I have asked a cousin of mine to watch my 2 kids (ages 2 and 7) overnight starting from about 5 till next morning around 9 or 10ish. I have NO IDEA what to pay her. I will provide the dinner and breakfast and all that she will need while she is there. She is an 18yr old college kid. I don't want to under pay her and I have asked and she is no help :) I know it is she doesn't want to overcharge us and I don't want to under charge her so we are both playing the I don't know what to pay/charge game. Can you ladies and gentleman please give me an idea of what you have paid on occasions like this? TIA
$40-50.
Kids will be sleeping most of the time, and she will too.
$150 is outrageous to me. That's a whole weekend of care in my area.
We paid a babysitter around $150 for an overnight babysitting gig that began in the afternoon and went until around noon the next day. Keep in mind you're not just paying for your cousin's care when the kids are awake but also for being on-call at night. Our son wasn't that young, but got lost going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and peed on the babysitter's carpet. The babysitter had to scrub carpets around 2 am. You can't predict what will happen at night and how much work she'll need to do then, so pay generously.
ETA: $40/50 wouldn't work here in California. That wouldn't even cover the awake hours on day one. People can flip burgers and earn more in less time. For quality childcare here, you pay well for it.
I would guess around $100. It sounds like about 6 hours of awake time at $10-14/hr plus the sleeping portion. If she were not family I would expect about $150. $40-50 sounds really low to me - I pay my babysitter that for dinner and a movie out with no overnight care.
I agree with Sadie - I would not expect to pay my mom if she watched DS nor did I get paid when I watched my younger siblings.
I would pay her probably $100 for the night.
This is hard because she is family.
I would think about if you want her to do this in the future (you are lucky to have someone you trust to stay over night). I have paid a service $150 for 5 hours (7pm-12midnight). I would think paying family direct should be cheaper, yet worth it to her.
We all know they just sit there, but we are still required to have supervision. Would $100 be too much for you? I would not go under $50. So between $50 to $100 (i'm factoring in the fact that Texas rate are less than coastal CA).
I would pay an 18 year old family member. I would not pay an equal (sibling) or above (aunt or grandmother) for this favor with cash. I would do something equally helpful back.
Well…hmmm…I kinda think that because she's family you can (and quite frankly maybe should, isn't that the benefit of family?) pay her a little less…unless of course she really needs the money.
I think $50 is probably pretty reasonable. She isn't coming over til dinner time and 9-10 am seems pretty early to me. My kids do this all the time for free with our brothers, sisters, and moms.
I will say that my husband and I recently went out of town for a week and we paid our sitter $100/day to do all that and more. I do feel we got a pretty good deal and if you feel like $50 isn't enough then you can add more but I don't think I'd pay your cousin more than $100.
If I were using a commercial service, in this area, I would expect to pay $10-$15 an hour, till midnight, a flat rate of $50-75 for the overnight, and $10-15 for the am hours after 7 am. The reason that I offered a sliding scale, is because I know that there is a second kid discount, but am not sure what it amounts to.
We don't exhange money among family. It would be done as a favor. I would probably manage to "pay" her nonetheless, by showing up with coffee, bagels, and a SB gift card worth $50 the following morning.
Best,
F. B.
$150-$200 CASH
Yes she is there when children are sleeping but she is on call.
It's much better to pay a bit on the higher side vs going the cheap way out.
Whomever is there is spending the time 100% for your children.
My 19 yr old routinely makes $80-$100 for 1 weekend night babysitting from about 530 ish til 1 am. She has regular families who book her way in advance.
Family comes with a discount. Half price. Good luck.
well if shes your cousin to id pay her 50anight as she sleeping overnight with the children
We just did this in December with 3 kids (8, 5, and 3). We left at 5pm and came home at 10am. The babysitter was not a family member--she was our son's teacher. We paid her $150. It was probably a little on the high end, but we were so thankful to be able to go to our event.
My sitter charges her normal rate while they are awake ($10/hr) plus $50 for an overnighter. She is a college-educated 25-yr old.
Definitely talk with her first about what you want to pay so that neither of you has to worry about it. Enjoy your night!
