Siblings baby sitting

[kitkatchunky7]

Would anyone leave their DD14 to look after their DS7? Both sensible. Not overnight or too late in the evening.

Am interested if people think it is reasonable or not!

We have the same age gap and yes 14 is the age we'd planned for. But the eldest is Captain Sensible, youngest would have been put to bed and we wouldn't be far away. And home by 9. A great evening all round, ha

Yep. Particularly if you are contactable, a lunch (or whatever) is either obvious or already prepped and there is a neighbour can be approached in an emergency.

When I was around 12 when my parents would leave me to look after my 9-year-old brother and 7-year-old sister for about three hours on a Saturday evening while they went out for dinner ever couple of weeks. They would always come home at a reasonable time (9ish) and I always had the phone number of the restaurant if I needed it (this was early 2000s). It gave me a great sense of responsibility and helped deepen my relationship with my sibs. I won’t hesitate to allow this when my DD is old enough in a few years!

Yes. DS is 13. DDs are 9 & 7.
He looked after them the other night whilst we went out for dinner.
The restaurant was only a 5 minute walk away and we could easily get home if we needed to.
He watched a film, his sisters were watching tv in our room.
No problems. He has a phone, they have iPads so could all call if needed.

I think its reasonable if your daughter is happy to do it.

I used to do similar at that age although my siblings were younger when I was that age

Reasonable only if older child wants to do it. I had a friend who had a young brother constantly palmed off to him to babysit.

Thanks. If going out for dinner, what would be the latest time you would be comfortable leaving them?

I’d trust the older one to put the younger one to bed (should be fun!), but I’d want to be home before the older one’s usual bedtime.

At 14 I babysat for a family who once stayed out until 1am and it seriously freaked me out (though it probably didn’t help that I was reading Dracula in their creaky old house after I put the kids to bed!) :p

@kitkatchunky7

Thanks. If going out for dinner, what would be the latest time you would be comfortable leaving them?

We made sure we were back by 10pm, we left about 7.45.

Yes I’d definitely do that if eldest was sensible enough

Absolutely!

Yes, I leave my 12 and 10.5 year old and they are fine. Both sensible and can call if needed.

Yes if they were sensible and also crucially, happy to do so. Rather than talked into it/reluctant