How Much Do You Pay A Babysitter?

This is often a hot topic among parents, and the conversations almost always end in laughs and all agreeing that we wish we could turn back the hands of time and do more babysitting. Sitters these days are making a pretty penny!

So how much do you pay your sitter? I don’t have any reservations about sharing our rate, as I would love for you to join in the conversation and share what the going rate is in your area as well. We are currently paying our sitter $12/hour (If you just gasped, I don’t blame you!) We just started using our regular babysitter last year when Sadie was 2.5 months old (for our big multi-special occasion fancy date night out), and I asked around on a few Facebook groups before our date night what other people were paying their sitters. I was anxious for others’ opinions because I didn’t want to insult a sitter by offering her too little, but I also didn’t want to pay more than was “necessary”. I wanted to find a rate that showed the sitter that I valued the quality of care she gave to my children, but I didn’t want to go broke in the process. 🙂

The vast majority agreed that $12/hour is the norm for two kids, regardless of their age, if they’re sleeping, if they need to be bathed, fed, etc. $12/hour flat rate.

Diving a little deeper, we budget $60/month for a babysitter. Some months we’re under budget and other months we’re way over depending on what obligations we had (i.e. military functions like a Hail & Farewell). We decided to factor in babysitting money into our budget because we feel it visibly gives us permission to go on a date night.

I asked a few others what their takes are on this topic. Here’s what they said.

“I have two children and rarely pay a sitter more than $10 an hour.” – Alex

“I pay a 17 year old in my neighborhood $10/hr for my two kids and don’t trust her with juggling the third baby yet because I can barely juggle them … but if I did I’d raise her pay to $12/hr – it’s so much work!” – Kelley 

“I pay $15/hour for 4 kid (7,5,4,2). I may be an old lady but I refuse to pay a babysitter more than I made at my first post college “real job”. I also expect the babysitter to make/feed the kids dinner that I lay out (like mac n cheese and chicken nuggets or something) and clean up after herself/kids while they are in her care…. I totally did all this when I babysat for like $5/hour sooo…” – Janice

“I have two “as easy as it gets” kiddos ages 2 and 4. Usually we have pizza delivered for the kids since they never get it when I am home because of my food allergies. We expect dishes to be loaded in the dishwasher and that my 4 year old can tell me 3 things you did with her by the time we get back… toddlers never lie 🙂 Sitter is paid $10 per hour… and because I DESPISE paying for a babysitter while my kids are asleep we now do “date days” instead of date nights. More bang for our buck!” – Angie

“2 kids. $13/hour. My sitter is awesome and wouldn’t give me a rate. So I just asked my local gfs what they charge and that seems average. Back in my day….I made $3/hour and I cleaned and cooked dinner!!!!!” – Morgan

Let’s chat!

Chime in! How much did you get paid to babysit growing up? How much do you pay your sitter now, and for how many kids? Does your rate fluctuate depending on what the situation is like at home?

PS: I would be remiss not to mention our (healthy) obsession with our babysitter Sydney; She is truly like family to us. I went over to a friend’s house to curl her hair last summer, and as I was leaving, her babysitter walked in. We talked for a minute and I immediately  thought she was a doll (<—- Jamie says this is my buzz word for when I really like someone!). We’d been brainstorming about how to find a loyal babysitter so that we could start going on date nights more often, but we needed someone that we felt 100% comfortable with since we had a two month old. I instantly felt like I could trust Sydney completely with my children. Since then she’s watched our girls countless times, and she is seriously such a blessing to our family. She watched the girls last week so that I could go have dinner with some friends, and then I came home and got to hang out with her some more while we had some girl talk for well over an hour. She is so loving and kind and an incredible role model for Hadley. While she’s a busy college student, she always manages to make time for our kids. We love you to pieces, Syd!

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