I am going back to work and I will be needing the sitter to watch my two kids for 16 hours a week. now, my question is what would be a fair price to pay for services? She used to watch my 2 year old beore for 140/per week for about 36 hours of sitting per week. Do take in consideration that now she will be watching my 2 year old and a newborn. I just don't know what a fair price would be . TIA 

$140 a week for 16 hrs. An infant requires more care than a 2 yr old. 

Yeah infants do need more care. I just don't want to insult her with a low price. But I also can't afford to overpay. 

You were paying $140 a week for one for 36 hrs...

Hours cut in half - 18 (close enough to 16) and now she has two, so $140 is reasonable. It works out to $8.75 an hour. 

When I was babysitting the deal that was originally struck was $150 a week, for 50-60 hours a week.... then the mother had financial issues (husband she was trying to get a divorce from drained her account) so we agreed on $100 a week instead. I say what you're agreeing to would be a dream to me! 

How many days? If its like just 3 days or 5 days makes a difference. 

I don't want to take advantage of the sitter as she is a very nie person and actually cares about my children. I am not looking to pay the cheapest fee, just the fair fee. I know that if she's happy then my kids will be taken care of. I work for a chid development center myself and I know how much resposibility it entails. I will be levin my kids with her for about 3 and 1/2 hours Mon-Fri. 

Eventhough I work for a child development ceter, the center is on base and it is mostly based on income, and most parents leave their children for 45-60 hours a week. So being that my needs are totally different, I still don't know how to come up with a wage. But I do think that shizzlemydizzle might be right. I will leave the children for half the time, but now there willbe two of them. So 140.00/week may still be appropiate. 

sorry for the typos, typing fast. 

Since you work at the child development center, can't you get your kids in at the center? 

Yes, I can enroll my kids on base, and would get priority on the waiting list. But, I would have to take my kids to anther center because of conflict of interest and such. And quite frankly I like the 2:1 ratio better. 

I would say about 150. Based on what you were paying for her before and the math it would seem fair 

I would think 160 is fair. That's $5 a child a hour. I wouldnt say that much if it was full time but because its 5 days part time I think $10 a hour is fair. 

I would think 160 is fair. That's $5 a child a hour. I wouldnt say that much if it was full time but because its 5 days part time I think $10 a hour is fair.

I think that's fair, I pay $22 an hour for my kids that are 3 and 20 months but that's for evenings and she's fluent in ASL which is hard to find around here. 

Thanks guys, I was thinking somewhere between 150.00 and 200.00. So I guess I was someone right. I just feel like child care is so under paid. People do not understand that kids cannot be replaced and that child care entails so much. I always get asked to babysitt on weekends or afternoons. I don't epect for people to pay me what they pay the center, but some people want you to watch multiple children all weekend for 20-50 dollars. It's riiulous. You can't even feed one kid for a whole weekend with 20 bucks. 

*ridiculous