My son attends preschool 5 mornings a week. I've gotten to know a couple of the other kid's parents very well, especially since DS also plays soccer. One father approached me today and asked if I would be interested in babysitting his DS (who goes to school with my son) a couple afternoons a week. He's a contractor and has looked into daycare but it's very pricey. I'd be picking their son up from school along with my DS and would care for him until his mom got home (she's actually a teacher at the same school) which would be about 4 - 4 1/2 hours. It's only until school is out, but we could really use the money. My question is, how much should I charge? I was thinking about $8.00 an hour. Does that sound reasonable?

I think $8.00 per hour is too expensive. Day cares around here don't charge that much. How are you coming up with this figure? Maybe if you could explain it to me I'd understand better. How pricey are those day cares he doesn't want to pay for? Your rates may be more than the day care he's trying to avoid. JMO

I've never had to pay for daycare so I don't know what is reasonable. Maybe call around various ones in your area and find out how much they charge per day and then you can figure an hourly rate from there. Ask the guy how much he is willing to pay and negotiate. Good luck. Sounds like an easy way to make a little extra!

Most daycare places around here start at about $10.00/hr and those are the cheap ones. He did say that they were paying over $600 a month for daycare when their DS was younger. He was there only 3 days a week about 5/6 hours, but most daycare places charge full-time rates if the child is there more than 4 hours. And according to the dad, the daycare provider just plopped the kids in front of the TV or video games. And they had to pay the full $600 a month even if DS was sick or they were on vacation. It's so crazy.

So roughly that brakes down to $150.00 per week and roughly $3.75 per hour. That sounds more like the going rates here or less. It's a shame he would have to pay for a whole month like that. I guess the day care wants to ensure they make money.

It would be $3.75 an hour if he was there 40 hours a week, but he was only there about 15-18 hours a week! The price of daycare in MA is ridiculous. I would only have them pay for days their son is here and I would provide lunch, snacks, and drinks. Maybe I'll knock it down to $30 a day. I'd be watching him about 4 - 5 hours a day (depending on parent's schedule) so that would work out to about $6 a hour. It's so hard to price it because I've gotten varying quotes from daycare providers in the area - one of them was actually $700 a month. The most inexpensive quote I've received is $500 a month. And that's only 3 days a week part-time (4 hours and under). Outrageous!

If that is the going rate in your area, go for it!!! Personally I would die if I had to pay that much (acutually I would stay home!) I pay $2.50 an hour for my ds at his daycare center. I do pay if he is not there, but we contract for a certain # of hours a week and are responsible for that. (full or part-time)

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~Happiness is a large family~

Do any elementary schools around you offer before/after daycare? You can call and ask how much they charge and base your decision off of that. It seems a bit high to me, but I understand everything is regional.

I would say between 5 and 6 dollars an hour. That way its worth your while but not too expensive for the family.

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Mom of one kangaroo!

That is high. I do childcare in Northern California and i couldn't get that much here.

Here for after school care for that amount of time it's usually about $20/day. It's not really an hourly thing.

I mean that would be almost $40/day......I get that for all day infant care.

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Jodie....Wife to Andrew (1995)
Mommy to Riley (2000) and Wyatt (2003)