What age for babysitting?

[MidoriNoRingo]

My daughter is desperate to babysit her little brother. She’s 11 and he’s 3. I’ve said absolutely not, however I have noticed that a lot of the secondary school kids from her school collect their younger siblings from the primary school alone.
I remember starting to babysit at this age but it just doesn’t feel right? It’s not her I don’t trust btw, it’s defiant the toddler he’s wild 🤣

I let my 14 year old daughter babysit her 7 year old sister from last year. She’s was a very sensible 14 though and it was never longer than an hour and I was always in the local area.

I’ve been debating popping to our shop across the road and leaving them but something keeps stopping me. She’s very sensible and even does his bedtime routine some nights!

Really? Wow My kids school wouldn’t let my 13 year old collect my 7 year old even though I was right outside!

Have you checked when she can do the health and safety and first aid for babysitters? That should guide the age and will be useful for her to know

There's no way in hell I'd leave a 3 year old with an 11.

It depends on the children. If your toddler is particularly difficult and heavy, then an eleven year old girl might not manage him.
I'd say around 13, because that's when we allow a young person to make their own decisions. Unless you've got good neighbours, who'll be in and wouldn't mind her knocking if the younger child, hurt themselves, suddenly got a rash etc, I'dsay not yet. But I'd let them fully supervise in a park/supermarket etc while I watched.

Depends on how long and both dc , children vary a lot. If she’s sensible and your 3 year old is relatively calm then popping on foot to the post box or shop within 5 minutes or so I would do happily, if in a few months you feels she’s coping well then running errands in the immediate vicinity seems proportionate. The question you need to ask yourself is would she be able to cope to contact another adult if something happened to you, unlikely but can happen eg car crash

I started babysitting at 13 but tbh with babies/toddles I was out of my depth. I’d say in a couple of years it will be fine but she’s too young g for that level of responsibility and three years olds are unpredictable.

Can you let her ‘babysit’ while you catch up on house jobs it’s good practice for her her

Imo 13 years old to baby sit / watch over their younger sibling. Just my personal opinion.

She does this quite a lot, she loves looking after him. Some nights she even puts him to bed so me and my husband can watch a film together (we work shifts so only see each other one night a week!)

She sounds lovely you must be so proud of her.

I let me eldest babysit from 14 and her siblings would have been 11 and 8 at the time. I was only down the road and an hour at a time. She is 15 now but school don’t allow her to collect her youngest sister who is now 9, their policy is you have to be over 18.
The longest I’ve left her to babysit is 2 hours. My 12 year old is very independent and normally my youngest will just play her iPad. I’m never more than 5-10 minutes from home.