The
true cost of babysitting services
Soon a night on the town may lead to a bank balance in the red with the current babysitting rates.
Having a baby means that you can end up paying twice for your social nights. We asked the babyworld members about the real costs of good babysitting and babysitting services.
Costly babysitting
Parents have precious little time to and by themselves these days… and soon the situation might get worse.
Recent research by financial services firm MINT, a subsidiary of the royal bank of Scotland, revealed that hiring a good babysitting service might cost more than your night out.
According to MINT, the average hourly rate charged by teenagers for babysitting
is now £4.74, which, over a four-hour period, costs more than a pizza dinner
for two (£17.50), a trip to the cinema (£15), or a night in the pub (£16.75).
For parents pushed for money, a babysitting service and going out is not an
option unless they can find family to do the babysitting for free, as "My husband and I can never go out together as we don't have a babysitter and
we don't have family living anywhere nearby either. A woman who advertises on
the notice board in the local hall charges £7 per hour for weeknights and £9
per hour for weekends (including Friday). If you go out from 8pm till midnight,
that's £36 on top of a night out!"
Unfortunately Alison had to celebrate her birthday without her partner precisely
because of the cost of a babysitting service. "I don't have a babysitter purely
because I wouldn't be able to afford one. My partner stayed in on Saturday night
whilst I went out for my birthday because I couldn't afford to pay my friend's
daughter to do the babysitting for me. I'd rather have had him with me to celebrate!"
Meanwhile, Alix boycotts babysitters because she thinks they are ludicrously
expensive for what they actually do, "We use family as we just cannot justify
paying someone to sit in our house, eat and drink and watch TV when we know
our children are asleep, and if they do wake up we will get called home anyway!"
Driving the prices high is an apparent shortage in babysitters. A third of
the parents surveyed by MINT said there were fewer babysitters now than there
were ten years ago. This is resulting in 39% of parents sacrificing a night
out simply because they cannot find anyone to look after their children, with
the best babysitters being snapped up quicker than gold dust. The scarcity of
babysitters has even caused family feuds over who gets to have the much-prized
teenager. Paying extra to have someone you can trust is important to many of our mums
on the site. As several said, "you get what you pay for" so even if you are
coughing up more for someone to sit and watch TV than you did for a slap-up
meal, surely peace-of-mind is worth it? Jane thinks so, "If we need to go out
during the week, I will ask friends or one of his nursery carers to do the babysitting,
who we would pay £5 an hour. An average night out, from 7.30pm to midnight,
would cost £22.50, which isn't cheap, but it means that I have someone babysitting
who is qualified to look after children, trained in basic first aid and knows
Noah. We couldn't do it every week but once in a while it is worth it." Where to next? Check out our article on finding
good babysitting services and Banishing
the babysitting blues
Fewer babysitters means higher prices