What should my daughter charge for babysitting 4 kids (two of whom are 4 yr. old twins)

This doesn’t sound like baby sitting. This sounds like Day Care.
$10 an hour sounds right, and she might be underpayed.

It’s not day care as it will only be now and then.

How old is your daughter? I’m asking because my mother was thirty when she had me, as the first of five, and for the first eight years of my life, when there were only four of us and she was with us every day, we had her at her wit’s end.

To be in charge of four small children – and meals – is a huge responsibility. She should charge more, whatever price she’s thinking about.

{Shakes head} Four kids! There’s not enough money to make me do that.

Four kids? That’s a lot! I’d say $10 for two, and $2.50 each for the twins. $15 minimum. If your daughter is 17 or older, and drives them, I’d say $20. And that’s using the kids’ family’s car and gas.

Around here, for tweens/teens the average charge is $3–5 per kid per hour. We have many “large” families with 4+ kids under the age of ten. The parents are thrilled to find a reliable sitter.

IMO, she should charge a minimum of $12 per hour, especially considering the parents are expecting her to keep the kids occupied, fed and will most likely want more “nanning” than babysitting.

Babysitters are generally not responsible for making meals (sometimes sandwiches or snacks)…Nannies are. Usually, as a sitter, you order pizza, or the mom or dad makes certain the meals are in the oven prior to them going out the door.

BTW: I forgot to add: When I was sitting/nannying and took care of 4 kids on a fairly regular basis, I made $20 per hour or $80 per day. That was for meals, light cleaning, and playing with/occupying the children. It was not for chauffering.

If the parents expect the pick-up/drop-off of kids, I’d ask a minimum of $25—$30 per hour.

I think if I were you – especially if there will be driving or other transportation involved – I’d check with my insurance carrier to see if I had any liability exposure, and maybe look at some kind of umbrella coverage ‘just in case’. You might say, “She’s doing the babysitting at their house, and she’s totally reliable, and there’s no transport involved.” That may all be true – now – but if a problem arises, you can bet that they’ll be looking for “someone to pay”, and if you have insurance (or even if you don’t) and attorneys get into the picture, there could be a lawsuit for “negligence” – against you.

Babysitting isn’t what it once was. The world has changed.

Easily a MINIMUM of $15 per hour. More like $20

Perhaps, and this is a big perhaps, a “deal” might be made for extended time, say more than 4 hours, perhaps a modest reduction.

That breaks down to about $5 an hour per child. If you’re gonna have 4 kids you better be prepared to pay.

I pay my gardener/handyman buddy $50 per mow and $20 an hour for anything else.

Most ‘services’ these days have a minimum requirement.

The going rate for gardeners is $120 with a 2 hour minimum in my area.

This includes transportation, obviously.

Aren’t your kids worth the same or more than your yard? lol

$20. hr., easily.

She’s 14 but she’s been babysitting for two years now. She won’t be driving. She’ll only be watching them for two to three hours here and there.

I was going to advise her to charge $10.00 but my hubby thought that was too much.

@Neizvestnaya

No way! $10 is insulting, even to a 14 year old. That’s a LOT of responsibility and your daughter deserves to walk away with a good $50 bucks in her pocket.

Infact, the shorter the time the MORE she should be paid to make it worth her while.

The going rate here is $2/hour/child for a minor sitter who isn’t driving; $4/hour/child if the sitter is expected to drive or cook meals. One consideration I didn’t see in the above answers is the friendship and your friend’s income.

Example: My friend got custody of his 2 children unexpectedly for a week (while his ex was in the hospital) and he couldn’t get time off from his job, which paid $10/hr. I helped him out by watching the kids while he was at work but I would have felt terrible about taking 80% of his earnings to do so.

I began to sit when I was 10.5yrs. I lived in a large apartment complex. Even with lower income, blue collar parents I made $3 per kid minimum…and that was almost 30yrs ago.

I pay usually $10 an hr for my 2 so double that for 4 kids

This lady is a fairly good friend of ours but I also know how precocious her boys can be. That being said her hubby is a carpenter and they don’t have a ton of money.

They’ll be picking her up and dropping her off.

@tranquilsea I drop off and pick up my neice who sits for me and has since she was 14 and I pay her $10 per hr to watch them. Its up to you, but 4 kids is alot of work for her to take on and its only resonible to pay her what the going rate is.

How about friendly decline?
Fourteen years old and taking care of and be responsible for four underage kids in my book is too much to ask for.

@creative1 Twenty bucks an hour! I don’t make that much.

@chyna You could being a nanny ;) But, then again, you do have to entertain, clean & cook all day!

Some of this is dependent upon the area in which you live. You could also try asking the Mom what she usually pays or what she would expect to pay. That’s where I would start.

Are they all boys? That would be a factor also. And remember that daytime care is significantly more difficult than when they’re asleep.

I imagine that rates may vary geographically. I am an adult who did some babysitting this summer in the Boston area. I got 12 an hour to watch one infant at a time. I know that minors and young college students sometimes get paid less.

I have always seen babysitting as more of a service than a job. Even as an adult, I have watched two children together for $3/hour. If the parent(s) are working while I’m sitting, I don’t want to take most of what they’re making. If they’re going out on a date, I want them to be able to afford to do so somewhat regularly. I don’t think I have ever made more than $7/hour babysitting, and I wouldn’t really want to make more than that. If I were looking at it as a job, I would do daycare or nannying; as it is, I really do see it as a service.

I disagree with the people that said babysitters don’t cook, and should be paid extra if they do. From my first time babysitting as a kid, I have always been in charge of meals when I babysat. Given that I’m eating their food, it’s not exactly a burden. The only time I would let the kids watch TV was while I was cooking, and I always made sure to clean up the kitchen before I left. I’m not just there to entertain the children—I’m there to take care of them. That includes making their meals and cleaning up.

Also, I am not convinced that the amount of work is perfectly related to how many children you’re watching. Many people say that you should charge a certain amount per child, but I don’t think it’s that much tougher to watch four children than three. Frankly, it’s not that much tougher to watch nine children than four (yes, I am speaking from experience). I firmly disbelieve in choosing a rate and multiplying it by the number of children, unless it’s something like $5 for the first child, $1 for the next two, and $0.50 for each child thereafter.

Personally, I have never charged for babysitting. I simply accepted whatever they chose to give me. But, like I said, I have a different mindset about it than most.

@chyna I agree. It seems ludicrous for a fourteen-year-old to make $20/hour for babysitting. I make less than that teaching college.

@bobbinhood – For me, it is a job. There are times when I will do it as a service, but that is if it is for a friend or family. Even then, they typically insist on paying me something. For example, a good friend wanted to pay me 15 an hour to sit for her baby but I told her that I couldn’t take that much money from a friend, so we brought it down to 10 an hour.

Taking a moment to reconsider the circumstances, 4 children under 10 is a LOT for one 14-year-old sitter. What if you charged $8 or $9/hour and your daughter brought one very responsible friend (also an experienced sitter) and they split the fee? That would be an acceptable 2 children per sitter ratio, a very reasonable charge and all involved should be happy.

@answerjill I think it makes some difference if you are an adult that needs the income rather than if you are a kid that wants some cash. Either way, much more than $10/hour still starts to feel ridiculous to me.

@Blueroses Is it really that much, or do we just tend to give teens too little credit for their abilities? At 14, I was watching an infant, two-year-old twins, and a three-year-old by myself. Sure, some kids can’t handle it, but I think a lot more of them can than we adults tend to think.

I find it a little bit surprising to hear people suggest $15—$20 per hour. I didn’t even make that as a licensed home health worker. $8—$10 sounds far more reasonable to me, although I do agree that 4 kids that age is a lot of responsibility for anyone, especially a 14 year old. Just keep an eye on her and make sure that she isn’t getting overwhelmed.

@bobbinhood I’m not saying it can’t be done but 4-yr-old boy twins, just alone, would run you ragged (more so than 2-yr-olds) their coordination and potential for trouble is just astounding! At 14, I think a 1:2 sitter:small child is a safe, fun ratio. Give the sitters reinforcement with each other, lots of attention for each child and nobody ends the day exhausted and in tears.

@Blueroses Got it. That makes sense, provided the two sitters would work rather than hang out.

@ANef_is_Enuf I agree completely.

Even when you go to a licensed daycare with adults watching your children the law is 5 to 1 ratio, so given that she is almost askig the max for an adult to watch at a licensed facility, I think its only fair to pay her a going rate if she is going to do the work. I do like the idea of her and a friend watching them instead of her by herself then split the money they earn and I am sure your friend will be happy about that.

@ANef_is_Enuf – Right, and I think it is atrocious that as a society we pay so little to home healthcare workers. They deserve more than that for the important work that they do. A similar thing could be said for the low pay that early childhood education workers receive.

@tranquilsea I went through my answers to recent questions and finally found this one…

It might be helpful to know how many hours per week your daughter is wanted & during what hours to help determine the going rate in your area. Would this be during hours other kids are in school (I think your daughter is homeschooled, right?)?

BTW: One reason I learned to charge per kid (as a teen) was due in part to people taking advantage of “cheap child labor”. Some parents will think nothing of allowing their child to have friends over after school or on weekends without paying more. A family of four, can quickly become 8 kids or more if every child is allowed a friend over.

@SpatzieLover Good point. I was always quite insistent that I was only watching the children I was actually babysitting. When you have someone else in charge of your kids is not the time to let them have friends over. I never have understood why some parents don’t seem to mind letting kids come over when they have a sitter.

Very good points. I would suggest that your daughter go over for an afternoon (or during whatever hours she would be in charge) with you, while the mom is home so your daughter can observe the house discipline. Kids WILL take advantage of the sitter. If your daughter knows how the mom handles everything, she can reinforce the home model rather than have babysitter rules where she (or the kids) might undermine the household rules.

We know this family and our kids have been together on a few occasions. So my daughter knows what she is getting into.

The kids can be quite mischievous at times and that kind of concerns me but not as much as when my son was babysitting for a family and got a call from the dad telling him that some guy named Jim was coming to the house to collect on money that he’d already paid him and he’s a little upset and has a bit of a drug problem so just tell him to go away. He never babysat for them again.

I’ve sent the mom an e-mail asking her what she usually pays her babysitters. We’ll try to negotiate from there.

I did a lot of babysitting when I was younger and I always charged 5 dollars per hour per child, no matter what. When I got to know some families, they would tend to give large wads of cash regardless of what my rate was and it was always more than I would have charged. When your daughter gets to know the family, she may charge a little less sort of as a “loyalty program” of sorts. 10 dollars an hour for four kids is definitely not enough.

I suspect part of this may be regional, as well. What is minimum wage in your area, what would your daughter be making if she got a job at the McDonald’s up the street?

Working a day at McDonalds is easier than babysitting 4 kids……. People should be paid for the job they are doing and if I hire a good sitter I am more than willing to pay to know my children are safe. See what they are paying in your area and if she is a good sitter and willing to put in the work then she should be paid per child the going rate in your area at minimum regardless of her age. I know we trained my neice and she can care for even a special needs child and able to give her medicine. I trust her over some adults with my daughters.

@creative1 I’m not saying they’re comparable, I’m just trying to get an idea of the COL in their area.
I know that if I went to a neighbor or friend and tried to charge $20 an hour for babysitting, I’d get the door slammed in my face. However, we have a very low COL compared to many other areas of the country.

15 at the VERY least… I would ask for 20.

Wait, for a 14 year old… maybe not… I would say 12–14/hour still though.

The going rate in my neighborhood is $3—$4 per hour per child.

It’s once in a while – and your kid is fourteen. They are friends of the family, and have four kids and not very wealthy. How much would she be happy with? 10 bucks sounds about right.

It amazes me that a parent would trust a 14 year old kid with their 4 little kids.

$10 more or less sounds good to me too, probably depends a little on where you life. I would not worry about any of the answers saying how trying 4 kids can be. Your daughter is not their mother, they will probably enjoy playing with your daughter, assuming she engages them a little, and behave for her. If it was bed time, that can be sometimes more difficult, because the children don’t like to go to bed a lot of the time, but during the day for a few hours I think it sounds like a good gig.

Does your daughter have any training in CPR or first aid? Those things are good to have for a babysitter. Or, even just make sure you have told her what to do in emergency situations like a fall (careful not to move the neck if possibly the injury is there) or bleeding, etc. And, that she should call you or the mom if she is at all worried about anything.

My daughter has done her babysitting course which includes CPR training.

The friend e-mailed me back with just about every cost she has ever put out towards babysitting. Some as low as $6 with the rest being anywhere from $8 to $14. She won’t use the girls who charge $14 because she can’t afford them. It looks like we’ll be settling on $10 an hour.

She wants to start her out by having her watch the boys while she works in their home office.

Thanks for your help everyone :-)

Thanks for the update, @tranquilsea.

The Update Lady was going to ask for an Update but you beat me to it! Thanks for the update! It’s helpful to know.