How much would you pay (family member babysitter)?

Spartanmama722 · March 2012

DH and I are going out to my law school "prom" tomorrow night, and my sister will be babysitting for the first time. I want to pay her (she's in her freshman year of college and doesn't have a job), but I have no idea what amount would be fair. We pay our regular babysitter $10/hr, but she has tons of experience (she's one of Ev's dc teachers). My sister has never babysat before.

I was thinking of giving her around $7/hr. What do you all think? Is that a fair amount or should I be paying less or more?

soontobe05 · March 2012

My sister is a high school senior and has only babysat my kids. I gave her $40 to watch them last weekend from like 4-11pm. They slept for about 4ish hours of the time she was there so it was really only like 3 1/2 hours of actually being with them, but she was there 7hrs.

kimbo1216 · March 2012

If you really want to pay her, just give her $40 or $50. I wouldn't pick some random hourly rate of $7 and then pay her $28.00 if she's there for 4 hours. For example. I just give her a couple of twenties or write a check for a flat amount.

imoverit · March 2012

I may be cheap but I would just pay her $20.

Spartanmama722 · March 2012

Thanks for the ideas! I was thinking I'd do a flat amount, but I wanted some sort of number to base it on. She'll be babysitting for probably 7-8 hours or so, so I'll probably just give her $50 and call that good.

Birdies08 · March 2012

hruhlman:
Thanks for the ideas! I was thinking I'd do a flat amount, but I wanted some sort of number to base it on. She'll be babysitting for probably 7-8 hours or so, so I'll probably just give her $50 and call that good.

I think that sounds fine- more generous than what I was going to suggest, even, but my sister sits a lot for free Embarrassed

Spartanmama722 · March 2012

Birdies08:
hruhlman:
Thanks for the ideas! I was thinking I'd do a flat amount, but I wanted some sort of number to base it on. She'll be babysitting for probably 7-8 hours or so, so I'll probably just give her $50 and call that good.
I think that sounds fine- more generous than what I was going to suggest, even, but my sister sits a lot for free

Yeah I'm sure it's too much for a sibling, but I feel bad because she hasn't been able to get a job yet so I'm sure she needs the money. Basically I'm just using the babysitting as an excuse to help

Birdies08 · March 2012

hruhlman:
Birdies08:
hruhlman:
Thanks for the ideas! I was thinking I'd do a flat amount, but I wanted some sort of number to base it on. She'll be babysitting for probably 7-8 hours or so, so I'll probably just give her $50 and call that good.
I think that sounds fine- more generous than what I was going to suggest, even, but my sister sits a lot for free
Yeah I'm sure it's too much for a sibling, but I feel bad because she hasn't been able to get a job yet so I'm sure she needs the money. Basically I'm just using the babysitting as an excuse to help

You sound like an awesome sister

DowagerCountessofNJ · March 2012

I paid my cousin $25 to sit on Friday night but we had already put DD in bed when she came over.

RingOfFire11 · March 2012

We paid my much younger sister $50 to sit at my house, eat my food, watch my tv and use my laptop. We left after DD went to sleep, lol.

cassoppea · March 2012

I usually think $10/hour is minimum now. Especially for someone out of HS. But that might just be in my area. We usually give about $12/hour to a girl who babysits (she's in college) and $10/hour to a girl in HS who babysits. We always round up also. I figure that I used to get $10/hour on HS for babysitting so I can't imagine giving less than that 10 years later! ETA: sorry I realized you were asking because it's your sister. Honesty, I'm probably a mean sister but Id expect my sis to do it for free! My SIL has babysat and we never even discussed money...oops!

Spartanmama722 · March 2012

cassoppea:
I usually think $10/hour is minimum now. Especially for someone out of HS. But that might just be in my area. We usually give about $12/hour to a girl who babysits (she's in college) and $10/hour to a girl in HS who babysits. We always round up also. I figure that I used to get $10/hour on HS for babysitting so I can't imagine giving less than that 10 years later! ETA: sorry I realized you were asking because it's your sister. Honesty, I'm probably a mean sister but Id expect my sis to do it for free! My SIL has babysat and we never even discussed money...oops!

Yeah we pay our regular sitter $10/hour, but I figured that was a little much for my sister. Normally I wouldn't offer to pay family for babysitting, but since she's in college without a job I figured it'd be a good way for her to earn some extra money. And it saves us money since we'd be paying our other sitter way more

Spartanmama722 · March 2012

dantoni1210:
We paid my much younger sister $50 to sit at my house, eat my food, watch my tv and use my laptop. We left after DD went to sleep, lol.

Yep this is basically what we'll be doing. Although she will have to actually put him to bed...but that's about all the work she'll be doing the whole 8 hours! I think I need a job like that

MrsCodeMonkey · March 2012

It's always tricky when it's family or a close friend. Last year I babysat for a close friend and she paid me $10 to take care of her 3 kids - 8 yr old, 9 yr old, 6 mo old. I wished I could have done it for free, but it was about 15-20hrs a month for four months or so and it involved picking kids up from school and driving a bit. It was so awkward getting a check from her. The way she calculated was $2.5 for each of the older kids and $5 for the baby. So when the kids were at school I got $5 until I picked them up. I had gotten $10/hr before just to dog sit. Haha! She gave us a ton of baby clothes though, so I shouldn't have taken any money.

Now I'd like to have her babysit for us one evening so we can go on a date (she offered). What do I pay her? I'm thinking $10 still because it's probably going to be 2-3hrs, so not much. I bought her a small present in case she refuses the money. Anyhow, sorry for sidetracking the post.

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