quite free not to come with her, but did because I knew she would want to spend her weekend with her) £150 or £200 would be about right though.