How old before you let your child babysit?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Dear daughter is 10 1/2. She’s very mature for her age, gets good grades, and is basically a good kid. I’ve had people ask me recently when she’ll be ready to babysit. The first time someone asked I was caught off guard because I’ve never let her stay at home by herself for longer than 5 or 10 minutes (e.g. if I’m running late from getting home from work).

Recently her 4th grade teacher remarked that she enjoyed having her in class and that she’d be a great babysitter.

I said, “She’s only 10!”

Teacher said, “They offer the Red Cross Certification in 5th grade. A lot of babysitters start at 11.”

I thought “11?! That’s way too young!” But then after thinking about it some more, I realized I babysat at 11.

So, am I being overprotective? How old do you think is old enough to babysit? How old before you think a child should do latchkey?

2

I started babysitting at 12 , and that seems to be the most popular age around here to start at. 7th grade used to be the Official Starting Time…no longer an elementary school kid, you were in Junior High School! But now that middle schools are more common, many sixth graders are babysitting, but on a limited basis (no late nights, only one child, no tiny infants…you have to start slow.) My sister and I were the Supreme Babysitters…always in demand, always reliable, always employed. We even babysat during breaks from college or when we weren’t working during the summer.

My daughter started at 12 also, but the demand wasn’t there, so she only rarely sat. But both my kids were latchkey for a few hours a day at that age, and after the divorce they were latchkey kids much more. Never had any major safety concerns with them, but I would much rather have been home with them. Half the problems they have now could have been non-existent if they hadn’t been home alone so much. But I digress.

Definitely sign you daughter up for the babysitting class, especially if she hasn’t been around little ones that much. Have her help out in the church nursery if you have one.

3

My daughter is 11, and I let her be a “mother’s helper”–watching a child while the mother is at home, to gain some experience. But I am not comfortable with the idea of her being completely in charge just yet. Her friends have been left alone and in charge of siblings as young as 10, but it just feels too young to me. In many states, a child under the age of 12 isn’t even supposed to be left alone.

Taking a baby-sitting course is a great idea. See if she can do some mother’s helper type stuff to gain experience with children. But remember, 11 is still quite young, and even the most mature 11-year-old might have trouble making the best decisions in cases where judgement is imperative. I don’t think it’s over-protective, but rather aware that an 11-year-old, no matter how mature, is still a child herself.

4

I started when I was almost 11, but that’s probably because my younger brother was born when I was that age.

5

I started at 13, but looking back on it, I’m not sure it was the best idea. I was mature enough to handle routine situations, but not to enforce the house rules, and I let the kids walk all over me. Fourteen or fifteen sounds reasonable to me now.

Eleven is OK for being home alone, or maybe for a mother’s helper-type situation, but I wouldn’t leave an eleven-year-old alone with younger kids, except maybe slightly-younger siblings.

6

I was approached by a little girl at the pool the other day. She wanted to know if I’d be needing a babysitter in November as that’s when she’d be turning 12. I can’t imagine leaving my two boys with her for more than an hour or so. She’s so young. I’d be more likely to hire someone a couple of years older.

7

We have a 12 year old daughter, and she is just starting to babysit within some limits - mostly she babysits for a friend of mine, who has two daughters, 8 and 9, for no more than 2 or 3 hours at a time, and during the daylight hours. The other few times she has babysat, it’s been for two brothers in the neighborhood, ages 3 and 7, and she’s had a friend with her, on the assumption that two heads and four hands can more easily cope with very small kids, and with strict instructions to watch the children, not play with one another.

She does do the mother’s helper thing, which has gone a long way to building her confidence, and the babysitting class taught her mainly how to deal with emergencies of a minor nature - simple first aid and the like. In general, I think 12 is an OK age to start (of course it depends on the child) but at this early stage of the game I always remain available by phone, and won’t let her babysit kids who aren’t verbal and potty-trained.

8

How long would you let an 11 year old stay home alone? I have another daughter, who just turned 8. While I’d never leave them alone at night or for a whole day by themselves, I have let them stay alone while I ran up to the store (which is about a 20 minutes). I guess I’m just not sure when to take the next big step – that is, alone for an hour or two.

9

I was allowed to start babysitting for other people at age 12. Since that was an officially set guidline in my family, I was planning for the date and had already taken a babysitting “certification” class at a nearby hospital. I even advertised by putting flyers in all the mailboxes within a couple of streets. Looking back at it from the lofty age of 24 I’d feel fine about leaving kids with 12-year-old me but I’m not sure I’d feel that way about all potential babysitters. At 12 I was mature for my age, already had lots of experience, and not easily flustered. I had two younger siblings one of whom was such a difficult child that he was legendary at the church nursery. Since he was my norm babysitting for other families was easy. So I guess my questions for any potential babysitter are: how much experience do they have with kids and how mature are they? But, just because I started at 12, 10 seems too young to me.

10

I started babysitting at 11, but then I had been ‘watching’ my younger brother after school for a couple of hours for about two years by then. At 11 or 12 seems to be the norm around here for starting. Most here start out in a Mother’s helper type situation to get some experience.

I have to admit that as a mother, I never found an 11-12 year that I felt comfortable leaving my sons with, I used a young girl a few times for a few hours in the mid afternoon, she was 15.

I recommend that if she’s going to babysit that young to do have her take the Red Cross Babysitting Certification Class.

11

I started baby-sitting our neighbor’s kids when I was about 12 (I might have been 11, I can’t remember exactly). That worked out pretty well, but the kids just loved me and didn’t try to challenge my authority. If they had, I dunno what I would have done… I was pretty timid, and I doubt I could’ve handled any big problems.

My mom went back to work, thus making me a “latch-key” kid when I was 11, and that was about the same age they started letting me stay home alone when they went out for the night. I think I handled myself pretty well.

12

I started seriously babysitting at 11, after taking the Red Cross class. Most of the time it was for relatives or people in the neighborhood, and it was mostly “The kids are already in bed and sleeping - we’ll be gone for only a few hours” sort of deal. I would watch TV and do homework, but I wasn’t expected to make meals or anything - most of the time the kids slept.

13

I started babysitting at 11, and the two kids I watched were 2 1/2 and 6 months. I look back on that and realize that I would NEVER have allowed an 11 year old to babysit a six month old baby. But my sister had her first child when I was 8, so I had a lot of experience with babies.

Anyway, I ran into the lady I used to babysit for a few years ago, and we talked about it…and she said that at 11 I was the best and most mature babysitter she ever had, and that she used me over 16 year olds on her list. (I was very flattered that she would say that.) So I don’t know…I guess it just depends on the child.

14

I started mainly by taking care of my sister (well, watching her after school while waiting the couple of hours for mom/dad to come home) when I was about 10 1/2. By 11 I was also watching kids of friends-of-the-family, who lived in the apartment block next to us, and whose mother worked with my mom. That gradually progressed to me being asked to babysit for them evenings for a few hours - often something like 5-9 or so, while the parents went out to dinner or a movie. I also babysat upstairs (some of the best, well behaved kids EVER - 5 year old boy would say OK and run to the bed when you said bed-time!).

Within the same year, I started getting calls from other people, who were friends of people I was babysitting for, wanting to hire someone for an evening. I had never met them, but I started babysitting for a few other families that way. It was fairly easy, since at the time I lived in a military PMQ, and so I was always only a building over from my parents if anything went wrong (nothing ever did), and I knew half the people in the area, as well as who were MPs.

I just remembered I was even unofficially hired to watch a CLASSMATE, who was a rather immature boy. We were friends anyways, and just hung out for the evening, but his mom gave my mom 10DM to give to me later :slight_smile:

So, no, I don’t think thats too young, but in my case, starting off with a sibling, and close family friends was probably a little like a mother’s helper situation. Give your kid a chance to watch a child, while you’re nearby (at the neighbours or something), but for a couple of hours, and see how she does. If she has problems, she can easily get you, but on the other hand, she’s the one in charge.

As for being “latchkey” for us, we actually had a bit of a choice of walking to my mom’s school and go home with her, or take the bus and be home for an hour or so (or more if she got caught up in something) on our own. It was good to have that responsibility, but also the knowledge that we could go see her instead. My mom also always called at a certain time to be sure we were there - basically when we’d be home but before we were likely to go to the park in front to play. Good safety thing there, too.

Ok, I’m blabbering, but I’m having all these cool memories of the base, and I want to share! :slight_smile:

15

I started mainly by taking care of my sister (well, watching her after school while waiting the couple of hours for mom/dad to come home) when I was about 10 1/2. By 11 I was also watching kids of friends-of-the-family, who lived in the apartment block next to us, and whose mother worked with my mom. That gradually progressed to me being asked to babysit for them evenings for a few hours - often something like 5-9 or so, while the parents went out to dinner or a movie. I also babysat upstairs (some of the best, well behaved kids EVER - 5 year old boy would say OK and run to the bed when you said bed-time!).

Within the same year, I started getting calls from other people, who were friends of people I was babysitting for, wanting to hire someone for an evening. I had never met them, but I started babysitting for a few other families that way. It was fairly easy, since at the time I lived in a military PMQ, and so I was always only a building over from my parents if anything went wrong (nothing ever did), and I knew half the people in the area, as well as who were MPs.

I just remembered I was even unofficially hired to watch a CLASSMATE, who was a rather immature boy. We were friends anyways, and just hung out for the evening, but his mom gave my mom 10DM to give to me later :slight_smile:

So, no, I don’t think thats too young, but in my case, starting off with a sibling, and close family friends was probably a little like a mother’s helper situation. Give your kid a chance to watch a child, while you’re nearby (at the neighbours or something), but for a couple of hours, and see how she does. If she has problems, she can easily get you, but on the other hand, she’s the one in charge.

As for being “latchkey” for us, we actually had a bit of a choice of walking to my mom’s school and go home with her, or take the bus and be home for an hour or so (or more if she got caught up in something) on our own. It was good to have that responsibility, but also the knowledge that we could go see her instead. My mom also always called at a certain time to be sure we were there - basically when we’d be home but before we were likely to go to the park in front to play. Good safety thing there, too.

Ok, I’m blabbering, but I’m having all these cool memories of the base, and I want to share! :slight_smile:

16

I used to work in the Education Department at a hospital, and we had a babysitter training program. Kids had to be at least 11 to attend. I thought they looked so young and I still don’t know if I’d want an 11-year-old watching my child, but I started babysitting at 11.