As a babysitter, you get different job requests. You may need to prepare snacks or pick up kids after school. You may need to work earlier than usual on the parents’ scheduled date night. And one other common request is to be an overnight babysitter.
What is an overnight babysitter?
An overnight babysitter is a sitter who stays at the house while the children are asleep. This usually means the parents are expected back very late or even into the next morning or afternoon so they ask you to sleep over at the house. Then you’re “on the clock” and in charge of the kids until the parents return.
What is an overnight sitter expected to do?
In many cases, you arrive ahead of time the night before to get kids ready for bed and off to sleep, but once kids are in bed for the night, your babysitting duties during those hours are somewhat minimal. This depends, of course, on their ages and needs, which may vary. But for all intents and purposes, you don’t have to keep siblings from arguing, you don’t have to do any more games or activities, and you can get some sleep yourself.
However, you do still have to keep the kids comforted and safe, which means you need to be available should a child have a bad dream or a potty accident or should a smoke alarm go off.
What is the cost of an overnight sitter?
Different families may handle your overnight babysitting pay rate differently. Here are a few ways it’s done:
- Some families will pay you a flat, total fee for the night.
- Other parents might lower your hourly pay while you “housewatch” (or babysit while the children are asleep). This means that parents pay a normal babysitting rate while the kids are awake but reduce the rate once they go to bed.
Be sure to talk to the parents in advance about all of their expectations for an overnight sitting job as well as the pay rate so everyone knows what to expect.
