Hellobee Boards

When J was at a home daycare the rate was the same ($17/hour), now that he's in preschool, school is way more affordable than a babysitter.

Our daycare is $220/week, which is less than $5/hour. I definitely would pay a babysitter more than that!

10 hours a day, daycare comes out to $7/hour. I would definitely pay a babysitter more than that.

Definitely more. In a daycare setting there are other families paying in addition to yours so the hourly rate is actually much higher than you alone are paying. I would pay a date night babysitter at least $10/hour for one LO.

@BadgerMom: haha, comment about the boy across the street made me laugh out loud.

We pay our daytime sitter $15/hour and she's with us 2 days a week.
We have a night time sitter who we pay $20/hr and guarantee a min number of hours to keep her happy. I live in a city where rates are generally higher and findin someone who lives in the city is hard, so when you find someone you have to keep them wanting to come back!

@BadgerMom: Hahahahah. That's amazing!

@lawbee11: What she said!

We have paid "date night" sitters $9-12 per hour. When we have had a daytime babysitter, it has been in the same range because it is one-on-one care. One week we hosted three other kids at our home with a babysitter because our daycare was on spring break. We paid the babysitter $20 per hour to watch the four kids, or $5 per child.

Our daycare comes out to $5 per hour but again it is different because it is group care. We have a sitter lined up for this summer when our daycare closes (it operates on a preschool schedule) and she is going to charge $5 per hour which is incredible. She will be watching LO in her home along with her own child - she is a SAHM so this is just a little extra income for her family.

Date night sitters in my area are $15-$20 an hour, but I found a HS girl that charges only $11.