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OK let me start with a little background. I am a kindergarten teacher and I occasionally babysit past students. I usually charge $12 an hour.
There are two families I babysit who are neighbors and very good friends and spend a lot of time together. They recently asked me to babysit both families for the entire weekend. There are 4 kids (2 in each family) and their ages are 5, 8, 9, and 10. I would be babysitting 2 full days and nights (48 hours).
Recently, I babysat another family with two boys (6 years old) and from 10am sat to 2pm sun (26 hours) and they paid $200.
So, my question...how much do I charge? Twice as many kids for almost twice the time. Also, they are getting an adult as opposed to a teenager. Is $400 too much? I really have no idea! They asked me tI think of a price as they have never done this. I don't want to ask too much but also want to be paid fairly.
Well, I used to pay babysitters between $250-$300 a day for a full 24 hour period for my 2 kids. It was a generous amount that I felt was worth it to allow my spouse and I to take occasional trips alone when we lived in an area where we had no family to watch the kids. When I used a service, I believe the rate they arrived at (factoring in both awake and asleep time) was more, closer to $325-350 for a 24 hour period.
I can't tell you what rate is right or wrong, but I will say I never had any trouble finding people I really trusted to take these jobs. I do know that one baby sitter I used watched another family's 2 kids when they traveled once and she was paid something that averaged out to under $200 per day, and she politely declined the next time they asked because she felt it was not enough, so there you go....
I think you could go up to 500. It also depends how much money the families have. Not that you should take advantage of them. But you might max out a middle class family at $400 but ...ya know.
It's hard to tell if you are thinking $400 per family or $400 total.
I would absolutely pay $250-$300 for my children's former teacher to watch my 2 kids for 2 days/nights. (So that would be $250-$300 per family, making your total charge $500-$600). I am paying someone $75 for one night for one kid tonight, so 2 kids for 2 nights would be $300.
I think $400 per family might be pushing it a little bit.
$400 to watch 4 kids for 2 full days? That works out to $50 per kid, per day. I'm with Pitt Chick, I think that's too low. You are responsible for their children, their home, their pets if they have them, and they are asking you to give up an entire weekend of your personal time. You should be paid an amount that reflects how important that is.
I personally don't think it's unreasonable for you to be paid double that, or something around $600 at the very minimum.
I'm not sure where you live but I pay my teenaged babysitters 10-12/hr. I just paid $80 for four hours (20/hr) last night to my kids former preschool teacher. If I were to have her watch just my 2 for an entire weekend, I'd likely pay her at least $400, but more likely 500.
I think you should definitely be asking for more money unless you live in a very low cost of living area. A former teacher that is well known is priceless to watch your children, especially if you are out of town.
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