The Going Rate

Message boards and playgrounds are usually hotbeds for childcare chatter. And inevitably, the cost of said childcare comes up. We were recently asked how much we pay our "date night" sitter, and when we said "$10 an hour" we were met with sticker shock. As our babysitters will tell you, $10 is our verbal agreement. However, we often pay more than that ... especially if Tim is the one stroking the check. In our minds, we're leaving our precious child in their hands and there really is no price for that. Our current awesome sitter, Sondra, drives a pretty good distance to get here, so when you consider that gas is like $3.75 per gallon now, she's really not taking home a huge chunk of change. And considering we don't know "the girl next door" or have an office mate who has a teen daughter to throw our way, we're grateful to have found someone! Coincidentally, the May issue of Parents magazine arrived the other day sporting a chart of average babysitting rates around the country. Obviously, where you live factors into that cost. For example, the chart, using numbers from a sittercity.com poll, shows the rates for Portland, Ore. ($11.64); Austin, Texas ($11.42); Boston, Mass. ($14.45); and Charlotte, N.C. ($11.11). The cheapest rate on the chart was Virginia Beach, Va. ($10.01), while the most expensive was San Francisco, Calif. ($15.45). What's your going babysitter rate?