What is the youngest age babysitter you would use

[firstpregnancy1]

I know this topic is heavily debated and standards now are vastly different from 10,20,30 years ago.

I have a 7month old and a 2.5 year old.

My husband and I would like to start getting fitter and pre babies we would regularly play tennis in the summer evenings.

My children both go to bed at 7pm and very very rarely wake up once in bed. If the baby did it would be a quick dummy plug in and job done.

We have never used any kind of babysitter before.

I see 'ofsted registered' childminders offering babysitting services but we don't really need a whole evening and would they even be interested in coming for just 1-1.5 hours.

It got me thinking about whether it would be ok to consider a neighbour teenager?

Both kids would be in bed.
We would be gone roughly 60-70 minutes.
We would be about a 2 minute drive from home if they did wake up and sitter called us could come home immediately.
My toddler knows this teen ('not amazingly well) but wouldn't be startled or scared if they woke up as we would tell him that 'x' is coming round tonight . The 7m old wouldn't really know.

In this situation, with these set of circumstances, how old would this teenager need to be in order for you to agree to this.

13?14?15?16?17?18? Not at all unless an ofsted registered professional?

I consider myself quite overprotective and I can't tell if my judgement is normal.

If it's relevant, the teenager is sensible, reliable, has basic common sense and a 4 year old sibling so she's 'good' with children.

[firstpregnancy1]

Also to add, we have the owlet camera and so we can/could watch /listen out to the children's baby monitors if in case of a wake up we would be able to judge for ourselves the necessity to pack up and come home immediately.

[Nordicrain]

How old is the "teen"? Big difference in 13 vs 19 in this context.

[firstpregnancy1]

That's exactly my question.
How old would the teen have to be in your opinion?

It's no use me saying teen is x years old, people would just say yes or no. I'm interested to see what age people would say yes to in these circumstances

[AlanJohnsonsBeemer]

In those circs 14, but I wouldn’t feel the same if you were going out out and didn’t have the monitor etc

[LoopyLoo1991]

14 years old is minimum IF they are experienced with young babies.

[babbscrabbs]

I'd say 16 for those ages or maybe even 18. For the babysitter's sake as much as the children

[firstpregnancy1]

Thank you @AlanJohnsonsBeemer I totally agree re the going out out and having the monitor

[Jennalong]

Only ever used our parents tbh .
I guess it depends on how well you know the teenager / family.
I do remember the stories friends at school would tell about their babysitting antics which put me off !

[AnxiousShep]

It does depend a lot on the teen. My dd would have been dependable from a fairly young age. My son is 23 and I still don’t think anyone would consider leaving a baby in his care.

[CatchYouOnTheFlippetyFlop]

I'd say 15

[firstpregnancy1]

@Jennalong oh gosh what antics? Do you mean what the babysitters got up to?

[snuffles123]

16

[TediousTim]

15 in theory I think. Though one of mine has additional needs and not even my mum can babysit her confidently, so for us only a specialist who.is very well trained and over 18.

[AngryBirdsNoMore]

In those circumstances - short time only, you’re genuinely only a two minute drive away and you had your phone on loud and checked it regularly - 15 would be fine in my opinion. We’ve used a 15 year old in similar circumstances.

[Grumpyfroghats]

I think for me it's all about how well I know the teenager.

One of my cousins is 14 and I would 100% trust her but I know her well and so do my children. I wouldn't trust a 14 year old I didn't know as well

[peachicecream]

Depends entirely on the situation. If you're just going for a run in your local area in the early evening for an hour, then a known neighbour iof 15/16 would be fine, as long as they are mature and sensible - it really depends on the individual teen as well.

If you're going out away from home and it will take you time to get back, then I'd want 18+ and good references.

[Sigmama]

14

[AngryBirdsNoMore]

I agree with others that it does obviously depend on the teen too. There might be some sensible 14 year olds who would be fine and many 16 year olds who wouldn’t.

Having parents who we know and who live nearby has been persuasive for us. So we don’t just know the teen, we know and trust the parents.

[Yabbadabbadotime]

We've used a very sensible 14 (almost 15 year old). She knew our kids really well, almost like a big sister, and we were only out locally ten mins walk away.

[peachicecream]

(Also a bit off topic but why are you driving somewhere 2 minutes from home...?) 😕

[TMess]

My 14yo neighbor sits with my kids all the time in similar circumstances. My point of view is that her parents are less than two minutes away if she needs help in some kind of inciden, vs an older teen or young adult who would drive themselves over.

[cinnamonfrenchtoast]

I would say 15-16 for those ages, but only if I knew the teenager well.

[Dinoswearunderpants]

Age is just a number, it depends on how mature they are. You could have a very sensible 13 year and an immature 18 year old.

I was 13 years old taking my 2 year old niece on the bus into town.

Use your own judgement. I personally don't leave my 2 year old with anyone unless I fully trust them. My 16 year old nephew had him once and I've paid for a babysitter who was about 20.

[Run4it2]

We were happy using a 16 year old that we trusted

[lanthanum]

It makes a big difference if the teen's parents are at home and willing to act as back-up. When I was babysitting as a teen, my mum reckoned that she was on standby if there was ever a problem. For sleeping children, a 13 year old with parents in next-door is probably better than a 16 year old with nobody nearby to call on.