Moms of little ones, sitter question, HELP!!

[buck naked]

I agree, my daughter's case was different....LOL

she DROVE to the site and home again twice - roughly an hour's drive one way

in addition to cooking dinner, she had planned activities, something most 'babysitters' don't have

[seamusnh]

I have three daughters ("thrice-blessed") and the two older ones (17, 16) babysit while the 12 year old is a "mother's helper" sometimes. For babysitting, they get $8 per hour from people and sometimes people throw in a little more. It does not matter how many kids they have. We live near Nashua. I work in MA, closer to Boston and my co-workers tell me they pay much more than that, $10 - 12/hour...

The 12 year old does some "mother's helper" work at $5 per hour.

All three have complete the safe sitter course at St. Joe's hospital in Nashua.

[maestramommy]

Well, the helper was dropped off at 9, and I took her home around 1:30. I paid her $20. I guess I should've clarified what she was doing. She was supposed to play with my kids and keep them contained on the porch so they wouldn't get underfoot while the movers were schlepping everything around. She had a little trouble with both, who aren't really used to being left with strangers, even when I'm sorta around. So for most of the morning I had the little one with me and she did fine with the older one. She had lunch with us, then I took her home. I asked how much she got paid and she's only done it twice before, and didn't get paid at all, once because it was family, and once because it was for a neighbor to do an errand and took less than an hour. When I asked around other moms in NE, I got a range of $2-$10.

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback. She has a fifteen yo sister who is interested if we ever need a sitter (for leaving the house), so I will be asking her fee. But it's good to get an idea from you folks on what the going rate is.