hello, i want to know what you ladies think about this for a couple diffrent reasons. number one is that ive overheard or been part of sevearl discussions on the issues lately, online and off and also my 15 year old niece (who lives with us) wants to make some extra pocket money babysitting. my question is: how young is too young to babysit? is it ok for shoter periods of time, or early in the evening only, or does it depend more on the age and number of children being cared for? do you use babysitters, and if so do you use teenage babysitters? what are the advantages etc. Kelsey (my dn) has been babysitting for a family with one 5 year old girl for about a year now on and off. she goes over around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and the latest shes ever stayed is 9pm when the husband drops her back off at home. Now she has met a new family and has been doing a little saturday afternoon sitting, but the family has 4 children two older (12 and 14) and two little ones 1 and 2 ish. shes been asked to sit next saturday night from 530 untill 1130 or 12. id like to hear you all reaction and then ill tell you weater or not im letting her do it (its a surprise! lol)
Is this a trick question...? Hard to say without knowing her. If she is responsable, knows how to handle various problems, takes charge, etc, etc, I would say she is fine.
it really does depend on her matureity level. Here they have a babysitting class at age 12. It is put on by the American Red Cross. 12 imo is too young.
I would say that besides maturity level, it depends on how well she gets along with the children, I think that if she does well with children its fine, if not no, but also I have 4 kids and they are rough on me!-- but you said that 2 are teen- pre-teen will they give her a hard time or just watch tv or read and not really fuss, if thats the case then she will just be with the little ones....... then they will probably go to bed early and she won't have to watch them much. Therefore I would think it would be ok......... but you need to factor in all the little issues, of maturity, what will be involved.
I don't think it's quite right to ask a 15 year old to 'baby sit' a 14 year old... I imagine the 14 year old would be totaly antsi if not humiliated. or did I miss something, is the 14 year old retarded? Even without the 14 year old, that sounds like too much too me. If the parents are leaving at 5.30 will she have to bath, feed and put both toddlers to bed? I would't expect a 15 year old to do that.
I have let a teen babysit my two kids before. She was 14 at the time. She is like a daughter to me and I knew she was very responsible. After having my 3rd, she moved to texas....however, I would have had no problem letting her babysit all three. I have also let a 12 year old watch my two kids when they were 5 and 3 for about 3 hours. I also know her parents and her very well. Coversely there is a girl that was 14 that I never would have trusted. So, it is a maturity thing. Although I would say 12 is too young to babysit for long periods of time. Anyway, in answer to your question about if your dn should take the job. I would say no. There is a 12 and 14 year old at home....why do they need her? Sounds odd. If the 14 year old is that irresponsible than are you sure your dn can handle this teen at only 15. Because for one night I think a 14 and 12 year old can handle two toddlers. Of course, I would have, if I were the parent, a neighbor or family member stop by once and call a few times to make sure everything was ok.
I baby sat at 13 and never had any problems but I don't think a 15 year old should be in charge of so many kids for so long and especially not kids so close to her age. Beth
Rachael is 12, and she's babysat her younger brother and sister. Some reasons I feel good about this: 1) She's very mature, and the younger kids won't give her grief. 2) We have wonderful neighbors that she can turn to in an emergency. 3) Her grandparents live about 2 miles from our house and can be there in about three minutes. 4) She has taken a babysitter training class, and has proved to me she is quite capable working with younger children. She has also babysat for our neighbors twice. The first time was for an in-home Bible Study that rotated from family to family. She and another gal who attended that church watched the kids while the parents were upstairs. The next week, all they were stuck without a sitter again, so our neighbors asked if they could take Rachael with them to where the study would be to watch the kids. Another parent whose two children play on Phillip's soccer team asked me if she babysat, and I would be willing to let her go there. I will say that I will be screening anyone she sits for. If we're not comfortable with that family for ANY reason, she won't sit for them. I would also hesitate letting a 15YO sit for kids so close to her age!
I should say that I did not pay attention to the ages of the family of four when I first read it, I was assuming they were younger children. That would be a little odd. :/
You know, when I was about 12, we had a 15YO babysit me and my 10YO brother. The gal Mom got was in my Girl Scout troop, and I was mortified at the idea of the word getting around my troop that I "needed" a babysitter. My mother took the girl aside, and explained to her that I really didn't need a sitter, but that my brother was too difficult for me to handle. She was there primarily for HIM. I appreciated my mom's sensitivity, and also the fact that this girl didn't make a big deal of it. She wasn't particularly my "friend", and could have made life miserable for me at the time. It could be something like that with this family, too. Perhaps the two older ones simply can't get along unless someone else "in authority" is there. The older one maybe is bossy, and the second one won't listen to her or something. Bring in someone else, and there's no problem. Just a thought.....
That makes sense. If my older two didn't get along, I wouldn't want that to get in the way of the real job of babysitting my toddler. I am so looking forward to the day of just letting Olivia stay with Alyssa and Aaron that if I still have to hire a babysitter Olivia and Aaron are paying for it! LOL. I am not one to go out alot but it would be nice to leave the kids at home while I went grocery shopping. I know that is a win win situation for all of us! lol.
Like has been send in many of the posts, it is a maturity issue. There are so many different things that would determine who is or isn't old enough, how many and what ages of children for how long. I started babysitting when I was 12. I was a very mature twelve and could have handled 4-8 yo. Older would ahve been too close in age and younger... well I did it once and I was way too young for an 18 month old At least I was mature enough to know I couldn't handle it and called my mother for back up. I babysat a 1 month old breastfed infant at the age of 15. Once more I found myself way over my head. I called my mother for back up yet again. But I also watched a wide range of children from toddler to preteen during that time for much longer hours and did fine. At 18 a babysat for a family of 4 ages, 2, 4, 5, 7. I watched them from 2:30pm until 12:30 am., Monday through Friday. I did homework, baths, supper, bedtime, made cookies with them, did some art when I was bored, games, and even wrote letters to Santa because Mom had no idea what any of them wanted for Christmas and she was seriously stressing over it. I was still in high school, but she paid fairly decent and I really enjoyed those little guys. My younger sister followed in my footsteps. However, she had much less patience with children and she shouldn't have been babysitting as much as she was at the same ages I was sitting.
It depends on how she is with kids, how much experience she already has, and her maturity level. I started babysitting when I was 11. The first family had two boys (then 3 and 6) and would often bring over their friends little girl too (A terror!!). I would babysit evenings... but they lived int he same apartments as I did so my mom was nearby... close enough to hear if I yelled loudly for her (luckily I never had to). By 15 I babysat for just about any ages. One newborn colicky baby (Every night 4 hours, for 6 months!) . At 16 I was the sole Chaperone for a 9 year olds Halloween party - there were 13 kids there ages 3-12. In fact I never stopped babysitting... I still do it! I just always loved kids and kids like me back for some reason. Now looking at the ages you listed, It reminds me of the hardest job I handled as a teen (Harder than the party) A family with 5 kids Ages 14, 12, 11, 5, 4 needed me (I was 15) for overnight one weekend.(these were our next door neighbors) The 14 YO wasn't allowed ot Babysit the other kids because he was too mean to them.. he had given his brother a black eye the week before. :roll: He was *VERY* resentful that I was there and he had not been trusted with the responsibility. His parents had told him that I wasn't really there to babysit him to reduce that resentment but they told me they wanted me to watch him to make sure he didn't beat up his siblings. I 'm sure he knew that was the case. If your dn is there to help the other older child watch the toddlers.. that would probably not be as bad as the boy who wasn't trusted.
When I was 14 I had been babysitting for awhile. A family asked me to babysit for them, liked me, and asked me to babysit full-time over the summer. I was there all day with 3 kids--ages 4, 3, and about 9 months. That was a lot of work, cuz I did everything--meals, diapers, clean-up. But it was a great family, I loved the kids and they loved me, they had a garden that they liked me to pick things from and use in the meals for the kids. It was great! Plus they paid decently for someone my age! The next summer, another lady asked me to babysit her 4 kids I was 15, and the kids were 3, 5, 8, and 11. The two older ones were boys, and very rowdy, The grandpa was often there and hated me using their food for me to eat. He made negative comments all the time, and the mom was stressed out all the time when she got home from work. She said it was fine for me to eat with the kids, but the grandpa made ugly comments all the time. He was disabled to a point, and wasn't all that nice to the kids either, so the mom didn't want him babysitting them. And get this---FOUR kids, all day (9-9 1/2 hours), and she offered me $5 a day! My mom told me that this was mission work and God would bless me for doing it. I lasted about a month, but it was just too stressful, so I told the lady I could only work 2 more weeks. Whew, that was a tough one! Anyway, I agree with the maturity level being important! I also love kids and enjoy working with them. A friend of mine, the same age as me, tried babysitting and hated it, and got mad at the kids. So she moved on to other things.
I"ve had one gal babysit who went to our church. She's got that "gift" for kids, and I use to babysit for her and her sister when I was single! It feels so WEIRD to have one of your former "kids" babysit YOUR kids, lol! But, as I said, Jesse (who is now newly married!) has a sister who we've never had sit for us. Being friends with her mom, I know of some of the problems she's given her mom and I simply didn't trust her to watch my kids. Yes, she's old enough, she even watches her 6YO little brother, but..... She's a senior now, and has settled down a bit, so I think I would feel differently now. But I rarely need one, because I trust Rachael.
I can relate. I used to babysit my friend's little girl when I was single. I used to tell the little girl that one day she would babysit for my kids. I would say that never really thinking that would happen. Well, it did! And she is the best babysitter one could ask for---same her family moved to Texas. lol.
I don't let anyone under 14 babysit for me, and then it has to be someone I really trust. My reasoning has nothing to do with being able to meet the needs of my kids, but rather what the lasting effects would be on the sitter should something bad happen. Could he/she handle it emotionally? JMO... no tomatoes, please. This discussion has lead me to another question though. How young do you let yours stay at home alone, even for a short trip out for an errand? My sister has allowed her dd to come home from school alone since she was 9, often spending about 4 hours alone. At 10 she was staying at home all day alone in the summer. I do think I'd trust my 10yo to stay home for a short time while I ran errands, but have not allowed it yet. What do you think?
For me, it would depend on maturity level. I don't think I'd let anyone under 14 babysit though. If she's a mature, and the kids respond to her well, I don't see a problem with it.
This is a good point that I hadn't thought about at first. My grandparents both had to work and my mother was a hellion (my uncles probably were as well). So when my mother was 12, they stopped using a babysitter because they couldn't seem to keep anyone longer then a week or two anyway. Thus, my mother was responsible for all 4 boys. She knew they were not permitted to go to the river, but the boys snuck off anyway to go swim with their friends. My uncles ages at the time were 10, 9, 7 and 6. Apparently it had rained the night before. The river was up and so was current. One of the friends drowned that day. My mother confessed to me last year, for the first time to anyone (she is 65 now), how much she blamed herself for the other child's death and how much she had hated her mother for putting her in that situation. Definately something to think about. Perhaps that is why my mother was always available for whenever I was permitted to babysit.
thanks for all the great feedback guys! i made my decision about kelsey babysitting pretty much on the spot when she asked me about it but i really just wanted to hear what other peoples views on the issuse were...it all seems to be pretty much inline with the maturity of everyone involved and i tottaly agree. she will not be allowed to take this job for a couple of reasons, one being the age of the older kids and i do not know why they need a 15 year old when a 14 year old is home, also i dont know these people well, just casualy, i dont know if they will be home when they said they will be, if they will be out drinking at whatever function is keeping them out so late, in which case i would need to get up at 11 or 12 at night, drive the 45 minutes to their house to get her and come back home because i dont want someone who has been drinking to take her home. too many unknows here for me to feel comfortable with the whole thing. someone mentioned kids staying home alone. Kelsey is obviously able to stay alone for extended periods of time and i will leave the kids with her for up to a couple hours (ill usually take at least one of the little ones with me to make it eaiser on her) and sometimes ds 9 stays by himself while i run an errand or two, however in our new house we will be too far from town for any quick errands and no neghibors redialy accesible so i think we will hold off on the staying home alone stuff for a while
