Welcome OP! I'm in Montgomery County, basically Chevy Chase and I have twin toddlers. We have a neighbor girl who started as a mother's helper with us when she was a young 13 yrs and the kids were 2, so I was always in the home when she was there but she would play with the kids and give me some ability to do other things. We paid $6/hr for that. She is about to turn 14 and we'll start trying her out for solo sitting for very short periods, or only when the kids are sleeping. We'll bump her to $8/hr for that. There are some highschool girls in my neighborhood who will happily babysit for $10/hr, I just haven't used them much as I've had good adult options (and the twin thing demands little more skill/maturity).

I don't currently use college kids but I would bet you can find tons of them in your area. I have a couple of adult sitters I use for date nights and they are usually $13/hr, and the kids are typically asleep for the majority of the time the sitter is there.

We have a full-time nanny and her rates are higher, but also inclusive of benefits etc... When we use her for additional coverage (if we have to go away overnight) we pay overtime rates for the daytime and a flat rate for the sleeping hours overnight.

For your short term nanny needs you might need to be prepared to pay more, or to find a student (or two) with a lot of availability this semester. I think you're right in guessing that most nannies will want a permanent job. But you might get lucky and find someone looking for something short-term.

Good luck!

I am not in the area, but my take on the difference in rates:

MH - are you considering a high school student or a college student? for HS, I'd go a little above minimum wage, so $8/hour. For a college student, maybe $10/hour. You're basically trying to attract kids who want to have a job but would rather not do retail or food service.

Sitter - High school, $10/hour 40 hour minimum. College, $12/hour, 4 hour minimum. Adults should set their own rates, likely around $14 and up

Nanny - a FT temp situation might pay a little more per hour, say $16/hr instead of $15. I would guess getting into a share would be tough unless you didn't disclose that you'd be switching to daycare - however, for a share you'd likely be looking at $10/hour per family.

<cue the posters claiming nannies work happily for either $8/hour or $35/hour, and GO!>

We recently moved to the area and have a few different childcare needs, and I'm trying to figure out what reasonable rates are for these different situations.

We have a toddler and a newborn. The toddler is in full-time daycare and I'm still on maternity leave for another two months, so I can mostly handle it, but it might be nice to have someone in the evenings to either stay with the baby while I go to pick up the toddler, or be here in the house with me and both kids while we handle dinner, bedtime, etc. Do you pay a "mother's helper" the same rate you would pay a babysitter alone with the kids?

Second, we'll need occasional date night babysitting for both kids. We live between AU and Georgetown, so I suspect there are students nearby interested in this work. What would you offer per hour?

Third, I am looking into nanny and nanny share options for the baby when I have to go back to work at 12 weeks -- but this is a temporary situation as we wait for a daycare slot to open up, which will almost certainly happen in the next six months. I'm guessing nannies will generally prefer a long-term placement over this short-term one -- would you pay more to make up for that, or advertise the position at the typical rate (whatever that is) and see who responds?

TIA!