11 year old vs. 13 year old

In My Humble Opinion
1

After being a stay at home mom for 9 years, I got a temporary full time job stocking shelves at the dollar store.

I’ve always enjoyed being a SAHM, and never looked for work before because we don’t have anyone to babysit. I’m not really a “skilled” worker, so I don’t make enough to pay for daycare.

When I got offered this job, I took it to get out of the house and do something else for a little while. Child care after school was the problem.

I thought about leaving my kids by themselves, my son is 11 and my daughter is 9, but I’m not too comfortable with that. I’m the only SAHM in the neighborhood and our family is far away.

I hired a 13 year old boy from my son’s youth group to ride the bus home with the kids and watch them until I come home. He’ll only be watching them for about 2 hours a day for 7 days.

This morning, my husband told me had concerns about an 13 year old boy being in charge of a 11 year old. He’s worried that they will be buddies and get into trouble together. I’ve called around and can’t get anyone else on such short notice, so my husband thinks I should just forget the job. I kind of want the job.

I know the boy’s family and everything I’ve seen about him seems responsible. My son has shown that when I’m not around, he behaves pretty well too.

Do you think this is trouble waiting to happen or does it sound like a decent situation to you ?

2

Do you trust the 13-year-old boy and feel that he is responsible? If so, I don’t see a problem. When I was a kid I sometimes had babysitters only a couple of years older than me. That age gap may not seem like much to an adult, but to kids it’s a big one.

3

I had that job as a 13-14 year old.
My job was to watch the 5 year old and the 11 year old. It wasn’t that the 11 year old needed watching, it was that the 11 year old couldn’t watch the 5 year old. So, once that was clearly outlined to the 11 year old, it was all good. We did play and hang out, but weren’t friends. We talked and stuff and went to the beach. Good times.

4

Laws vary from state to state. Here in NJ, the law is – IIRC-- that leaving a child in the sole care of someone under 14 is technically child neglect or some such thing. I’ve never heard of the police going door to door demanding birth certificates of babysitters. But in the unlikely event of some tragedy, if it’s found that the caretaker was too young, the parents *could * be charged with neglect.

IANAL, YMMV