My 12 year old would definitely do it for $10/hr and probably for $8/hr. Probably not for 5/hr unless she just really loved your kid and was bored anyway.
I agree there is a difference between a 12 year old that can’t legally babysit and a 13-14 year old that can, who will probably expect more like 15. You need to find kids whose parents don’t give them so much allowance. We are out there.
I live in bethesda fwiw.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Compromise and do $8 an hour.

It won’t be an issue you won’t find anyone for that rate unless there are special circumstances.
$12-15

A tween shouldn't be paid minimum wage or more or they are greedy. I have a tween. Zero reason for that.

You can on principal say that but good luck finding someone willing to work for that.
And, yes, they don’t make that much more as a camp counselor but it comes with regular hours and much more of them. No one is going to come help for two hours after school for $5-8 an hour. It’s just not worth it. I would tell my tween not to bother, either.

I'm paying $10/hour for mother's helpers with no experience.

Also, OP there is a big difference between 12 and 13 and your offer should reflect that.
In Montgomery County, you are not allowed to leave a child under 8 in the care of a child under 13. So if you hire a 12 year old you must be home the whole time and cannot step out for a few minutes. It's a different scenario with the 13 year old.
I would also take into account whether they have had the babysitter course or first aid training.

For context, I babysat a LOT in 2003-2010 and I made $10-18hr during that time span. I was a camp counselor every summer between 2006-2012 and the pay was $10-13/hr back then.

My cousin is a freshman in high school and she had a large rotation of families she babysits for and they pay her $15-20

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Compromise and do $8 an hour.

It won’t be an issue you won’t find anyone for that rate unless there are special circumstances.
$12-15

A tween shouldn't be paid minimum wage or more or they are greedy. I have a tween. Zero reason for that.

As a parent of tweens and teens, I struggle with this because when they graduate to "real jobs" like camp counselor the pay is pretty low (camps are exempt from the county minimum wage requirements, so it's in the $8-11 range.)
I think it's fair to offer the lower rate to a brand new mother's helper with little to no experience - you are going to have to monitor them a little bit.

Anonymous wrote:Compromise and do $8 an hour.

It won’t be an issue you won’t find anyone for that rate unless there are special circumstances.
$12-15

My 14 YO gets $15 per hour with just 1 child(Rockville, MD)

Anonymous wrote:Compromise and do $8 an hour.

Do not offer anyone $8 an hour!

$4-$10 is wrenely low. I haven’t had one in maybe 4 or 5 years but back then the 12 year old asked for $12/hour. I would never let my child work for $5/hour. I had a 14 year old babysit recently and she asked for !16/hour.

Compromise and do $8 an hour.

Anonymous wrote:Curious what the going rate is for a tween Mothers helper in Montgomery County MD. Looking to have a 12-13 year old come to my house a few hours a week, while I am home, to play with a 4 year old. I have seen both $5 an hour and $10 which seems like a big range for a 12 year old.

$5 an hour?! That’s what I got in 1998.

I'd do $12-15hr

Curious what the going rate is for a tween Mothers helper in Montgomery County MD. Looking to have a 12-13 year old come to my house a few hours a week, while I am home, to play with a 4 year old. I have seen both $5 an hour and $10 which seems like a big range for a 12 year old.