Mother's Helper Rate?
Hi All,
We are hoping to hire a high-schooler or 20-something to pick up our 2nd grader from school and spend a couple of hours with them about 3 days a week.
Can anyone let us know what the going pay rate for this might be? Their house is 5 minutes from our kid's school and the current person we are going to ask, lives next door to us so there is no commute time :)
Thanks in advance!
Dec 3, 2023
Parent Replies
That is not "mother's helper" that is a babysitter. Mother's helper is someone who works in the house to help out when there is a parent home. (Occupying a toddler in one room while mom feeds the infant in another, for example.) $20/hour for a babysitter in this scenario.
If you want them to pick a child up from school I would say this is more like a babysitter than a mother's helper. I would pay $15-20 per hour. A mother's helper is generally a tween that is too young to babysit on their own. More like a responsible playmate. Have you talked to the person you intend to hire about their rate? That is how we pay our babysitter.
If you'll be home while this person is there with your kiddo, I think $15/hr for a high schooler is reasonable. That's what we pay the 15-16 yr olds who come play with our kids while parents are home and doing other stuff. That rate might be ok for a college student too, but if they have more childcare experience they might ask for a bit more. For additional context, one of our son's preschool teachers babysits for us occasionally when we're not home, and we pay $25/hr for 2 kids.