Hello! My husband and I have the opportunity to attend a destination wedding in December. We have the option of staying either 3 nights or 4 nights.
We have a babysitter who has already agreed to stay at our house and get our 2 boys off to school. We'd be gone either a Tuesday-Saturday or Wednesday-Saturday. So she would be responsible for either 2 or 3 mornings. She would take them to the bus stop, get them from the bus stop, would feed them dinner, do homework and do the bedtime routine. She will stay at our house. She has been with our family for a long time, she is responsible and knows our kids VERY well. Simply said, we love her.
We agree that an hourly rate would be impossible, so we agreed on a flat rate. She would also be going to her full-time job during the day when they were at school. My mom would be the emergency contact, for the school, in case of emergency.
What would you expect to pay her?
Could you give me an idea based on 3 nights and/or 4 nights? I'd appreciate it.
UPDATE: Sorry! Forgot to mention that our boys are 8 and 6. And I also mentioned that she is working her full time job because she won't be responsible for anything else here (i.e. laundry, grocery shopping, etc) Of course, I would reimburse her if she incurred any expenses.
$100/day? Maybe just ask her what she feels is fair. Irrelevant that she'll be working at the same time.
I did a lot of overnight babysitting before I had kids (I was a teacher and knew tons of families). I had no idea what to ask for, but the first couple of families that I worked for had used other people in the past - they suggested my hourly rate during the day, and then 1/2 of my hourly rate each hour overnite. Example, if you pay $10 an hour during the day, pay $5 an hour for the 10 overnight hours.
Enjoy your time away!!!!
I travel regularly for business. I pay $75 a night. The ladies who take care of my daughter pick-up/drop-off from daycare (06:30-06:00), feed her dinner, entertain her, and prepare stuff for daycare the next day. She stays at their house...I provide her breakfast and lunch food. They feed her dinner.
Since she will be keeping them several more hours, and there are two of them, I would expect to pay $100-125 per night.
We pay $100 per night. I provide a grocery gift card (one where they can get gas too) and a visa gift card for incidentals they may need to spend on my children and our sitter will leave it with me and let me know how much is left. I sign a letter with the kids medical information giving our sitter permission to have our kids treated at the urgent care, doctors office and hospital, and leave the insuarance cards.
Have fun.
M.
When I do overnights, I am paid $100/night. I also have the parents fill out a medical release form, and make sure it's NOTARIZED!!! Leave a Gas card/grocery card, or leave money for incidentals, and make sure you have the discussion with your kids that she is in charge, and that everyone is on the same page. The worst thing a parent can do is not talk with their kids about their upcoming trip and lay down the law/house rules while they are away. I had a family once that told the kids they were in charge while mom/dad were away, and although they were kidding, it turned ugly for me and I was with them for 10 days while their parents were vacationing.
Make sure to leave insurance cards, medical release forms, etc all in a manila envelope on the side of the fridge, or some place safe. Make sure you have a well-stocked first-aid kit too.
It would be helpful to know how old your kids are - are they mostly independent, or do they still need help with things like baths? How great a possibility is it that they will wake up overnight? How late do they go to bed?
Assuming that they are at the age that they can do most of the routine without a ton of assistance, but still go to bed at a reasonable hour, I'd say $75/day. If they are younger, or there's a good likelihood she'll be up with them in the middle of the night, I'd up it to $100.
Have a good time on your trip!
I would pay $100 per day
I would pay her 250 -400 depending on the amount of nights and how much you usually pay her.
At least $100.00 a day or night. We paid our sitter 100.00 for the day recently, that was from 9-5pm (kids 5&7). Granted, that was a lot for 1 day but we LOVE her and appreciate that she takes such great care of our kids. If she were to stay the night, I'd be tempted to pay more.
I would think $75-$100 per night but you also have a Saturday in there so maybe the regular hourly rate for that day. You also want to consider what to do if your flight is delayed for some reason to make sure hat she has the flexibility to cover more time if there is a delay.
Definitely consider the emergency options that another person suggested for insurance cards and gift cards to cover unexpected expenses.
Hope you have a fantastic trip!
