the Cost of Baby Sitting

Our neighborhood babysitter watched our two children, ages 6 and 3, for four hours on a Saturday night. She arrived at our house at 6:00 pm and stayed until 10:00 pm. She is 15 years old and her parents dropped her off, and then I took her home at the end of the night. She took care of feeding the kids dinner after we left, and she cleaned up the dinner plates, got the kids washed up and in their pajamas, played with them and watched part of a dvd they like, and then had them in bed on time. For two young kids, we pay $10 per hour and then I gave her an extra $5 because it was a Saturday night.

The that we use for babysitting is very reliable and does a good job following our instructions and asking questions when she doesn't understand or needs more details. For this occasion, we called her on Wednesday to make sure she was available, and then she was there on time and calmed the kids down so that they weren't upset about us leaving. We left her our contact information in case of an emergency, but we went out for dinner and to a movie and didn't hear from her. The house was clean and quiet when we got home and she told us about the things that had happened. We feel like it was a very good price for the service because we could go out and not worry about the kids or house and just enjoy ourselves.

Once you find a reliable babysitter that you like, make sure to pay her what she is worth and what it is worth for you to be able to leave your kids and not have to worry. If you try to be too cheap, they will stop accepting and you will be stuck with someone else you like less. Also, be nice to the sitter and tip them a little extra if they are sitting for you on a night that they could otherwise be out with their friends like Friday or Saturday.