Cost of a babysitter

discussion 2004 - 2006 (Boston's in there)

In Toronto, they charge $8 - 10/hour for one child for a non-professional.

These rates are all over the place! And some are as high as what I paid for a fully liscenced daycare center!

Does anyone have suggestions for this particular circumstance? I noticed one stated $40 for anything over 5 hours. This would be a situation where the mom is already staying home with her son (he is actually my daughter's boyfriend).

Boyfriend? Then she should watch yur daughter for free and be grateful for the opportunity to train up her future daughter in law in the way that would make her most pleased to claim her for her son.



Or, you could just ask her what she thinks is fair and reasonable.

I'm with Squinney. Ask the woman providing the care what her rates are.

Ask, and then if she says "I dunno, what do you think?" and puts it back on you, reply in a way that makes her come up with a number.

I know my daughter will enjoy being in your care for a couple of days each week. By the way, what would you like me to pay for your service?"

"Oh, gosh, I dunno. I mean I'm already home with Sam, so... What do you think?"

"I want to be fair to you, so if you could give it some thought and let me know in the morning that would be great."

She'll either throw a number out ('cause she already has thought about it) or she'll let you know in the morning.

Thanks squinney that sounds reasonable.

She is so sweet and they have such a nice family, I don't want to take advantage and hopefully this will help them out a bit as well.

It depends alot on her age how much driving is involved and how many children you have but i would say anywhere between 12 and 15 and hour.

That doesn't make sense - a fully liscenced day care facility would cost less.

In any case, my issue is resolved at least temporarily. But now I will have a potential back up.

Linkat, I think that generally you pay more for a babysitter/nanny than for a daycare center.

Any at home type things I have ever seen (granted this was about 5 years ago) were significantly less. The reason being that they do not have the same amount of restrictions as a fully liscenced and accrediated day care center. I certainly did a huge amount of research on this.

Perhaps the difference is a nanny/babysitter that is strictly hired to come into your home and care for your child. I do know people who have hired like this. And they are hired contractors and there are taxes involved and all that crap.

When you have your child stay with a stay at home mom or an in home day care that you drop off at their house usually it is less because they do not have as much costs - at their house, the qualifications and restrictions are a whole lot less. And in the case of a stay at home mom - that is "babysitting" and you are not "hiring" - you can pay cash under the table - they pocket the whole thing and do not claim - they also do not have any liscencing requirements, etc. so their costs are less.