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Parents across Canada are prepping menus and outfits for holiday parties and New Year’s Eve gatherings – sans kids – and that means many of them will need child care.
If, like me, you’re lucky enough to have grandparents or other family living nearby, it can be as simple as calling grandma and grandpa and leaving pizza money on the counter.
But for the many parents who don’t have that luxury, babysitters are a necessary expense on the household budget. Even for families such as mine, they’re still a way to fill gaps.
There is no one set hourly rate for babysitters these days, but it’s well beyond the $1 an hour my mom used to earn babysitting in the early 70s. It’s usually set by the individual and depends on age, experience, the number of kids and where you live – typically sitters get higher rates in bigger cities.
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According to Babysits.ca, the average hourly rate in Canada is $18.35, up by almost $3 from $15.85 in 2023. Babysitters in Vancouver were paid the most in 2025, in the range of $20.13, while parents in Regina paid the least, around $16.72 an hour.
In our small Ontario town, we pay more than $22 an hour for our casual babysitter, a former nanny and trained nurse in her twenties. When our kids were younger, I felt comfortable with her level of experience and knowing that she could handle it if the kids got hurt or sick.
Now that our kids are out of the baby phase, I’d like to add younger babysitters to our rotation, and the rate for a preteen or teen babysitter is more in the $10 to $15 an hour range locally.
Many parents I spoke to said that this pricing aligns with what they pay – $10 to $15 an hour for younger teens, and $20 plus an hour for more experienced or older folks. This can be even higher if using a babysitting agency such as the Summerhill Club in Toronto, which charges $33 an hour for one of the vetted babysitters on its roster.
But budgeting for a babysitter doesn’t only include their hourly rate – it can also include the cost of dinner and snacks, ordering takeout, covering transportation and, of course, the price tag of whatever you’re doing while you’re out. In cities such as Toronto or Vancouver, going out to dinners and ordering Ubers adds up fast.
To keep the overall cost of going-out nights in check, I’ve found ways to get creative. I’ve swapped babysitting with my neighbour – her daughter will join us for a few hours so my neighbour can run errands, and vice versa.
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One friend I spoke to invites her friends and their kids over for brunch, instead of planning a pricey night out. While it’s not kid-free, it lets them catch up without paying a babysitter or dining out.
Another parent told me they band together with another parent and share the babysitting costs – while it might add $5 an hour for an additional child, it still cuts the overall price down.
I’ve also seen local dance studios, home daycare providers and other kid-friendly locations offer date nights out, where parents pay a more nominal rate to send their kid for a few hours, and the cost is shared across multiple children. This is typically only an option once your child is at least 3 or 4.
And while it may not be a Saturday night on the town, some parents try to sneak in errands or date nights whenever they can – during a drop-off birthday party, while their kids are at programming such as soccer or dance, or even during school hours (we have half-day Fridays at my company, so have flexibility for day dates).
My husband and I often talk about date nights out, and sometimes we decide to just put on a Netflix movie after our kids go to bed instead. It’s not as glamorous, but it’s easier on the bank account – and let’s be honest, how motivated am I to get dressed up and go out after my kids are in bed?
Or, since we’re a two-parent household, we’ll take turns going out with friends and family on different nights. After all, the cheapest babysitter is the other parent.
Erin Bury lives in rural Ontario with her husband and two young children.
How much are you paying your babysitter for the holidays?
Parents across Canada are prepping menus and outfits for holiday parties and New Year’s Eve gatherings – sans kids – and that means many of them will need child care. For those who need to hire someone to help, we want to know how much you're paying for babysitting services over the holidays. Let us know in the submission box below below or by emailing audience@globeandmail.com with "Babysitting" in the subject line.
