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.

Do you have your own children?!

12 year olds are not old enough to be left in charge of babies and toddlers. I would think twice about leaving a 12yo on their own in their own house in certain circumstances.

It is not fair to put the responsibility of keeping 2 babies alive on another child. Yes, they can sit and watch Netflix for an hour or two, but what if the baby wakes, the toddler falls out of bed, wakes up and falls down the stairs, a fire starts, one of them starts choking etc? Yes, the chances are very slim, but that is why you have a baby sitter otherwise you could just leave the babies on their own!

14 the absolute youngest depending on the sitter. Presumably their parents would be nearby but I'd be happier with a 16/17 year old.

Our sitters 16/17/18 around here allcharge £5/6 and hour. Although one mum is offering her daughter who's 14 for £8 an hour is surprised no-ones interested!

My own (sensible and mature) dd used to babysit her young cousins at 14.

I do think you're being a little over cautious there but your youngest is very young, so maybe when she's 1 you could give the 17 year old a chance?

I think age pre 3 ish, I’d only use a grandparent / close adult friend or registered professional babysitter. After that about 15 /16 would feel ok to me - depending on the teenager and how they get on with the children.

My nearly 14 year old is very sensible and could probably babysit but I’d be worried they don’t have the life experience to cope in an emergency situation.

Some people don't have family nearby so that would mean never going out at all ever. Not feasible

The professionals around me charge £10 an hour, she’s mad!

Probably 17/18. Maybe a bit younger if teens' parents were at home so she could call them over in case of an emergency.
I'm a worrier and tend to think of worse case scenarios. If one of the children suddenly took ill, or there was a fire or something horrific, I think that expecting a (legal) child to be responsible for your children is unfair on everyone.

I was 13 when I started babysitting for my parents’ friends’ five(!) primary school-aged children, but about 15/16 before anyone asked me to babysit an actual baby.

Given all the factors and that you can be home in 2 minutes, have a monitor and the kids are sleeping...I would be fine with a responsible teen of any age. My 13 year old niece could do this for sure, she has already babysat a lot for neighbours. As long as you were back before 9:00ish , she would be fine.

14

We call it ‘firewatch’ when our local 15 year old babysits for 2 year old DS. He lives literally opposite and his mum, who we know, always makes sure she’s in when he’s doing it. We only ask him when we aren’t far away at all, usually just minutes away at church. If anything went wrong, his mum and/or us can be there in minutes. He’s basically just there to grab DS and get out if there was a fire.

If we are going to be out of communications, can’t look at phone, more than 15 mins away - then I’d think twice about the age. In those circumstances so far we’ve had professionals - nursery staff looking for extra cash.

16 for me. Minimum mad paediatric first aid qualified.

16, if I trust them enough to have children minded I would not video them or monitor them

I find that appalling, I either trust them or not

Yeah, I was shocked by the ‘make sure they know you’re filming them’ comments too.

Yes, I do have my own children; as I said, one of them was babysitting from 12. I have also used a 12yo babysitter, provided her mum was available by phone to advise her.

By contrast, my other child was not safe to be left alone at 12, let alone take care of children. People are all different. The fact that some twelve year olds have no common sense or experience of looking after themselves or younger children does not mean they are all like that.

As a society, we have become much more cautious in recent decades. The idea that all young people are incompetent becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when we don't give kids any opportunity to learn life skills.

This isn't what was said though was it.

If you read the post properly I say that the owlet cameras are the baby monitors for the cots only. Nowhere else in the house. I added this because it would be helpful in the unlikely case that baby woke up, we would know immediately and be able to make that decision to come home before waiting for the babysitter to try and soothe the baby first and then decide to call us.

Many people use baby monitors that are accessible by their phones these days.

It has nothing to do with trusting them enough.

As a general rule I’d say 14. But ultimately it’s a judgment call on whether you think they could manage if something was wrong. Some 13 year olds could be fine.

Wouldn’t go younger than 13 though.

We only used family or friends until youngest was 3. Then we started with a 14 year old neighbour whose parents were in anyway.
I think we first left dd when she was 5 months, PILs babysat. By then she must’ve been sleeping until the early hours as she was still exclusively breastfed!

Ps: age of responsibility is 16 so that’d be minimum age for me for a baby,

At those ages I think I’d only feel comfortable with an adult. When they’re older 15+ would be ok

They're very young. Minimum 18, at least.

You could have a very sensible 16 year old with baby siblings who is training to be a nursery nurse or a clueless 21 year old maths student who doesn't know how to hold a baby

It very much depends on the teen. I’m a guide leader. I’ve one 13 yr old who is far more mature than the others (looks 16 plus) and I’d be happy for her to babysit in that scenario. She has done first aid, is highly sensible and practical.
My 17 yr old babysits (loves it it’s £10 hr snd baby is asleep) she’s mature, guiding young leader experience. Plus it’s local so if she needed I could be there in 5 mins.

I’ve read your updates and 17, experience with young sibling and close neighbour sounds perfect to me. My dc babysits and she’s just finished yr 12.
They wake and really won’t settle she calls you.
Emergency she could always call her mum or dad.
If she hasn’t got first aid she could do a paediatric course. A local provider does baby first aid £25 aimed at parents and family and covers choking etc. Or £65 full day paediatric.