What age would you let a teen babysit?

[theviewfromhalfwaydown]

My oldest is 15 (nearly 16) i want to go and see a friend for no more than 2 hours but don't have a sitter for my younger two 12 and 10 would you say she is too young to watch them?

Not too young to babysit - but then my 12 and 10 year old wouldn’t really need ‘watching’ - they were walking home from school and being by themselves in the house at that age .....

My two walk home by themselves too. Idk I think maybe I'm paranoid about leaving them for a couple of hours in the evening in case anything happens and I get accused of being a bad mum. Stupid I know as they all play out on their own. I haven't had a moment to myself apart from my drive to work in 2 years so feel bad going.

Seriously wouldn't give this a second thought. Wouldn't even class it as babysitting - as long as there isn't some difficult sibling dynamic you aren't mentioning then they are all of an age where it is fine to leave them at home for a few hours.

I've paid for 15yos to babysit my kids.

I think siblings can be more complex... Do you trust them together?

Seriously? Of course it’s OK. If they get on well enough, etc. It’s not even babysitting.

No. Irrelevant really as every child is different but at that age I was paid to watch over children much younger. We also use to "babysit" each other if our parents were working. Siblings age at the time were 17, 15 and 9. Few scraps and some TV was all we done. Just make sure they know who to call in an emergency and no one try to cook anything!

My eldest has done to odd babysitting since 14. Depends how far away you are. Once we just wanted to buy food without the kids in tow.

Now he is 16 he is actually a bit less reliable and goes up to his room! But his siblings are getting older. Depends on your kids I think.

Sounds fine to me. I expect we'd be happy leaving our kids for 2 hours by the time oldest is 14 in a few years. TBH during lockdown we already left them alone for 60-90 mins while we had a walk without them nearby during the day (currently 9 and 12)

I've trusted my 15 year old sister to babysit my DD who's 3 for an hour or two. I could be wrong but at 10 and 12 I imagine they would just get on with their own thing whilst you're gone and won't need to be looked after too much so it's unlikely anything will happen. You know you're children best and whether they can be trusted but I think it's perfectly fine to leave children of that age

Go and enjoy yourself. They’ll be fine.

I wouldn't think twice about that tbh.

16 was when we had a babysitter in for our DC age 2 & 6 at the time (Their parents were next door though)

My DD was 16 when she 1st babysat her siblings age 11, 4 & 2..
The younger 2 were in bed , which made it easier.
we popped out for a few hrs (5mins away to a visit friends)
She is resposible though

yes I definitely think this is ok. My dd14 and ds11 stayed home.last friday from 730 to 1030 PM whilst I went to a friends for the evening. I was less than a mile away and all was fine. I have done it a few times and feel comfortable if I stay within my town (so not too far from them) and wouldnt be out past 9 on a school night as I wouldnt want my eldest to get my younger to go to bed as there would likely be an argument

Do they get on? Are they sensible together?
Why dont you go out for 20 mins first, then an hour and so on to trial it?
Would they listen to the oldest one if there was an issue?