To think this was way too young?

I babysat at that age too. I was pretty sensible. I think it's fine. My daughter's about to turn 14 and we've been saying she can do some babysitting work.

Babysat for many children through mum being a CM. From babies to age 10, often putt them to bed
I didnit from around 14 - 18. I never knew what to chat about when the dads walked me home!

I wouldn't do this now unless I knew the 14 year old

I was babysitting my nephew when I was 11 and he was 1, all evening.
babysat him all the way through till he was 5 then i wanted Saturday nights to myself.
That was a long time ago though.

My daughter - now 16 - started babysitting at 14.

My 14 year old babysits. She is very practical and sensible. Probably more responsible than I am 😜

I'd say that's absolutely fine. I babysat for 3 complete tearaway boys 6 and under and the parents didn't come home when they said they would! I think they were about 2 hours later than planned and I'd only just got the kids to sleep when they arrive home, late. I can't say I've ever thought too much about it really.

When I was 12 I was left in charge of a baby and toddler. I had zero experience of babies. I gave the baby a bottle straight out of the fridge needless to say this didn't go well. I don't know what anyone was thinking. Oh, and the toddler made a break for it. They must be middle aged now. Different times.

Completely normal

Houses not hours

Yabu at just a year older than that I regularly baby sat 3 kids at once and the youngest was under 2. I thought nothing of my age then and at 34 now I still think nothing of it.

Yep I did the same at 13. I used to babysit in my estate but to be fair my mum was only four or five hours down the road in an emergency. I used to babysit nearly every Friday and Saturday I was absolutely loaded.😂😂

I babysat regularly at that age for the house opposite, three boys. I’d do bedtime aswell and their mum often came home very late and very drunk. My parents were always on hand if I were to need anything though I didn’t have a mobile phone back then. I now have two small children of my own and would never dream of leaving them with a young babysitter, even a responsible one. I do think times have changed however, it used to be very common and normal to be babysitting at 14.

I am quite old but did absolutely loads of babysitting from 13 or so and when I had young preschoolers I often had young teens( 13-15) babysitting my DC in the 90s.

Thought it was normal at 14? I babysat my cousins all the time at that age.

I babysat at that age, one family had one boy who was pretty easy but the other had two boys who didn't sleep but I always managed somehow. Even babysat a little baby one new year's eve. Only bad experience was babysitting a boy who was only 2 years younger than me and did not listen to me, too close in age for that to work

My 13 year old will be babysitting her 6 year old little brother later this month while we're at the local music festival, 5pm to gone midnight, she'll have to feed him and put him to bed and I am fully confident in her ability to do that.

Extremely normal and not at all something to be bothering yourself about!

I had my first babysitting job at 12. And at 13, my friend and I babysat her infant niece. I was terrified of SIDS and checked on the baby every 10 mins whilst my friend wanted to watch a horror video tape.

Turns out the infant has kids now.

Our neighbour/friend's teens babysit for us! Only when we're out locally (walking distance) and only from 6th form age though. They're very sensible kids. We're lucky to know them and tbh they're pretty happy to get £30 for doing their homework on someone else's sofa.

I babysat from age 14 but didn’t live far away from the houses so could have called my mum in an emergency. I babysat kids from aged 2 to 7. I wouldn’t ask a 14 year old to babysit my kids though if they were under 5. A few months back we did have a friends son who is 16 and his gf (also 16) to babysit our kids but they were 8 and 11 by then and I think they all just played on the x box together!

14 is OK if they aren't very far away. I leave my 13yo with my 10yo and go out nearby.

My neighbours dd babysat my 2 at 14 but her mum and dad were just across the road.

We have an 11 yr old and 12 yr old currently volunteering with younger ones who are absolutely fantastic. Obviously they aren’t left alone but week in week helping with activities for 4 yr olds, getting on with jobs without being asked. Brownie leader says 12 yr old is like having another adult there. Again by 14/15 I’m sure they would be a much better bet as babysitter than a 17 yr old with no experience. Plus they have recent first aid training that lots of people don’t have.

At 14 I would have reacted the same to those events as I would now at 35. What would you have done differently?

Totally normal , I babysat from 14 onwards, often over night for 4 kids(!)

I left ds with 14 year old too. He adored her and she could ring me if there was a problem.

I babysat all through my teens and so did my sisters. We were in regular demand as coming from a big family we were very responsible. There was no mobiles in those days but we could have called our own mom if we had an issue.
I had a lovely girl babysitting my dc for a whole year, every Saturday night when somehow she mentioned it was her birthday that week. I thought 16 only to discover she was turning 15 so had been only 14 all the time. She was marvellous and the children adored her. I think, sometimes, teens become more selfish at 16 and often have their own hectic social life going on so 14/ 15 is fine as long as parents are not gone far.