Since when??

Since when does babysitting pay so well? I remember when I used to babysit I would get paid anywhere between $5-8/hour for three kids during the daytime! Granted I was 14-18 years old, but still!

Dh and I went out Saturday night to a party for Dh's boss' 40th. So we hired our favorite person at Langdon's daycare to come take care of him. When I asked her what her rate was she said whatever we thought... which then spurred an all evening debate of how much to pay the babysitter.

She had to do about 60-90 minutes of real work while Langdon was awake and then went to bed at 7:30. Then the rest of the time I'm paying her to sit on my computer or on my couch watching tv. I know I totally sound cheap right now and I know that it is necessary to have somebody in the house but some of the rates that were coming out of people's mouths was ridiculous, in my opinion! We first asked Dh's buddy from work - he quoted $20 and then 15... either way I want to go watch his kid if he's paying that good! Then we called Dh's sister who employed a nanny for four years for her son. She paid $17/hr plus benefits (they own their own company so could offer this) plus mileage costs and OT! Yikes! Seriously if I knew babysitting/nanny work was paying that good I would have gone and done that coming out of college... I was making only$13 in my first job!

We ended up paying her $9/hr after getting some advice from some more sane people who actually had done babysitting in the recent past. She appears to be happy with that as she friended both of us on facebook the next day. Sweet - $9 it is!

I vented my frustrations and shock about the cost of babysitters to the internet that evening (removed it once the babysitter friended me tho!) and I got some sympathy from other mom's. One comment I wasn't sure what to do with though - she said she agreed it was expensive but since they have your child's life in their hands isn't it worth it? I hate to say its not worth $15/hr because that's like saying my kid isn't worth that. I love him to pieces but being that I'm in HR i know there is a value to each job and the type of work required. Case in point - I work for an aircraft manufacturer... we build helicopters... and assemblers get paid anywhere starting at $29,000/year... so yes that's not alot for people whose work is carrying other lives, but like I said... a value to each job.

What do you think? What's a fair cost for a babysitter - for a six month old baby who doesn't roll, crawl, walk yet??

PS - we really really want to hire her as a nanny so this is important to figure out! She just quit from our daycare to go somewhere else... biding our time for a little while and then gonna see if we can poach her from that place! ahh the things you'll do for your kids!