Would you leave your 2 yr old with a teenage (school age) babysitter you'd never met?

[ForestGoblin]

More an is it unreasonable than aibu.

Or would you want to meet the person at least once?

Said 2 yr old hasn't stayed with a non family member before.

Never.

No way

Nope

Of course not. It’s a bonkers idea.

Nope definitely not, sorry. I only leave my kids with family. If that wasn’t an option I’d go for a proper agency I think

No

No way would I consider that.

No. I don’t think it would be a good idea to leave a 2 year old with an unknown school age baby sitter at all. A family friend or neighbour who is familiar to both you and the tot maybe. But not a stranger.

(to offer reassurance, I would not do this - but family member is coming under pressure to do it and I think it's bonkers but just checking not just me being paranoid)

Only leave my toddler with family or nursery. If we had to it would have to be a vetted registered person with experience and references

Hell no, that would be neglectful.

No. I’m pretty chilled at leaving our DS but would only leave him with family or proper agency worker with first aid training and DBS checks.

No, unless the teenager had completed some form of child care qualification, child first aid and was experienced, which if school age they will not be.

Toddlers are challenging for adults let alone a child. What I would do is have her as a Mother's Help and to act as a second pair of hands at home and on dys out and then possibly allow them to babysit afterwards once they were confident.

definitely no ….

Not in the house alone, no.
In a crèche at a wedding or something with me in and out and nearby maybe.

I have a 2 year old and even if I met them it'd be a hard no. A school mum friend has 2 kids aged 6 and 8, she was telling me recently how she left her kids with some 15 year old so her and her husband could go out and asked if I wanted her number 🤣 my kids are 7, 6 and 2, I said I had family if I needed a babysitter, (also not a cat in hells chance)!!

I feel bad for people with no family nearby but cmon!!!

If only dogs could be nannies like in Peter Pan.

No way! For all sorts of reasons, not least because my 2yo would have been (understandably) terrified to be left with someone he hadn't met before and would have literally screamed in fear the entire time until I came back. Awful for the child, and also for the babysitter! Even a seasoned childcare worker finds a genuinely inconsolable child a challenge, but a teenager with barely any experience - no way. I don't think they would cope.

The first time I left DS with MIL, whom he had met several times, she phoned me after 2 hours to say he had been crying literally the entire time, despite her trying absolutely everything to console him, and she knew I would never knowingly let him cry like that so she wanted to give me the opportunity to come back - which I did. I wouldn't trust someone I didn't know to exercise that kind of judgement, and I would never, ever inflict a stranger on my terrified-of-people-he-doesnt-know child.

No, I wouldn't, but I had a woman ring the wrong number when I was a teenager, and I ended up babysitting her kids all day. She was desperate, first day of work, relationship had broken up, she'd been left with the kids. . .

I'm just glad I was the wrong number she called.

No but how do you know the teen?

Did none of you ever babysit when you were teens? Or have teenage babysitters yourselves?

I certainly did. A friend gave my number to her neighbour when should couldn't do a babysitting job.
And after that I got added to a babysitting list all the school mums had. I always had steady work.
I might have been 16. I also spent the summer before I was 18 'nannying' for a family of 5 kids aged 18,months to 12 yrs.

Yeah he's a fearful little thing (must have the same who the heck are you DNA from my side of the family) so I think it's cruel even if it could be ok in some circs. Personally I'd say no, get bent, but it's not my situation to decide.

The teen is the granddaughter of a friend of the family.

I babysat as a teen, a tween, and a 7 year old. So by the time I was a teen, I was fairly experienced. For example, I knew to shut the hell up about knowing how to do cloth nappies, so that they'd leave me disposables. (Talking '80's here). I knew how to calm and soothe a sick child, how to comfort and distract a worried one.

Yeah i remember things being more easygoing back in the day but I still think 2 is very young.