How Much to Charge - Saint Paul,MN

S.:

I too am a SAHM doing some babysitting over the summer for a neighbor. It too will be part-time, for 2 school age kids and 1 preschooler. I am propsing to charge $600/mo or $150 a week for all 3. Less for the weeks 4 of the kids (school aged ones mine and hers) are up at the park for a playground program for the majority of the time. I didn't charge a whole lot due to the fact that I am unlicensed and my neighbor only works part time so it needs to be worthwhile for her too. Plus I get the added bonus of built-in playmates for my kids.

If you are enjoying what you are doing and it is not taking over your life (this was an important consideration of mine when making my decision); stick with the $100 a week. $400 a month is nothing to scoff at (especially if it's cash). That buys a lot of groceries, or diapers, or here's an idea: save it up and take a flight to a spa resort at the end of the summer (give your family something REAL to complain about).

K.

I think that considering you are unlicensed, and doing it in your home, not theirs, and have your son there, it is a pretty fair price. If it was a night out for the parents, they usually would pay more. But what you are doing is more like home daycare, and the weekly rates for full time for an infant when my son was born (3 yrs ago) was $150-$175/week. I was a nanny and got $200/week for 50 hrs/week, which is very little, but I had the freedom of having my son there and not having to pay for daycare. The experience I have had is that most of the people that are willing to pay more, want one-on-one care for their child. I do not agree with them on that being best for the child. There are people out there who can pay more and are ok with another child, but they are hard to find. With your situation, I think this would be good. A reliable $100/week, plus you still have the freedom of it not being a full time job, can have your son with you, and can do occasional babysitting other than that for more money.

S.,

I would have to agree with the others advice. $100 a week is good, when you are not licensed. Even when I was licensed I charged $140wk (infant), $130 (toddler), $120 (preschool).

What you also need to keep in mind is what the parent(s) make. If I was to go back to work right now I would make say $13.00/hr, but after paying someone $5.00 to watch my child, I would only be making $8.00/hr.

You get to make $100/wk and be able to stay at home with your own child.....That's the best thing.....

Good luck!

100$ is a good price to charge.

Taking into consideration, the majority of day care providers will take 1 child per week, for 145$ (what I pay per child) I work 40 hours a week and so that means my day care provider has my children 50 hours a week...

so basically you work for 2 days and are somewhat actually going to make a little more....

either way...you being a SAHM your now making 100$ a week more than what you would if you were just watching your own children...your doing the work, they aren't

I think 100$ is great

I just got paid 12 dollars a hour to watch two wonderful kids, but there family is also well off and I have alot of experiance.

I would totally be willing to work for less too. If I was paid cash under the table and could be in my own home with my own chlid as well as babysitting another kid or two I'd even do a hundred a week. A hundred is better than nothing and it's not all that hard to add another kid to your household. I know a hundred sounds very cheap when you add up the hourly pay. But if it's a struggling family maybe you could look at like your being a good samaratin or good person.

I know I'm cheap I pay my neighbor 20 dollars to watch my 5 year old for an entire day or a night out. Babysitter is a teenager and appreciates whatever I can give her and I'm a single parent and can't afford anymore. And she's as good as gold to my daughter.

S.,
Where you are not licensed, you most likely wouldn't get the going rate for a licensed provider. I'm not licensed and I charge my family $125 for a 50 hour work week, licensed providers in my neighborhood are charging around $175 for FULL time. It's $2.50 per hour for me, but when I was looking at the centers for my kids, I saw it range from around $3 to $4.75 per hour per child and they have trained, licensed staff there. There is something to be said for a connection between your son and this girl. My son loves our daycare boy and days when he stays home, my son misses him. Good luck. I know there are other providers on here, I'm sure you'll get more feedback.