When I had my first child, I went to a new moms’ group at the hospital. The nurse running it clearly had an agenda when it came to babysitters and went on this long rant about not hiring boys to babysit our babies. (Really awesome…because new moms are generally so relaxed and anxiety-free to begin with…) All 6 of us in the group happened to have male partners and were like, “Um…we chose males to have babies with. Why would we assume men could not be trusted to babysit?” It was bizarre, and I think one of the moms ended up complianing to someone about it.
Another male former babysitter checking in.
As a teen, I did a fair bit of babysitting to earn some extra money. No one ever complained about my services and I was (I believe) generally well-regarded as I received plenty of referrals and repeat business.
I also like to think that it was some of what I learned as a babysitter that helped me when I became a father.
Zev Steinhardt
You shouldn’t pick a male babysitter because you want to bolster his (or your) self-esteem. You should pick one if he’s the best babysitter for your kids.
The problem is that you’re letting your fear of one specific incredibly unlikely nightmare scenario completely overpower your reason. Like the people who drive instead of flying because they’re afraid of the airplane crashing.
There are so many other more important criteria to consider when picking a babysitter. If you’re categorically eliminating half of the population from consideration, it’s pretty likely you’re actually not picking the best one.
Thats a mis-application of the statistics. That you are more likely to be abused by a relative does not imply that given a similar amount of alone time with a child your relative will abuse you more often than a stranger of similar background. What is does imply is that most people spend far more time alone with relatives than strangers and thus it is much easier to be abused by a relative in the first place.
Well, to be fair, Palo Verde was responding to lavenderviolet’s assumption that boys would have a difficult time controlling their horny urges around kids which is a misapplication of…something.
When we had a ephebophile problem at our church (Youth Pastor & Teen Boy), we had a Church-employed specialist come in to help put in a bunch of Child Safety policies, mostly regarding instituting background checks & tightening security around areas where the kids were. Good sensible stuff, for the most part. But one thing I found insulting was her caution about letting ANY teen boys around the little kids. Fortunately, after she helped put everything in place & left, that caution was pretty much ignored.
As a teenager, I did some babysitting as a substitute for my sisters, and yes, it very much helped me be comfortable around kids.
A lot of little kids love boy babysitters. I’ve noticed they’re often more willing to play little kids games for long periods of time and for some reasons young children are especially fascinated with teen boys.