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Babysitting is a complicated business. How do you find someone to get the sprogs into bed while you try and keep your social and/or love life on the boil? What do you pay them, when do you get home and how much should you tip? Finally we have the answers, thanks to London-founded babysitter-booking app Bubble, who have scraped information from more than 22,000 parents and sitters to give us some exclusive insights into the capital’s babysitting scene.
If you’re looking to make a babysitting fortune, start in Fulham: the average hourly rate in SW6 is £9.50, London’s highest. But in Hendon (NW4) babysitters earn £8.25 an hour: the lowest in London, and nearly £2 less than the London Living Wage.
Parents in N2 tip their babysitters the least in London, at a measly £3.75 on average. (East Finchley? More like East Stingy.) They’re more generous down in Battersea (SW11), tipping their babysitters £6.28 on average.
The people of Golders Green (NW11) are most likely to order a spontaneous dessert, outstaying their bookings by nearly an hour and a half on average. (Don’t worry, the sitters still get paid.) But over in Winchmore Hill (N21), parents can’t bear to be out of the house for long – the average sit there is three hours and 21 minutes, the shortest in London.
Ever booked a babysitter just because you want a lie-in? Then you’re most likely to live in Wandsworth (SW18), where almost one in three bookings start before 10am.
The mums and dads of East Dulwich (SE22) get home to their little darlings the earliest, at 10.23pm on average. Care to guess where parents stay out the latest? Yes, it’s Hackney, where they don’t get home on average until 11.08pm. Party on, E8!
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