Etiquette · NYC
Should you tip your babysitter in NYC?
Short answer: appreciated, not expected. The longer answer depends on the kind of booking. Below: the actual norms for date nights, long evenings, recurring sitters, and the year-end bonus question.
Standard date night
Round up. Or add $10–$20.
A 4-hour Saturday night that ran smoothly — kids fed, bath done, bedtime on time, sitter looking relaxed when you walk in — the NYC default is to round up to a clean number. $125 owed becomes $140. Or you add a flat $20 on top of whatever the math says.
Nobody's tracking percentages. There's no app prompt. It's a small thank-you for an evening that worked.
Long evening or hard night
15–20% on top.
The wedding that ran until 1am. The night both kids melted down. The bedtime that took two hours instead of forty minutes. The session you ran 90 minutes over because traffic out of Manhattan was a mess.
In any of those: 15–20% above the hourly total. It's the difference between "sure" and "text us anytime" for the next ask.
Recurring sitter
Don't tip every session. Do a year-end bonus.
If your sitter is in your house weekly — same Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, or every Saturday night — tipping per session gets weird. Most NYC families don't. They pay the hourly rate clean, and at year-end they hand a cash gift equal to one to two weeks of normal pay.
That's the move that actually matters. The end-of-year cash gift acknowledges a year of consistency and signals you want them back next year.
Holidays mid-year
Premium night, premium expectations.
NYE, Christmas Eve, Mother's Day evening — these nights are already at premium rates because the sitter gave up their own plans. Tip is still 15–20%, on top of the premium. It's the right move and recurring sitters remember it.
When NOT to tip
No tip if the session went badly and you're not booking again — but in that case, tell the sitter or the agency why. Silent stiffing without feedback is the worst of both worlds: you don't fix the thing, they don't learn.
No tip on a same-day booking that didn't happen — if the sitter showed up and the visit was canceled at the door, the right thing is to pay the agreed minimum, not to add tip on top of a no-go.
The whole guide in one line.
Round up on date nights, 15–20% on hard ones, year-end cash gift for recurring sitters.