r/Babysitting

What is a fair rate for a long weekend babysitting job? This is in Littleton. It would be from Friday afternoon through Monday afternoon. Sitter would be staying at the child’s house, including overnight. A single 13 year old child, no pets. Child is fairly independent, and can be left alone for a few hours if sitter needs to do something else. Sitter will handle meals, including cooking, and will likely transport child to activities if they decide to do that.

I'm hoping to become a babysitter as a 13 year old male, but I don't know how to start out. I'm the youngest in my family but I'm hoping to get some experience.

I don't exactly know how much I should charge per hour or how to let people know, but I've gotten some simple cooking experience and I know how to play with and take care of younger kids, as all of my friends that live near me are under 10.

I also don't really know what I'm able and not able to do as a babysitter, so could anyone please give me some tips? i also don't have a personal phone or device that I can take just anywhere, so please help!!

I think I mostly need to vent, but I’m also curious how other babysitters/nannies would handle this.
I’ve been babysitting for almost 3 years and have worked with many different families. For the last year especially I’ve been working with families in San Francisco. I originally started doing it part-time while I was still a student, so I was charging around $20/hr.
At the time I didn’t think much of it because I was studying, competing in college athletics, and babysitting was extra income. But I graduated recently, I’m still looking for full-time work, and babysitting has basically become how I’m surviving in the meantime.
Looking back, I’m realizing how much I tolerated because I was scared of losing work.
I would commute over an hour across SF for $20/hr. There were days I woke up at 6am, traveled across the city, worked basically 8am-6pm taking care of a toddler, and still charged $20.
I’ve also had families change the time after I was already on my way or already in their neighborhood. One time I waited around for almost an hour because the child wasn’t ready/separating from the parent, only to eventually be told I could leave, and initially I didn’t even ask to be paid because I felt guilty.
Another family that I had become very close with eventually just stopped responding to me while they still owed me money.
And with another family, I had to text the dad THREE separate times asking for $120 he owed me. Weeks later I randomly saw him at the park and had to bring it up again before I finally got paid.
The embarrassing part is that I genuinely liked a lot of these families. I cared about their kids, talked to the parents almost like friends, checked on them when they were going through things, etc. Because the relationship felt friendly, I constantly felt guilty advocating for myself financially.
I think I confused being kind/flexible with having absolutely no professional boundaries.
Now I’ve decided my rate going forward is $32/hr on weekdays and $35/hr on weekends, with more depending on multiple children/responsibilities. I have almost 3 years of childcare experience and references from multiple families.
I told two older families about the increase today and both decided not to continue with me.
And weirdly... I’m actually proud of myself.
A few months ago I probably would have immediately said, “Okay, never mind, I can still do $20.” I was so desperate to survive that I accepted almost anything and then convinced myself I should just be grateful someone was giving me work.
I’m realizing now that someone being friendly with me does not make them my friend when it comes to employment, and liking someone’s child doesn’t mean I need to discount my labor.
I’m still unemployed, so turning down work feels terrifying lol. But I’m also exhausted from commuting all over San Francisco, rearranging my life around other people’s schedules, chasing people to pay me, and then feeling like THEY are doing ME a favor.
For other babysitters/nannies: does $32 weekday / $35 weekend sound reasonable for someone with almost 3 years of experience in SF? And how do you keep a warm/friendly relationship with families without letting that blur your boundaries around money and work?

Does anyone else feel like people don’t share sitters anymore? I’ve had it happen a few times where I’ll ask friends if they have anyone I can reach out to (bc I’ve exhausted all my normal options) and also been part of group chat where newer moms will ask for sitters, and it’s crickets.

I’ve shared my sitters and even current nanny’s info with multiple people, never even thought about why I wouldn’t?

I’m in the south if that’s relevant! Just want to know if this is some commonly known etiquette that I’m missing or if I’m just reading too much into it.

Hi fellow au pair host families !
Perhaps stupid/ base question.. but I will start the search for our now 4th au pair and we want her to have a European passport this time to avoid all the visa hassle.

My friends always have Spanish girls and they are truly amazing.. I was flabbergasted when I hear how they interact with the kids, what suggestions and ideas they come up with and how easily they blend into the family. Such a difference than the 2 Asian girls we had ( they were lovely in their own way but our kids are getting older now and don’t like the au pair so much..)

I tried searching myself on some platforms but it’s very difficult to find a serious candidate that does not end up ghosting me. So I decided to put some money down and pay an agency to find my match. Do you have experiences with agencies in Europe/ Netherlands and which one would you recommend to find my EU au pair? How should I pick?

Thanks!

Hey! New here.

I am watching relatively easy 3 kids (twin 10yo boys & 12yo girl) overnight. It’ll be for 16.5 hours straight. How much should I charge? If it matters, I have known these kids since they were 2&3. Was their nanny for 2 years and I have watched them occasionally ever since then. This is my first overnight with them in 8 years.

27yo in north Texasif that helps.

Thanks!

i took a job doing a nanny share. i originally said $21/hr per kid. They asked if im open to doing $450/each family each week. So $900 a week from 9-4, 2 babies (8 mos and 10 mos) i have 6 yrs experience owning a home daycare. did i severely undercharge or agree to a rly low amount? In nj

hi, i‘ve been babysitting for the same family for 4 years now. they‘re super nice and the children are a dream (as much of a dream as three girls ages 4, 9 and 13 can be hahah). but my pay hasn’t changed since i started there and is now even below minimum wage (germany’s minimum wage is currently at 13,90). i’m there once a week around 18. i eat dinner with the kids (half the time i also prepare the dinner), get the kids to bed and make sure whatever the mum said needs to be done gets done (last homework exercises they didnt do yet, vocabulary, shower, etc. but this changes every week and sometimes there are weeks where nothing special needs to get done). and then when they’re in bed i clean up the kitchen from the dinner mess and then i mainly just chill or study for uni until around 11-11:30pm. the oldest is usually in bed around 08:30-09:00pm. it takes me about 40min to get there (bus and train) and 50min to get home.

i recently got an offer of 16€/h for just one kid (age 2-3) and when her mum found out i only get 13€ at the other family she was shook to say the least hahah

ig my main question is how i should go about asking for more pay? i’ve never had a conversation like this before x) i was gonna tell them about the other family offering 16€/h for just one kid and ask them for at least 16€/h as well. i know i could probably go for more but i dont want to overshoot..
what do you guys think?

I watch a family member’s toddler pretty regularly, and he REALLY struggles when I watch him. He’s 3, so I understand that he’s a toddler and has big emotions and is testing boundaries, but I feel like he is just something else. He has very big emotions and screams a lot if he’s not in control of things, so I try to hold some firm boundaries as I’ve found that it makes the rest of the time I’m with him go more smoothly when I watch him.

For example, if he screams and throws a tantrum if I pause his show, then I shrug and say “we don’t scream when we want something, so we’re just gonna turn the TV off”. If I make his lunch (and yes I ask beforehand what he wants, so I know I’m making something he likes), and he gets upset and says he doesn’t want it anymore, I tell him that’s what he gets for lunch and that I’m not making something else. I will say, sometimes I get pretty impatient with him if he’s not listening or is having a huge reaction to something. I never yell, but I’m not the type to bribe a toddler to do something. If I can tell he’s purposely trying to do something to get his way, then I definitely get impatient.

The only thing that makes me actually upset is when he doesn’t listen or screams to get his way, OR kicks/hits his brother. I never yell at him, but if he starts screaming out of nowhere or hits his brother, I pull him aside and say, “hey absolutely not! We do NOT hit.” Or, “we do not scream to get what we want. Can you try again and ask nicely?”. One time he just walked up to his brother and put his hands around his neck to be funny and I got so upset. I never yelled but spoke very firmly.

I’m not trying to parent him or anything, but if I’m watching him there are certain things I don’t tolerate. When he’s with his parents, if he screams enough he’ll get what he wants, but I don’t cave when he does that with me and I think it stresses him out because he doesn’t get the reaction he wants.

Am I being too strict with him/trying to parent him? Is this why he struggles so much with me? What can I do to give him a better experience when I watch him?

I’m looking to hire a nanny for my child while I work from home. My child is going to be two years old. She plays with toys and watches tv sometimes. I’m wondering whether I should buy more toys to keep her busy while the nanny watches her or will the nanny find creative ways to entertain my child? I don’t feel comfortable for them to play outside without me. But I feel bad if they are cooped up in the house while I work. Let me know if you guys went through the same thing and how you handled it.

Hi, I'm a first time mom to a 6 week old boy. I need to go back to working sooner than I realistically want to because we are positively broke 😅

What's the process to hiring and vetting a babysitter, how much should I be paying them to care for my baby? I also have a cat in the house - should I be offering more money because of his presence? They don't need to do anything like scooping litter or feeding him kibble.. he kind of just loiters and follows people around.

I've been a babysitter for someone before, for $20/hr for her 3 year old, but I can't realistically offer that much per hour that I'm at work as I would go into the negatives.

Hi everyone! I’m curious what you think would be a fair hourly rate for babysitting in Vancouver.

I have 8+ years of experience working in childcare, as well as an ECE certificate and First Aid certification.

For someone with my experience and qualifications, what would you consider a reasonable hourly rate for babysitting?

I’d love to hear from parents, babysitters, and ECEs in Vancouver. Thanks!

Last time I M26 spent some time with this 3‑year‑old autistic, non‑verbal toddler during a sitting trial, he was in a terrible mood and wanted nothing to do with me. He spent all of the time clinging to mom. So I went into today expecting another rough trial.

We started out in the little backyard pool. When his parents slipped out, he didn’t notice at first, but the moment he realized they were gone, everything fell apart. He jumped out, ran to the back door, and started bawling. When I let him inside and he saw they weren’t there, he had a full meltdown on the floor, hysterically crying and overwhelmed.

I grabbed a little moving toy car, turned it on, and sat near him. He stopped crying instantly, reached for it, bit the wheel, and let it spin on his cheek. That sensory input calmed him immediately.

From there, everything changed. I tickled his feet lightly and he giggled. I walked toward the pool and he followed me. He wandered around, almost threw the car into the water a few times, and climbed the playset. I helped him up and told him he was a good climber.

We walked near the pond, and since he didn’t have shoes, I picked him up. He let me, which shocked me after our last visit. He loved swinging on the swing out over the water, until he threw the car straight into the pond. 😆 I reassured him, grabbed the net, fished it out, rinsed it, and tossed it into the pool since it was already ruined.

I then got into the pool and asked if he wanted in. He reached his arms up to me. We played in the pool for an hour. He sat in my lap, giggled when I booped his nose, let me swim him around, lifted him up and down, and kept coming back to me for help grabbing his car and would come to me just to be close. He was relaxed, happy, and completely bonded.

When he was ready to get out, I dried him off, wrapped him in a towel, and carried him inside. He sat calmly on the carpet while I got his things ready. I gloved up and changed his diaper from the swim diaper to his regular one, and he stayed totally calm the whole time.

Afterward, he gave me a high five and grabbed my hand to lead me around the house. That’s when I realized I had officially become “his person” for the day. We watched SpongeBob, and he rested his head on my lap.

We finished outside with some flying‑around play, lifting and spinning him gently. He loved it. When his parents came home, he got shy but still gave me a high five and a stiff little hug, the kind where he’s happy but also worried I might take him from Mom.

Considering how rough our last trial was, today was a huge breakthrough. He trusted me, bonded with me, and let me be his safe person. I’m honestly so happy with how it turned out.

I babysit a 4-year-old who has recently started doing this thing where she tells me what to do in a very demanding/directive tone. I know some of this is completely normal for her age, but I’m not really sure how to respond to it.

For example, she’ll tell me to do something and then get annoyed if I don’t immediately understand what she means. She’ll sigh loudly, say things like “I just told you what to do!” even though she actually didn’t tell me anything, or sometimes kind of yell at me. It almost seems like she thinks it’s funny and is playfully pretending to be annoyed, rather than actually being upset, but it still gets annoying after a while.

I usually tell her that she needs to use kind words or ask me nicely, but she keeps doing it.

I obviously understand that she’s only 4 and this is probably pretty normal behavior at this age. I’m more wondering what the best way to respond is so I’m not constantly getting frustrated with her, while also teaching her that she can’t talk to me that way. What has worked for other people with this?

Title kind of says it but I’ll elaborate anyway lol

Okay so, I (20f) have been babysitting these two girls, 8 & 6, for about two months now. It’s very on and off, I typically babysit them twice a week with times varying from 12-5 to 7:30/8-5 on weekdays. They are very fun, energetic, creative, and extroverted girls that are, usually, not that bad to deal with. The main issue lies in what they watch, which is just Youtube. They are aware of other shows like Bluey and Miraculous, but no matter how hard I try I cannot get them to watch anything else. They watch your typical brainrot. Family channels, content farms, Youtube shorts, you name it. It’s honestly pretty agonizing to sit through. But what’s worse is I think the way that the people behave in these youtube videos is starting to affect their real life behavior, especially the youngest. These videos don’t often have any sort of upstanding behavior that children should be learning about, like being respectful to your peers or listening to adults. In fact, several of the family channels they watch have many videos of the kids simply disobeying their parents and coming off as bratty in the process. Content farms aren’t any better, there‘s an entitlement to their language and overall messaging that the two kids copy even if they don’t realize it. Very often I’d ask them to do something for me more than once and they’d refuse to listen, taking several tries and reluctant texts to their parents. They can be very stubborn, negative, and overall dramatic and cynical to each other in ways I’m recognizing as the way the kids in family channels act, especially for the six year old. Sorry if I’m rambling, but I’m at a loss what to do here lol. Should I stay out of it and let the parents deal with it or should I say something?

Edit: Hey guys! Thanks for all your advice, it definitely does help and low-key eases my worries about the whole situation. But, I thought‘d I’d let everyone know as a kinda pseudo-update that I won’t be babysitting the kids anymore. The youngest, the 6 year old, recently threw a massive tantrum out in public over leaving a park that ended up resulting in her

Taking 30 minutes to even get to the car (with a lot of gentle coaxing the parents asked me to try with her)

Another babysitter having to HELP me (that was lowkey a little embarrassing)

Screaming and fighting me when I tried to get her buckle in, resulting in my phone being thrown onto the pavement when I went to text her Mom

Unbuckling her seatbelt while I was driving

and hitting her sister repeatedly until she started to cry

This kid has not listened to me before and has thrown 2 massive tantrums before this, both that were too difficult for me to calm her down and having to end with her parents coming during their lunch breaks to help. They told me that she “doesn’t respond well to firmness” and to “talk to her nicely” but that did not work even in the slightest. I was kind, then I was firm, I tried bargaining, I tried to compromise, nothing. These kids are kinda spoiled, so its clear to me that she isn’t used to not getting what she wants and not used to the consequences of her actions. So until her behavior is corrected by her parents, for the sake of my sanity I don’t think I can watch them anymore. I didn’t have any discussion with the parents about my concerns. The Dad kinda brushed me off before I could even say anything about her behavior at the park so it’s even more obvious they don’t see anything wrong. I plan on just telling them I have to prep for move-in for college and can’t babysit during the week. Mom is having a baby soon anyway, and I am not qualified enough to care for newborns. Kinda sucks but hey, no point getting worked up about kids that arent mine.

For context, my husband travels a lot for work and I work 50-60 hours a week in healthcare (remote, but cannot have children in the home while working). We have an excellent daycare Monday to Friday for our 5 year and 5 month old.

The 5year old is with her father half the time (split, coparenting) so we try to use a sitter when it’s just the baby so it’s less of a pull only having to watch one child. The five month old is teething and in the phase where they are getting fussy in the evenings right before bed. So, the last handful of times we’ve left for an hour or two to try and have a date night or an evening for the two of us- we either come back to exasperated thanks for coming home because he was fussy, or a call to come home early because the baby is crying. For context, they are left with a close family member or two.

I’m now at the point where I feel guilty asking anyone at all to watch him, and feel scared to even ask because I am just waiting for a phone call or a brick wall of guilt the second I walk through the door- so now I do not rest at all. There is zero time to relax, no down time for my brain, my body, nothing.

It feels like every several weeks I’m asking to up my Lexapro, and just constantly am overstimulated or crying. Outside of therapy, which I am already in, what else can I do?

The “village” we had when he was born has all but disappeared now that he’s not brand new, and the second he cries he gets pushed right back to me anywhere we go…

Am I expecting too much for people to figure it out when they are holding or watching him so I get a genuine break, or is this just how it is and I need to find a way to deal with it mentally?

Hi! My BİL asked me to babysit my one-year-old niece for their anniversary. It will just be the one day. He’s expressed it’ll be saving him lots of money in babysitting fees and since I’ll be driving quite a way to their place has offered to cover gas and food/activity money. I love my niece and am super excited to spend the day so I’m not doing it for money. Though I am broke atm and it would really help especially with petrol. But I don’t know if it’s wrong to accept it?

For context I’m from a culture that’s quite community focused so watching kids and things like that for free are quite normal and it’s kind of social no-no really to accept money in many occasions. I think I also didn’t want to feel like or for others to think I’m watching my nice only because I’m being paid. However he seems keen and I do need the money so am I overthinking this haha? 😂