How much would you charge for babysitting?

I am going through this right now...I sit for two kids, in diapers and I was suppose to have them for only 3 hours...well, it has gone to 5 hours because the grama gets later and later picking them up..I was getting $15 for 3 hours but now it has become 5 hours and I am charging her extra...anything over the 3 hours becomes 25 dollars...If she complains, fine, I will tell her exactly why I am charging extra.... The average childcare in my county right now for two kids is $977.00 a month...I barely get $200 a month if I'm lucky.. I am going to raise my rates and if she doesn't like it, then she can find someone else...Baby sitting is like any other job...You do a service, you expect to get paid....On time..... She asked me to watch them for 1 hour tonight and it turned into 4 hours...I only agreed because it was going to be for 1 hour....I hate it when they take advantage of me...Next payday this night will be added on as being 25 dollars...

I haven't done any babysitting for a long time, but I know that when I was younger, the standard rate was a dollar per hour per kid. Yes, this was a while ago. :) Recently, one of my co-workers had asked if I'd be interested in babysitting for her kids (she has 2) some evening. She said that these days, most babysitters are getting paid somewhere between $15 and $20 per hour to watch her two kids (who, as best as I can tell, don't seem to be particularly rambunctious or crazy). I told my fiance that at that rate, he should go into babysitting! $15 per day for 3 kids is TOTALLY ridiculous!