Going rate for babysitters in the metro?

katieln

After a year and a half, it's time to find a paid babysitter for my DS.  I believe I've finally found one, but I have no idea what the going rate is these days?  I doubt it was the $1/hr I got paid 20 years ago.  I will talk to her about it, but I want to at least be in the ballpark when we're talking numbers. What do you all pay per hour?  She's a teenager (17) who lives across that street if that makes any difference.

becketts

We have a teenager (15 or 16) on our block who watches DD for a weekly date night.  When she started, she didn't have much babysitting experience and we agreed on $6 per hour.  We usually round up (i.e. $20 for 3 hours) since "they" say to overpay a good babysitter.  HTH!

*sallymad*

I pay my sitters (all colllege girls) $11 to $13 an hour, depending how long they have been with us.

I'd probably pay a neighborhood teen around $8 an hour. 

Spockles

I pay $10 an hour, but we usually don't go out until DS is already in bed (7pm), so I think $10 is pretty good to sit and watch tv, surf the web or do homework.

JBtheDog20

I know this is off topic but I figured you ladies would know better than anyone on where on earth you find a babysitter. I'm not from the area and have no family down here and not a whole lot of friends either. My husbands friends are all at different places in their lives and lets just say not babysitting material. We need date night though sometime in the future. Any suggestions on how to find someone trustworthy?

*sallymad*

JBtheDog20:

I know this is off topic but I figured you ladies would know better than anyone on where on earth you find a babysitter. I'm not from the area and have no family down here and not a whole lot of friends either. My husbands friends are all at different places in their lives and lets just say not babysitting material. We need date night though sometime in the future. Any suggestions on how to find someone trustworthy?

I've used sittercity.com in the past and have found sitters, you have to pay to join but totally worth it in my opinion.