S/O babysitter

watercolor5

How young is too young when it comes to someone babysitting your S12er?  My friend recommended a 'very mature' 13 year-old and her friend as babysitters for a group of up to 7 kids, ages 1-5, so the adults could get together for a bible study in a nearby house.  My immediate response was "No way, too young," but I seem to be the only parent out of 4 couples who felt that way.  Am I nuts? 

Holly_1007

I mean, what is involved? Feeding them and changing diapers? Probably not. Keeping them alive and relatively safe for an hour? I don't see too much of a problem.

jenndub

I'd be cool with it if I was in the same house, but I don't think I'd be comfortable with someone that young watching multiple kids.

tinyhumantoe

I had a babysitting job every day after school for an infant in 6th grade. I was very mature and did a good job, but damn I would never let a kid that young watch my infant! I would be okay with a mature 13 yo watching my 2yo kid. I'm just not sure about 7 kids, wowsa.

hmp1

Playing with them and eating pizza for less than 2 hours, ok. Not for a 4ish hour long date night that requires putting two kids to bed. If my kids were 4 and 5 instead of 2 and 3, I would feel better about younger sitters too. So if you have the youngest kids, I can see why the others are ok with it.

smb+jab

I think that was maybe the age I started babysitting, maybe a year older.  A two year old for a few hours and putting them to bed, sure.  An infant probably not.

i am not sure about one 13 year old to seven kids.. maybe two or three to seven kids...

Also do you know the parents of said babysitter?  When we were kids our parents were either friends or acquaintances of the babysitters parents (same for when I babysat kids).  So if something were to go wrong at least they knew that said parent could be called in for help.  (we also all lived in the same housing development or within five to ten minutes).  I guess that gave everyone peace of mind.

MRoxy0628

I guess if I was very close by (like could walk to where they were in minutes) and it was a short period of time (1-2 hours) I might feel comfortable, but I would also probably worry the whole time. I also agree that 7 is a lot of kids to watch. 

kelbel527

Ditto to everyone else.  I'm also more comfortable leaving an almost 5 year old and a 2 year old with a 13 year old for a few hours.  Having slightly older kids makes a difference.  But 7 kids is too much, even for someone older.

Hyaline

Depends.  I was sitting when I was 12.  But my rough rule of thumb is high school--and even then, I'll hire a younger sitter for an hour or two when we'll be in town, but I'm leaving the longer evenings, if we're going to be more than a couple minutes away, or later nights to older sitters.

Seven kids for two teenagers sounds like an ok ratio to me, and if it's just for an hour or two during a Bible study I'd roll with it.  Even better if the parents were on-site.  I used to babysit at church for choir practice when I was probably 13 or 14, but the parents were there in case of emergency and I had full run of an age-appropriate classroom.  Maybe if the Bible study is church-affiliated, they could do something like this and use the church nursery (read: very safe and definitely fully childproofed) with the parents on-site?

melody921

2 young teens with 7 little kids seems like a lot to handle. I'd be OK with a very mature 13-year-old watching my kids for an hour or two (not doing bedtime). But I think if the parents are at the same place, that's totally different than leaving them alone, so I'd be OK with it.

watercolor5

Ok, thanks ladies.  I know for a fact I'm on the overly protective side when it comes to babysitters, so I'd probably feel differently if I knew the 13 year-old.  Yes, the plan was for there to be two babysitters, and we'd be at a different house, but only a few minutes drive away.  I'd be totally fine with it if we were in the same house or another adult were present.  I guess part of my worry is that the bible study tends to be at bedtime, so even though the babysitters would just have to play with the kids, not put anyone to bed, it tends to be at meltdown/witching hour, so I don't want them to be overwhelmed.  It may be worth giving it a try though.

We've thought about using the church nursery, but we'd have to get permission to have a key to the church and lock up and such, but maybe we should revisit that as well.

It's so great having friends in the same stage of life, but man, it's amazing how hard it still is to get together for adult evenings.

LyndseylovesHugh

Maybe it's just me but I would want a babysitter to be old enough to drive in case something came up that was urgent but not to the level that an ambulance needed to be called. But I've also never left my kids with anyone but my parents and friends who also have toddlers. I also never babysat when I was younger, so that probably plays into my reasoning.

watercolor5

LyndseylovesHugh said:

Maybe it's just me but I would want a babysitter to be old enough to drive in case something came up that was urgent but not to the level that an ambulance needed to be called. But I've also never left my kids with anyone but my parents and friends who also have toddlers. I also never babysat when I was younger, so that probably plays into my reasoning.

Yeah, I have trouble leaving the kids with anyone besides family or friends who are adults and parents.  It frustrates my DH sometimes though, because we have had to miss out on fun evenings because all of the "babysitters" I am comfortable with are busy. 

I did babysit in high school, before I had a car.  My parents or the parents of the kids were always close enough that if we had had to drive to a hospital for a minor emergency, a car would have been close enough.

kjskjs

I don't tend to leave my kids with anyone but family and really close friends. However, i would maybe consider an outsider but definitely not that young. I think High School would be the earliest and even then I'd probably be worried.