Leaving 13 year old at home with 3 year old for 2hours during the day

[youmeat6]

Well that, 13 year old is mature and can be trusted to stay home alone for a few hours, would it be unreasonable to leave the 3 year old with him for 2 hours? My parents live a few doors down.

Would like outside opinions.

Not necessarily.

My parents wouldn't babysit but would be happy to be there in an emergency

Why not ? Presumably they are siblings so the 3 year old won't be in anyway distressed. During the day ? for 2 hours ? I think this is fine, can't understand the problem.

Why's it interesting?
What's wrong with an older child looking after a younger one?
How do you know they aren't getting paid?

How else do kids learn responsibility and do they get paid for that?

I'm surprised at all the "hell no" responses - I often babysat for the neighbours at that age. The children were a little bit older but only four and six.

This should not even be up for discussion…….

13 is not an age where you have the capabilities of handling every potential issue that could occur. It would be very unfair on both children. Just because someone used to do this 10/15/20 years ago, doesn’t make it right. Thank goodness we’ve actually started to safeguard children more these days. Also, it would be classed as neglect and could result in very serious implications for the children and their parents if they were reported.

That must be an impossible situation for or the family left wracked with guilt and grief.

No, unfair to 13 year old

What was the point of mentioning that the grandparents are a few doors away, presumably in case there was a problem but you're not leaving the three year old with them?

Well every potential issue is an incredibly high bar, there has to be some proportionality here. 2 hours during the daytime presumably does not involve bathing the 3 year old, nor cooking ( am making assumptions here). What is likely to go wrong ? A house fire ? most 13yos can use he phone. Some 13 and 14 yos do become mothers ( thankfully rarely) the idea that an NT 13yo cannot supervise a NT 3y ( presubaly verbal and toliet trained) for 2 hours in their own home seems extrodinary. The drowning incident was obviously tragic but difficult to see how that could occur in a domestic setting during the day ( a pond in the garden ??) when everyone was awake.

I think that's way too much responsibility for a 13 hear old. 16 at least to look after a preschooler.

Just FYI I have neither a 13yo or a 3yo so no skin in this particular game. Dd was 13-15 in Covid so this was not an issue I had to deal with. When my DCs were v. young our babysitters tended to be sixth formers so 16-19.

I used to babysit my 2 year old sister when I was 11.

Absolutely no chance!

No not for me. Take the 3 year old to your parents.

Jesus Christ that's just nuts! Totally insane and no it doesn't depend on the dynamics of the the situation...

Oh well that's fine then isn't it...

I did this at 13y, my sister was 3y. Just occasionally and mum would have been fairly close by. Initially not for long periods of time - whilst she went to the shops, etc.

At 14y I was babysitting younger cousins regularly [during the day or evenings] and paid to do so.

It was very much the norm for friends growing up. But family and friends were often close by, same street, etc so there was always help nearby. However, there also wasn't mobile phones - so no,way to quickly contact a parent, etc if they were out and about.

However, it does need to be agreed beforehand - the older child shouldn't be expected to always be available to babysit.

This

I would say no. 2 hours is too long. Watching them while you nip to the corner shop for 10 minutes ok. But they need to be older and wiser for longer periods as more things can arise.

It most likely would be fine until it isn't.

If the younger child started choking on something the 13 year old, even with basic first aid training may panic or fail, leaving the younger child dead and the teenager scarred for life.

Saying that, I grew up in the 60s and 70s where this would have been normal.

Blimey when I was 14 I was looking after other people's kids for money.

It depends on the 13 yo for me. At 13 I regularly babysat my 3 yo sister and other peoples kids for extra money. I was very sensible and there was always adults close by in case of a dire emergency.
my oldest at 13 I wouldn’t have left to babysit a cheese sandwich.

I did this, I paid my teenage to look after my toddler.
There were never any issues.

Really how many NT 3 year olds choked to death last year ? Would you really disadvantage everybody because of a minscule chance of something going wrong ? Some people are so anxious it must be tough living in your heads.

The ONS tells me about 1 a year age between 1 and 4 and IMO likely they had some form of SEN.