by Allen Teal

Created on: February 03, 2009

The rate of pay for a babysitter should be approached like any other business decision. You must begin by defining your expectations from the position. Are you hiring someone to stay in the house while your children run amok? Or, are you looking for someone to also be a maid, nanny, and cook? Somewhere between these extremes is a realistic definition of a babysitter. If you are expecting someone to put their life on hold while they watch your children, you should plan to compensate them accordingly.

Another important question to consider is that of the duration of the assignment. Is this babysitting job for an evening while you and your spouse or date go out? Is it a 50 hour per week babysitting assignment for while you are at work? For short spans, you can often live with a lesser quality of babysitter. This translates into lower pay. If you want dependable week after week full time babysitting, you get what you pay for. You may find it cheaper to use daycare or preschool than to use high quality babysitting.

If you need an evening out a time or two per month, you might be able to arrange free babysitting with other parents by swapping services. You will watch their children when needed in exchange for them doing the same for you. The problem is that this can be inequitable. Abuse of the system can lead to a collapse of the arrangement. By having some written agreements in advance, you can devise a point system where you accrue points when you babysit and spend points when you use babysitting. With a network of 4 or 5 families, this can become a very workable system.

Once you realize that paying for babysitting is the best route in your situation, you will need to begin to poll friends and relatives to find a reliable reasonably priced babysitter. This will often be an older teen who has proved responsible. For an evening out, plan on spending about $8 to $10 per hour. If you furnish snacks, allow acceptable visitors, and have the kids in pajamas before you leave, you might be able to trim this amount slightly.

If you plan to only be away during the early evening hours and can drop your children off with a sitter where it works more like a play date for the kids, you might get lucky and find someone nearby with children who will either babysit or supervise one of their children to babysit in their home. Many times for a two or three hour period the cost will only be $10 to $15, total.

For a full-time babysitter whether at your house or theirs, the cost will go

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