Babysitters...

smiles

What do you look for in a babysitter?

I've been babysitting my nieces / nephews for the last few year (ones 5, there are twin (autistic) 4 year olds and a 1 year old), but outside of family members what do people want as exerience?

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daveg

Generally our family (mothers) babysit for us. We occasionally (if needed) ask teachers from my sons creche. I wouldn't feel comfortable with a stranger babysitting.

Nevyn

well long gone are the Days where you could get and trust the 16 year old living a few doors down from you to babysit your children.

And with family sizes being smaller there arent as many people you can call on that you trust to mind your lil bundles of joy.
I am the eldest of 5 siblings and they all live very near and even with them babysitting the odd time and my mother there are still times where we are stuck with out a sitter and it may often take a week or two of notice to get someone who is free.

So getting some one to babysit is for occasions an not as much as we would like it for a weekly trip to the pictures.

So we end up doing things on our own. I may want to go to as many Lans as what Spookey does and he may be intrested in going to some of the talks and events I go to but life odesnt always work that way once you have children

Victor

My "alternate", Emma, who minds my sister's kids is a local teenager. She's copped on, local, affordable (I think she's in college now, not sure).

Knowing them prior to them minding the kids might be an advantage.

PhilipMarlowe

sorry for dragging this up but i am wondering about babysitting rates. What do people usually spend. We rarely (3 times in 3 years) have used a babysitter (other than family) but would like to use a babysitter more now. We have a great girl who is the daughter of our childminder so the kids are familiar with her, and we want to be generous and fair (though her mum won't let us 'spoil' her).

So what are other people paying... and for what kind of hours etc.

Mark.

daveg

About 7-10 euro an hour? I think thats what we paid last time.

trilo

ya about 7 to 10 euro is about right, howevr i babysit a few hours a week, got a diploma in social care and only charge 6 euro and hour... dummb i am i think... so i do feel really 7 or 6 euro and hour is reasonable... but it does then depend on the age of the childminder and the time of day or night... should a childminder get less when working at night when to children are asleep and the childminder will more than likely be sitting in front of the telly or whatever...

Victor

Originally posted by trilo
so i do feel really 7 or 6 euro and hour is reasonable...

Can i mutter minimum wage (€6.35, going up to €7 on 1 January).

KdjaCL

€20 a night with food delivered and a chinese is our normal rate.

Finding someone to trust is hard but best way to do it is go out when they all asleep makes sitting easier and make sure the kids know the sitter in case they wake up (i got wee ones).

Her brother is unemployed so perfect and always availabel bout bleedin time ,3 years i never went out (with here:) )

kdjac

chill

The best babysitters we have had were boys. One was thirteen and the other fifteen.

They were less interested in spending the night on the phone and we could trust them not to bring in all of their girlfriends when we were gone.

The girls we have had have been totally unreliable and quite mean to our son when we were gone.

Victor

Originally posted by KdjaC
Finding someone to trust is hard but best way to do it is go out when they all asleep makes sitting easier and make sure the kids know the sitter in case they wake up (i got wee ones).

Ended up minding my sisters kids over the summer AND the middle one's best friend and her kid brother. Parents ended up in pub (drunk enough to discuss wife swapping in front of kids when they came home).

Anyway, I pack the kids off to bed and the middle one's best friend take the spare bed in her room and the young fella has passed out on the sofa. He wakes up alone in "strange" house where he finds me - someone he has never seen before (that night). He starts freaking out, so it was time to make the "guys, I think ye need to come home from the pub now" phone call.

Da_cOmRaDe_MiKe

i made a few mistakes myself on this topic.

about 3 months ago we had to go to a wedding. we asked our neighbours daughter to babysit. we offered 40 - 50 euro for the night because is was on such short term. she was a good friend of ours and always came around for movies and stuff. well about 2 months ago we got our monthly phone bill. well lets just say i will NEVER leave the phone plugged in any more. i recommend that anyone hiring a non family member do the same. in the space of 5 hours she had got off the phone for about 10 mins to check on our baby!!!! thats about 4hours and 30 - 40 mins on the phone to a mobile! i had to pay over 120 euro for the bill when we got it on her calls alone.

about 2 weeks ago we asked my cousin (16 year old boy) to mind our baby leah. he didnt want to so much as it was a friday night but he agreed for 30 - 40 euro. well i will always trust boys for now on. he was so polite to our baby and he spent the whole time with her and making her laugh for hours! anytime she sees him now she goes mad for him!

in my opinion boys between the age of 14 - 16 can be trusted so much more with babysitting than girls. im not putting every girl down but nearly all the ones we have asked to babysit have done some stupid things and have left our baby alone for the night and sat in front of the telly with bags of food from OUR KITCHEN while our baby cried sometimes upstairs while she sat downstairs doing SWEET FU*CK ALL all night!

so i recommend that you ask boys if you cannot find anyone in the family to do the job for you.

and the going rate is about 7 - 8 euro around here. but alot of people just pay a negotiated fee like 30 euro for as long as it takes. my fiance babysat for 2 years and she only got 20 euro a night. and she was there for like 5 - 6 hours on average about 2 times a week!

now she goes babysitting for a few friends every now and then and charges per hour.
7 - 8 euro an hour for 5 hours = 35 - 40 euro.
its much better than 20 euro for 5 - 6 hours = 4 - 4.50 per hour.

some people are just cheap and arnt willing to pay decent money to decent people who look after a child ( chich isint easy ) when they are screaming for their parents who are out getting rat arsed drunk.

AND LETS NOT FORGET THAT THE BABYSITTERS HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THE PARENTS WHEN THEY COME IN DRUNK.

there has been more than 1 occasion that my fiance has rang me up crying saying that the husband or man in the house wouldnt let her leave unless he got a good night kiss.

some people just turn pure ignorant when they are drinking and they babysitters dont deserve to put up with sh*it like that for a measely 20 euro an hour.

:mad: :mad:

Nevyn

Well legally you cannot leave a minor under the age of 14 alone in the house and you can’t have a minor under the age of 16 being left to mind other children.

I'm not nit picking just I know a couple who had a 15 year old younger sitter minding the 3 year old who was fast asleep in bed when they left had to go to hospital with the kid (due to no fault of the sitter) who had rolled out of bed and landed badly on her elbow (that one of those things that can happen at any time. When they were asked who was minding the child they answered honest and openly to find them selves soon facing a social worker and talk of neglect of their part.

There was always the tradition of getting girls to baby sit
, training them in with their maternal instincts :rolleyes: and with the report on sexual abuse in the 80s stating that young males were the most likely perps getting a
male sitter was never done.

The issue is not just getting some ont to be in the housew while the kids sleep is if the kids wake up from a bad dream can the person comfort them and respect you home.

Top of our list for baby sitting is my brother and his best mate (aged 22) they baby sit for pizza and to go through our film collection or play tekken for most of the night, plus they usually come over an hour earlier and run riot with the kids tiring them out.

As for that young lady and the phone Bill I've had made a copy and sent it to her parents.

Jokah

I'm babysitting my 3 young cousins, all boys, this weekend...I've babysat them over the years since I was 16 and I get on fine with them. In fact its a great laugh...

I've babysat my lil nephew also and its a piece of cake....give them your un divided attention while you are with them, send them to bed happy and tired and you do a good job...

Good training for me and my girlfriend....:D

Jess18

Da_cOmRaDe_MiKe wrote: »

i made a few mistakes myself on this topic.

about 3 months ago we had to go to a wedding. we asked our neighbours daughter to babysit. we offered 40 - 50 euro for the night because is was on such short term. she was a good friend of ours and always came around for movies and stuff. well about 2 months ago we got our monthly phone bill. well lets just say i will NEVER leave the phone plugged in any more. i recommend that anyone hiring a non family member do the same. in the space of 5 hours she had got off the phone for about 10 mins to check on our baby!!!! thats about 4hours and 30 - 40 mins on the phone to a mobile! i had to pay over 120 euro for the bill when we got it on her calls alone.

I agree with Nevyn, I definitely would have sent her the phone bill. I don't know how someone could do that, when they are being paid to look after a baby, but instead they sit talking on the phone building up a massive bill for the parents.

The lady I babysit for has told me that her phone is there and I can use it whenever I like if I want to call friends for a chat when the baby is gone to bed, but I wouldn't even dream of using it, unless there was an emergency.

Also on the rates, I get paid €7.50 an hour at night, which I am more than happy with, this includes me feeding, playing with, bathing the baby and putting her to bed.

January

I think this is actually the oldest thread to ever be bumped on boards... ancient thread is really ancient... closed.