Babysitting Rates - Goodyear,AZ

It really depends on your area. Most sitters don't have set rates and it's "whatever you feel comfortable with". I currently have 3 kids (ages 5, 3.5, 1.5). I pay my sitter (who is 13) $7/hour (rounded up to the nearest 5 when finished) for 1 kid, $10/hour for 2 kids, $12/hour for 3 kids, and $15/hour for 3 kids & housebroken puppy. If she's babysitting at night after all the kids are sleeping and essentially just keeping watch of the house, I pay a flat 10/hr fee.

I will also "tip" extra if any of the kids were not well behaved.

I've never understood those parents who don't want to pay well for babysitters. If you find a good one, this is the life of your children people!

My kids are now 20 and 16 YEARS. When we found a good sitter we always paid well! Not only was he or she almost always available, we knew our kids were well cared for and loved.

My daughter, the 16 year old, routinely got $10 an hour for a neighborhood family with 3 kids. Of course they were semi-out-of-control and the parents knew it but still!

Babysitters in my area are about $15. Mines is $20hr for two.

Yikes....That is a lot of money some posters mentioned. We live in the wealthiest county in America and the going rate for young teens sitters here is $5 an hour. A bit more for more kids. I agree with your amount or your husbands maybe...but not the other posters. I would pay what she thinks is fair between what u both think. Some of the amounts I would consider outrageous. Here they often have also taken a class on sitting, CPR, and have experience and references. If the family likes the sitter and feels she is worth more than that they will likely offer more in time to come. Or she can raise her rates a bit if she becomes more experienced in time. I would not want to teach my kid to get what she can out of families desperate for a night out. You sound like good parents already.

O.k. so as I read this, your own daughter tends the two younger children while you teach...I don't know if you pay her or not but this is just something she needs to do within her own family due to the circumstances when you teach dance. It's probably fine sometimes but kids need to learn that they don't always get paid for tending to their brothers and sisters. It's called being a family...
I don't think babysitters need to make minimum wage or above that. I do pay reasonably and I will throw in extra if they are at my home past 10:00 p.m. It depends on the age of the kids-I usually pay my babysitters around $6 per hour and I have 3 kids but the youngest is 6 and not to toot my own horn but they are well-behaved.

I live in Litchfield Park, right by Goodyear, & I charge $10 per hour per family, regardless of it is 1 child or 3 children. I have looked on a lot of babysitting websites & it looks like people charge a lot less then I do here in the West Valley ( anywhere from $3-$8 per hour)... I personally charge more because I have my Bachelor's Degree in Child Development & over 10 years of teaching experience. I think she might want to charge around $8 an hour. She should also have a "minimum charge" of $20 so she doesn't waste her time if someone only needs her for an hour or something like that.

i agree with the $5 for the first and $3 for each additional. however thats $11 for 3 kids. and to babysit an infant is more time consuming and takes more then just a snack and a movie. for that family alone i would charge a flat $15 an hour for all three kids. its more then fair.

I like your daughter's idea of telling them to pay what they can. Some parents have plenty and will pay generously, some have little and can't pay as much. Teach your daughter that this about helping others, not money. She's 15, all her needs are met by her parents, all this money is just a bonus.

Minimum $10 for 3 kids

I think a lot of it depends on your area and the going rate there. A more rural area would not pay what the "city area" pays.

That said.... our daughter turns 16 on 12/27 and she has been babysitting since she was about late 14. She babysits a LOT more now and regularly with 3 families who live in walking distance from us, 2 of which have 3 children each and 1 with just 1 child.

The cheapest family she will only babysit for if she needs money has 3 girls under 9 that are pure hellions. They offer her $5/child/hour. She is rarely available to them, NOT because of $$... because they are wild. She said she'd rather take on a house full of boy children vs these 3 girls.

She is routinely paid in CASH and she gets anywhere from $12-15/hr....sometimes $10/hr.

When we used sitters, we guaranteed $40 for the night CASH and if we cancelled for any reason, we paid her the $40 because she saved the night for us. I now realize the importance of that because my daughter saves the night for families and turns others down when she is booked.

On top of the $40, we added $10/hr. Our weekly date nights were routinely $60-$80 cash. A small price to pay to have special couple time.........WHICH IS PRIORITY for us as a couple.....not DESPERATION. Something must have worked.....we're going on 22 married yrs, 25 together this New Years Eve.

GOOD sitters save their nights for the families who pay well and have better behaved children.

Good luck... it is easy money, especially for a 15 yr old.

EDIT: My daughter is CPR trained, black belt and she has never set a rate. She has received the jobs she has based on referrals from families who have used her as a sitter. She accepts what the person hiring her offers.........NOT taking advantage of someone. She has a lot more class, morals and ethics than that, wealthy county or not.

I pay my babysitter 8.00 per hour and add a tip at the end of the night. It usually works out to be around 9.00 - 10.00 per hour with the tip. My boys are 5 and 8 and we live in suburban Chicago.
Yesterday I had a new babysitter and I asked him how much he charges his other families. He said that he usually charges 8.00 per hour, so this seems to be the going rate for a 15 year old here in IL.
I never had a babysitter who charged a per child rate, but two kids and a baby is a lot of work and your daughter should make sure she gets compensated accordingly.