Astonishing thread! I had no idea how things have changed. I used to babysit when I was about 13 on and my wife and I left our kids with babysitters as young as 12, although 13-15 was more common. And I never heard of a babysitting course before.
Didn’t you get the memo? All men over the age of 12 are just looking for younger kids to molest all the time.
And stupid mothers (it’s always mothers) think they’re being oh so clever when they tell little Aidan or Tiffani to get away from me and “Let him do his job” when they come up to the reference desk at the library.
:rolleyes: Come on lady, showing your kid where the Pokemon books are is my job. Don’t pretend like I don’t know what you really mean. And at that point, I insist on helping the kid until they’ve found everything they want.
Depends on the age of the kid being watched.
Under 3?: 18.
Under 6?: 16.
Over 6?: 13-14 depending on my history with the sitter, his/her maturity and how well I knew the sitter’s family.
The babysitting course is optional, but it helps nervous parents feel more at ease if their baby sitter is licensed by the Red Cross. They teach basic first aid, ‘injury prevention’ and what to do in case of an emergency.
I think it gives the kids more self confidence if they’ve been trained as to how to handle most situations.
I took the babysitting couse and was 13 when I started babysitting but that was many moons ago. I had younger sibs and was used to taking care of them. Still in todays day and age I would get a video camera and hide it.
I once had a 15 year old babysitter come for the summer and live in and she did great the first summer. It was a nice condo on a lake with plenty to do. The second summer though I came home from work and she had a guy in the shower with her. He drove up from another state. I worked nights at the time. That was the end of that.
My son was almost molested by a wheelchair bound elderly man that my MIL was taking care of. She caught him in time. That was the end of that.
A newly released pedophile walked in to my kids daycare center and luckily one of the teachers spotted him. The police came and they called me at work to tell me about it. I didn’t move them because it was a random incident.
I was lucky and dodged some bullets.
I have boys; I would not hesitate to hire a boy sitter, because a boy would be more likely to enjoy playing along with the type of video games my boys enjoy - Pokemon, racing games, star wars, etc. I think a boy would be bored playing My Little Pony with a 6-year-old girl (I know I would be bored).
I agree with other posters that the age of the sitter depends upon the age of the children. A 13-year-old is capable of spending a few hours with an 8-year-old, because the 8-year-old is fairly self-sufficient and requires less direct supervision (unlike a toddler). Also, a younger sitter may enjoy playing the games WITH my kids, where a 17-year-old is going to spend more time texting her friends than playing tag in the yard.
Last summer, I hired a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old as sitters (not together, they alternated days) for my first grader. The 14 yo was actually more reliable, because the older girl was more interested in calling out so she could hang out with her friends instead of keeping to the schedule. I will hire the 14 yo again this summer*.
- I have several stay-at-home moms for neighbors, who were keeping an eye on my sitter during the day and were available in case of emergency, so it gave me an extra layer of comfort with leaving them home.
That’s the first thing I thought of when I read the OP. If a teenage boy wants to earn some money but doesn’t want to mow lawns, what better way to do it than to eat pizza and play video games with some younger kids for a few hours?
Heck, all of my 30-some-year-old friends would LOVE to do that with their kids. Some of them I think already consider that their form of babysitting 
I think the age of cell phones has changed things, too. When my son was little, they were still fairly uncommon, and it made me nervous to go someplace like Blossom Music Center for an outdoor concert where there was literally no way for anyone to reach me. Consequently, I usually hired college students, since I lived in a college town.
Now that everybody and his dog has a cell phone, I’d be OK with hiring a 12-13 year old, depending on all the things everybody has already mentioned regarding age of the kids, etc.
All my favorite babysitters when I was a kid were boys - they played with me outside instead of sitting around on the phone. Boy babysitters are awesome! (And probably a vanished breed these days.)
When I was 13 I took the Red Cross course and babysat all the time. I can’t believe it now, really. (And people who know me can’t believe I used to be everybody’s favorite babysitter. “You? Really? I mean… these people had kids and their kids liked you?”)
I was going to mention something about these laws. When I was 16 or so, I used to babysit a young boy in the neighborhood. His parents nearly got in trouble because they told the kid’s speech therapist that “a couple of 12 or 13 year old girls from the neighborhood look after him when we go out” - apparently kids under 14 can’t legally babysit kids under 2. (It smarted a bit that my neighbors thought I was a middle schooler, but at least there was no trouble).
Anyway, all teenagers are different. There are some 18 year olds who shouldn’t be trusted to look after kids. There are some 13 year olds who are perfectly capable of it. Especially if the kids are school-age, I think a responsible 13 year old boy who likes children and is known to be cautious and attentive would be a fine babysitter.
Most of them aren’t laws. I believe Rhode Island’s is (its one of the East Coast states that actually has a law, but the age is fairly, its like eleven or something). Unless its changed within the past two years, New Jersey’s isn’t. They are most often social services guidelines.
How do you find out about the specifics of the laws in your state? Can anyone give me a website or a phrase to look for?
Here is one…
Note that there is no minimum age law in New Jersey at a state level. Maryland (8), Georgia (9) and Illinois (14!) do have state laws.
I should add that obviously, just because there isn’t a law doesn’t mean its appropriate to leave your four year old in charge of your two year old while you go to work during the day.
If you click on some of the site links there, you’ll see that a lot of the states recognize that its a complex question that is difficult to legislate. A responsible eight year old might be able to stay alone for an hour between when he gets home from school and his parents arrive home, but a kid of the same age who has emotional/behavioral issues shouldn’t be left alone while his parents play eighteen holes of golf and go out to dinner and a responsible seventeen year old may be able to spend an entire week alone, as long as Grandma or a neighbor keep an eye on him.
http://www.co.dakota.mn.us/Departments/Attorney/FAQ/WhatAgeChildLeftHomeAloneHowLong.htm
And the Illinois law is “any minor under the age of 14 years whose parent or other person responsible for the minor’s welfare leaves the minor without supervision for an unreasonable period of time without regard for the mental or physical health, safety or welfare of that minor.”
Juvenile Court Act, 705 ILCS 405/2-3(1)(d)
Leaving the question of “unreasonable” wide open. Apparently, when they are 14 nothing is unreasonable.
My son is 2.5 now. I work from home, but sometimes I do have to go to the office. Last summer and the summer before, we had 2 babysitters: our pastor’s younger son, who is 17 now (so was 15 the first summer he worked for us) and another girl from our church, who is 15 now (and was 13 the first time). The girl lives like 3 minutes away from us, her folks were always home, and she was more mature at 8 than I was at, like, 25. She’s a stellar babysitter, and is much in demand. We had no problems leaving our son with her, even when we weren’t going to be home! The boy also does a lot of babysitting, but usually for slightly older kids - I think he learned a lot about babies with our son. But that was fine, since I was home.
My son LOOOOVES both of them. They’re both good babysitters. The boy is a bit messier, sure, but I know my son is safe with him.
My daughters are 7 and 4 and I would be comfortable with a 12 year old, but a little bit uncomfortable with a boy. If I had sons, a 12 year old boy would be fine.
If my kids were 5 and over, I’d be comfortable with a sitter from age 12 - 15
Anythone over 16 should be able to babysit.
This is not to say you can’t be younger. My sister was 12 when I was born and she watched me when my parents went out. I realize parents felt different because she was my sister, but in reality if my sister could be 12 and take care of a baby, the she coud take care of other people’s babies just as well