When we lived in DC, I was shocked when I asked a few neighbors about their babysitters and what they paid them. Most of the neighbors that I asked paid around $13-$15 per hour for ONE child (yikes!). Now that we're back in the midwest, I am told that most high school sitters here get paid around $7-9 per hour. I've asked a few neighbors for names and the girls that they use are 13 and 14. It's weird because I totally remember babysitting when I was that age, but now that I'm the parent it seems so young. I'm curious to know, do any of you use sitters that age?

Between 15 and 20 Swiss Francs an hour (the Franc is almost par with the dollar, so something like $14-18/hr).

Yeah, wow. We don't go out.

We live in Forest Hills Gardens, NY (queens). We pay our babysitter 10/hour which includes interacting with our children (reading and playing, minimal TV of 2 toddlers) and cleaning up any mess that was done while she was on the job (usu. dishes used when they ate and pick up of toys before we get home.)

I always require babysitters to be CPR/First Aid certified and to read and understand basic english in case of an emergency. Any babysitter who really enjoys being with children and is a professional knows this is a MUST. I can't tell you how many times we have done interviews with individuals who ask for 15-20/hour and who don't even know what CPR is. YIKES! Also, up to date with immunizations and TB tested. They require this of any indivduals who work with in close proximity with children (teachers, daycare workers, doctors,etc.) Not many parents ask about this because they don't know.

My only advice...do your interviews ( I do one on the phone and then in person) and background checks! I also do a trial run (paid) before I actually leave them with our kids alone. Trust your instincts...even if its silly feeling you have about them. A babysitter's true nature usually doesn't come out until about the 4-5th time they've sat for your children. If everyone survives that long, the babysitter is a keeper. Until then, always have your guard up by calling home to check up, coming home earlier just to check up on them, having someone check in on them, etc. I might be a little anal but I wouldn't want me child to be hurt like the one in Connecticut (poor Elijah Gasque...)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22726326/

My college daughter baby sits for spending money. She is located in Nashville, sits in Brentwood, Franklin, etc. and uses a referral agency, Child Care Solutions. The agency pre-screens potential families as well as sitters. Her base rate is $10/hr and the families pay the agency as well. She has built a nice client base and become quite attached to some of the families she works for. Interestingly enough DD did not babysit much as a teen because she was too busy.

In SoCal, the one babysitter I was happy with charged $10/hr for night and $8/hr for day babysitting for one child (age 18 months). She was 14. However, we didn't hire her for long because I mostly needed her during daytime hours, which is when she was in school.

Sorry I forgot to mention...our babysitter is a mom of 4 (triplet and one) and is a licensed substitute teacher. I wouldn't ask a highschooler or sometimes even a college student to sit for kids under 3. If I did pay a highschooler, I would pay the minimum wage at the time.

I think that it depends on the quality of the sitter. Some high school students are actually quite stellar and responsible, in my experience (although those traits are hard to come by in anyone these days!)

by the way, TOTALLY off topic, but what kind of bottle is that in the picture? I'm desperate to get my nursing-3-month-old on a bottle he'll take!

Hi, Selena. The bottle is the original Playtex Nurser.

My son never had nipple confusion with those and easily went from breast to bottle to breast without any problems.

I live in Indy and pay $10/hour for a college student. That's the going rate in Chicago, where I'm originally from, so...

We pay $12 to $15 per hour in DC (in the city) for 2 kids. There really aren't any teenagers who babysit where we live; they're too busy with their highly academic high schools and numerous activities and internships, I guess. For nighttime/weekend sitting, we use college students and young professionals who want to supplement their incomes. The M-F 8-6 nannies/sitters often have their own families and aren't available to work on weekends/evenings.

Here's a free solution: trade nights out with other parents. We have done this and it works out well but is seldom an even exchange (some kids take longer than your own to get to bed; some are fussier).

I'm in Westchester county, NY and pay $15/hour for our regular 2x a week babysitter for 2 kids. She also does laundry and keep us neat (which is a job in itself!). I've found that that rate varies a lot - we have a semi-regular nighttime babysitter who charges $10/hour.

OT: Our son still dislikes bottles but he tolerates the Second Nature line the best. They are polycarbonate so we hand wash and don't store milk in them.

I should add that back home in Canada, the going rate was $5 - 7 for a highschool babysitter.

I was just researching this last night on Craigslist and, it seems that $10 to $20 is the going rate. The more experience, the more they charge. I was a part-time sitter a few years ago and I charged $12 to $15/hr, which I considered to be fair as I had a BA and I was Infant/Child CPR trained. Frankly, I am surprised to find teenagers charging more than $10 an hour! I have a 6 month old son and for now I think we shall be forgoing movies or a night out! We live in the Boulder/Denver metro area.

Selena: The bottle in the picture is the playtex nurser. it was the only one my breastfed son would take, I think because the nipple was bigger. http://www.playtexstore.com/cgi-bin/item/PLA05456
You can get them most anywhere and they're really easy to use.

selena: Sorry! Realized someone already responded to you about the nurser. Trying to figure out how to delete a post but can't.

I've been babysitting since I was 11 (15 years of babysitting!! yikes) I had no experience and couldn't believe me luck when a family left me with their three month old and 2 year old until 2am. I had to get a stool to put the baby in the crib!

At age 25 and pregnant with my first I charge $10 an hour in Montana. Its cheaper than I would normally charge, but I enjoy the time with the kids and their friends. I only babysit for two families that I've been with for over 5 years. These families "found me" because I was their child's swimming instructor. I think it is a great way to find a sitter. Your kid knows them, their most likely CPR certified and are great with kids. You can observe them during lessons and such. I got many babysitting jobs from my swimming lesson clients.

I'm a collage student with lots of experiance (work in a day care ccenter, in an elementary school, and almost 10 years of sitting experiance). In my home state of VT I used to earn about $6 an hour. In DC, I get $10-$15/hr, or $50/evening. I'm actually thinking about raising my rates for new familys - I feel bad doing that for people who I already have a relationship with, but I can get $12/hr working at my campus job, so $10/hr sitting is starting to seem low. I also provide my own transportation, which is a consideration...

We live in Austin & have a college student (a senior in child development/education) come by twice a week to take care of our 4 month old daughter. We pay $10 an hour, which seems to be the going rate around here.

We live in the Bay Area and pay $15 an hour. I always include a meal if the kids are eating too and I round up--like a tip. If we say we'll be back at 10 and come back early, I'll pay the full amount. It adds up but we've been fortunate to have wonderful sitters and have good luck retaining them.

We live in Nashville and pay $12/hr for a sitter for our 3-year-old, and he's usually asleep when the sitter arrives. Don't usually have too much trouble finding a sitter when we need one : ) .

I also live in the Austin area. When I pay for sitting I usually pay a very responsible high schooler from church $8/hr. I am also part of a babysitting co-op. There are about 9 families that are a part of the co-op. We all start with 20 hours and earn/use hours based on how many children you have. It is a great way to ask your friends to sit, but to give them hours in return.

We live in upstate NY and pay our babysitter $10 an hour for four kiddos. She's great, loves them, is CPR trained and has taken babysitting courses. She tidies up and our kids love her. She is in 9th grade, which sounds young, I know, but I began babysiting in 7th grade. She's very responsible and definitely not of the "I love Britney Spears" crowd.
We pay more than any of our friends do so I guess from reading the comments, upstate NY is a great place to hire a babysitter!

Wow... a lot has changed.
When I was a teenager - I got about 3- 7 dollars a night. I had been through a babysitting course with CPR training too!
One regular family had three kids (they were angels though) and gave me a dollar an hour... no exceptions... even when I folded the laundry and did the dishes!

waterreflecting... you pay more than my little part time job! I'm in Denver... maybe we should meet up!