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I know how hard it is to look after kids, it’s what I do as a career. Like I said it takes me to look after 1 child for 9 hours, plus supply everything for me to go out and have someone watch my child for 3 hours. For me the reality in that is we don’t hire a babysitter at that type of expense.  
 
Anyway sorry OP, kinda highjacked your thread

...kids are so hard. So hard! I feel like an hour of babysitting is worth a whole term of "life skills" class.  
 
I wish our regular child care workers also had the option to double their rates so they had a reasonable hourly wage. As stated upthread, often the tradeoff is the irregular hours for babysitting, and undependable work, which lets babysitters charge a higher hourly rate.  
 
In any case, the request was for a reasonable hourly rate, and I think the OP got a variety of responses. I think they all boil down to "whatever you think is reasonable to charge for the work" - with the caveat that what you think is reasonable may not be what the parent thinks is reasonable.

After midnight I think requires the extra $$.  
 
Plus unless the babysitter has a car or lives right by your home. Or their parents are picking them up.  
 
You need to prove a taxi home. (in Brandon)  
 
It is not safe for them to walk home after dark. And unfortunately due to the world we live in it is not safe as a dad to give a babysitter (female) a ride home. Not safe for you and her.  
 
just my thoughts

Kellye said "    LaughingRaven said "Amazing how people view this. What I'm reading is that people believe the task of looking after their children isn't worth paying for. Does that mean you don't value your children or the person who is doing the looking after? If you aren't willing to pay, then perhaps you shouldn't go out. Funny, people will spend all sorts of money on their night out, but don't want to pay the person looking after their child/children. It isn't up to you to "teach the child the value of money and work ethic". Perhaps your wage should be lowered so that you can also understand the value of money and work ethic? It is up to the person providing the service of babysitting/childcare to state what they feel is a fair wage. Once again, shaking my head at the comments. " [b]'Does that mean you don't value your children or the person who is doing the looking after?'[/b]     This statement is simply ridiculous. A classic, sweeping generalization that if you don't pay, you don't care? Really now.     Shaking my head at this sentence that guilts, generalizes and equates monetary value to the care of precious kids.     I agree with some other that paying equal to minimum wage to a casual babysitter is excessive and sets an unrealistic standard for many parents who just want to enjoy an evening out.     I'm pretty sure parents, whether paying $ or $$$$ equally value their children. Haha! "

What a pathetic response to my post. Glad I got under your skin. Yes, you do get what you pay for in this life, and that does i:nclude childcare.  
"Shaking my head at this sentence that guilts, generalizes and equates monetary value to the care of precious kids."  
Shaking my head and laughing at such a stupid statement. If you don't want to pay, don't go out, no one forced you to have kids. I'll bet you are the type that would pay as little as possible but if anything happened - blame it all on the babysitter. Haha!!!!

Oh how the times have changed. When I was a babysitter back in the 80s I made 2 bucks an hour and if the parents were really drunk I often got a lot more money. I always had people calling me to babysit. I made lots of money and was super happy. Oh and most had cupboards full of chips, pop, and other treats for me.  
 
If I babysat in town I had to walk home by myself. (Mostly I ran home because I was scared $hitless.) But if I babysat in the country they would drive me home, more often than not, drunk.  
 
Looking back I don't know how any of this was okay. Lol