[ercfishy310]

I live in a relatively smaller city. Right now I babysit two girls part-time. I'm wondering how much I should charge. I usually babysit for 5 hours a day/ a couple times a week. During 4 1/2 hours of those days, I'm only watching one, while the other is in school. I'm in charge of picking them up from school, feeding them lunch, snacks, and I also make sure to do crafts or games (some kind of interaction, not just let them watch TV or play video games). When there is a snowday at school, I will have both of them for 8 hours. I have been charging the same rate/ per hour if I have only one girl or both. Should I charge more when watching both at the same time? The mother also asked me if I would be able to watch them half-a-day on a weekend day coming up. Should I charge a little more since it's the weekend and I'll have both of them?

[ineedsomeadvice]

It's really hard to say. I guess the more experience you have, the more you could charge. I have had 3 years experience taking care of children and for part-time babysitting I use to charge anywhere from $12 - $15 an hour.

I think it is more common to charge per hour instead of charging per child. You need to take this in consideration though. I mean if you are taking care of 4 kids and am only getting paid $5 per hour, you are not going to want to babysit.

So I guess what it comes down to is for you to think of what you would like to get paid and if you would like to charge more for working on weekends, I never did, and discuss this with the parent/s and see what you could work out together.

I hope this helps.

[450donn]

Simple, call a couple of license day care providers and ask them how much per child they charge for all day and half day.

[liz28]

I use pay $150 a week for a babysitter for my daughter and this was full-time and I leave in a big city.

Since you pick up another child and watch the other child, I think you should be getting paid at least $75-100 a week.