raeanna74

I do home childcare and the going childcare rate in our area is only $2.50 to $3.00 per hour. If you had to pay minimum wage for someone to watch one kid and you worked a minimum wage job what would be the point of working. I tend to pay my babysitters about $2.00 to $2.50 per hour for babysitting since they are younger and aren't qualified to work professionally in childcare usually.

We have had many different people babysit our daughter. Most of them are from our neighborhood or church. I've had kids babysit who's parents I got to know. When we moved it was a while before we were familiar with our neighbors and we're fortunate to have 2 reliable teenagers as neighbors. It helps a LOT if you know the parents of the teenager as you'll get a better idea of what kind of values they have been raised with and how disciplined they are.

Maleficent's idea of checking with the local childcare training program is excellent. I have one neighbor girl who is barely 11 yrs old and is begging to watch our daughter. She likes playing over here. I have told her I couldn't leave her to babysit for very long until she has taken the class. I have let her stay here with my daughter (who is 5yrs old - probably wouldn't do this if she was an infant) while I ran to the post office but her mother is right next door and home at those times. The rule in that case is that she has to call her mom to check in every little bit. Her mom will sometimes come over and check up on the two as well so in a sense it's her MOM who's overseeing. It's a good way for her to start with just a little responsibility. I think she'll be more ready then after she takes her babysitting class.

Also you could check with the local Family Resource Center. The one in our area keeps a list of local daycare providers. It's possible they could at least know of where to go to find qualified babysitters.

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