To think this was way too young?

[FlyingSoap]

Just jogged my memory by reading an old diary. When I was 14, I got a babysitting job (friend of family friend). Their child was only 3 years old. I met them in a cafe before I looked after their daughter, but they’d literally go for a whole evening out - 6pm-11pm - and leave me in charge. They wouldn’t go far, maybe a mile or two away in a taxi for food and drink. I think they paid me £15. She was awake when they left and I would do bedtime and then watch some TV downstairs or do homework. I text the parents midway through to let them know she was ok.

We’re not talking that long ago, ten years ish. I’m now about to become a mum myself and I can’t believe anyone would leave their child with a child! I’d possibly trust a very reliable, close relative age 16 or over. I was responsible as a teenager, had experience with children and knew what to do in theory in an emergency, but I don’t know how I’d have coped in practice.

YABU - you’re overthinking, that sounds totally fine

YANBU - I agree with you, it’s irresponsible

My daughter - now 16 - started babysitting at 14.

I was babysitting my nephew when I was 11 and he was 1, all evening.
babysat him all the way through till he was 5 then i wanted Saturday nights to myself.
That was a long time ago though.

I wouldn't do this now unless I knew the 14 year old

Babysat for many children through mum being a CM. From babies to age 10, often putt them to bed
I didnit from around 14 - 18. I never knew what to chat about when the dads walked me home!

I babysat at that age too. I was pretty sensible. I think it's fine. My daughter's about to turn 14 and we've been saying she can do some babysitting work.

My mum was a childminder and the parents of kids she looked after not only used to ask me to babysit in the evenings sometimes, but were also happy for me to stand in for my mum and babysit for entire days during the school holidays if for some reason my mum wasn’t available. I looked after two four-year-olds from 8.30am to 6pm more than once when I was 14-15.

I used to look after my baby/toddler niece all day and sometimes over night at 16-18 but that was in the 90s. Now I think it's far too young but back then it was very normal.

I was babysitting at that age, sometimes for people I had never even met. It was quite common when I was a teen in the 70s.

I minded toddlers during the day from ten, babies and their siblings by twelve, newborns and their toddler brothers and sisters by fourteen.

You would know the neighbours and your parents wouldn't be far away. I never had to call an adult but I could have. No mobiles either yet - 1990s. And I'd grown up looking after and playing with younger kids as a matter of course.

I had a baby sitting round at 15, which I why I would never have had an under 18 look after my dc! I got bored on night and woke up the toddler I was looking after. Another time I snuck some friends in for drinks.

Really normal. I babysat next door's 3 and 1 year old from about 14. Daytime and nighttime. £2.50 an hour and they counted out every penny! Most of my friends were doing the same. I looked after a few other families' kids too, just not as much.

We were babysitting from age 12 in the late nineties!

How far away from your own parents was the house where you babysat? We have used the 16 year old daughter of our neighbour for babysitting but we knew that her Mum (our friend) was only 2 doors away in case of emergency.

14 does seem young though.

Yabu. 14 year olds are perfectly capable of hiding a child for a few hours.

This thread is so funny - I hadn't thought about being a young babysitter for such a long time. I started around age 12 or 13 and I was absolutely awful. One family got my number from friends of theirs and had me round to babysit having never met me before. There were 2 young children in a big fancy house with loads of expensive looking Persian rugs on polished hardwood floors. I gave the children rides on the rugs by running all around the house pulling the rugs with the children sitting on them shrieking with laughter. I also stole lots of coins from big jars they had lying around. Not proud of this but I was a kid myself! Funnily enough they never asked me back 😂.

I’m not sure that is what the parents have in mind!

I think our low expectations of teenagers as a society is very unhelpful and leads to low confidence and more incompetence as people don't get the chance to prove themselves.

I babysat from 14 in the 80s for all sorts of people I didn't know, via a youth club babysitting circle. Parents used to (sometimes) leave a landline number for where they were going. I was eldest of 3 though with younger cousins so was used to dealing with children. Can't imagine my 14 yo doing this yet but maybe in a year or so.

I used to babysit for a family who lived about 10 houses down from us when I was 14. The little boys would already be asleep when I got there . The parents were maths teachers and I would always take my maths homework with me!.

YABU. Our DD was babysitting for half the street at that age. No problem. Any crisis (& there were a couple) she rang her DM and me and we dealt with it until the parents could get home.

Basically, she was little more that a human baby monitor.

I agree. The older generations had responsibility at a much younger age. I know a couple of old boys (in their late 80s now) who were in the Merchant Navy at 15!

My stepson is 16 and I couldn't trust him long enough with my DS3 to have a shower

Lovely kid btw, great guy.. total idiot

He wouldn't be able to put his phone down long enough to ensure she wasn't inserting Lego into the cat

The babysitters I use are 15 for a one year old. If there's an emergency their parents or a neighbour aren't that far away. I don't worry about it at all. I was babysitting two at 15.

I also know of a few people who had their own babies by 16!

So if it was a mature 14 I wouldn't have a problem.

I think it's fine. More so than me and my friend, both 15 who were given a set of 18m old triplets to look after for the afternoon. It was school / community partnership thing. The mum bundled us out the door to the park within fifteen minutes of meeting us!

Depends. If the parents are local and easily contactable by phone I think it’s fine at 13/14.

If the parents had gone a long distance or were staying overnight I think it’s a bit young.