Would you leave your child with a teenager?

[Sera1989]

Not a sibling or family member but a friend's teenager etc.
I've seen several posts recently asking if it's OK to leave their teenager of 13/14/15 alone at home in the evening and it got me thinking. 25 years ago my 14yo sister used to do some local babysitting but I don't think it's common anymore to leave children (especially toddlers) with teens that aren't siblings. And if they aren't mature enough to stay at home alone I don't see how they can be mature enough to look after a small child. There are some fantastic teen parents around but even the 18 and 19yos that I know (non parents) aren't particularly independent or dependable.
I wonder if it's just that times have changed in terms of safety, or teenagers aren't as mature as they used to be, or maybe I've got it wrong and people do still pay teens to babysit

Most of those threads are about leaving a teenager alone overnight, not for a few hours in the evening. There's a huge difference.

Most teenagers would have grown up as part of larger families and had practice looking after siblings whereas families are much smaller now.

DD is 14, she's mature and sensible knows first aid and on paper she would be perfect but she has little experiences of younger children and would not know how to deal with tricky behaviour.

My teenager is 14 and babysits. She is fab with kids and has had younger siblings and great experience with younger relatives too… so is a natural. She is lower cost that a professional babysitter (often the nursery staff from private nurseries offer their services but are minimum wage price range) but she has a paediatric first aid certificate and would always have her phone to call me/her dad and the parents in an emergency if needed. She babysits friends kids- ranging from age 2 to 10. But I agree it’s less common nowadays… I was babysitting from 13.

Plenty of teens babysit from 15/16 where I live! Just not very young children, so from about 6+ and as noted above for an evening, not overnight.

Depends on the teenager! I used to babysit all the time at age 15 and was perfectly able. I had a much younger sibling though so was very used to little children....children are often so close in age to their siblings these days. Maybe these days children are less likely to have much younger cousin or neighbour so aren't used to it and aren't as capable? I once had a bad experience trying to babysit a 2 year old that hadn't seen me for months and hadn't really been left before....she just cried and cried and in the end I asked her mum to come home.
Babysitting children over age 5 is very easy in my opinion, especially if there's a sibling there too, they are excited that you're coming, play a few games with them, read a story, bed!

This.

To answer your question, then yes, I paid teenagers to babysit my dc on many an occasion.
My dc have then grown older and been paid by other people to look after their small dc.
All perfectly normal.

Of course there is a HUGE difference between a 13 yr old and a 19 yr old, and then - even more importantly - there is a huge difference between individual teens. At 16, mine were working as lifeguards, with full First Aid Training, incl Paediatric First Aid, and with lots of experience of looking after younger cousins and friends' dc (under supervision) for years plus experience as Young Leaders and coaches in their chosen sports. FAR more capable than many a 25 or 30 or 40 yr old in some cases. OTOH, there are plenty of teens who have no experience of looking after small dc, those who lack confidence, those who lack initiative, those who lack common sense, etc, etc, just as there are with adults.

You can't generalise.