responsible 10 year old taking care of 6 year old

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband gets home from work at 530-6ish. We were wondering if will be happy with taking care of his 6 year old sister when they get home from school at 420ish..
We are spending about $133 a week on SACC, How to talk to him about it?
Is 10 year old enough to take care of 6 year old for an hour?

The only drawback on them not going to SACC anymore will be on teacher works days. m

NO

[Anonymous]

Absolutely not. If anything, the older child will resent the younger one. Ask me how I know (I was younger sibling).

[Anonymous]

Your DH needs to change his work schedule to be home earlier.

Else keep SACC.

It's unacceptable to foist this responsibility on your 10 year old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did you have children if you couldn't or refuse to care for them?

No, your elder child should not be raising his younger sibling.

This. $133/week is a steal.

You’re cheap and borderline neglectful, OP.

[Anonymous]

A mom in my neighborhood actually sent out a group text that her ten year old daughter is now ready for babysitting. I simply laughed at that one. Did not reply because the mom is crazy.

[Anonymous]

In MD, the kid has to be 13 to watch another kid who is younger than 8.

That being said, I was in charge of watching my younger brother when I was 10. He was 2, so it’s a different dynamic. I was totally responsible, no issues at all. I was in charge of getting him ready in the morning and walking him down the neighborhood street to his in-home daycare.

I also had older brothers and we were allowed to stay home alone when I was 6 and older brothers were 8 and 10. I was the younger one in that situation and definitely would have listened to my older brothers.

[Anonymous]

No way. The only people I know who do this are poor. That's a great price for childcare BTW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband gets home from work at 530-6ish. We were wondering if will be happy with taking care of his 6 year old sister when they get home from school at 420ish..
We are spending about $133 a week on SACC, How to talk to him about it?
Is 10 year old enough to take care of 6 year old for an hour?

The only drawback on them not going to SACC anymore will be on teacher works days. m

wtf? Please have your tubes tied. You are a bad parent.

[Anonymous]

Best case scenario, they will just okay iPad all that time. But that isn’t as good for them as playing with friends at SACC.

Don’t do this.

[Anonymous]

I'd do this once a week, but not every day.

[Anonymous]

No, your child who needs a babysitter should not be one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on your kids, OP: their maturity, how they get along, what they are up to when left home alone. Also, do you have a neighbor or someone relatively close, in case of an (extremely unlikely) emergency?

I'd also definitely make sure that both kids prefer this arrangement to aftercare, and there is an option to reenroll if they change their mind.

I know my kids, if given the option, would come home and have screen time. But I also know more adventurous kids who cannot be trusted alone. Or kids who don't get along well enough, where I wouldn't trust them not to have a fight and one kid to leave or hurt the other kid.

Yeah, I personally would not trust my 6 and 9.5 yr old (4th grader). My 9 yr old is responsible enough to be alone for 20-40 minutes during the day, when alone but he has access to a phone, we live in a safe neighborhood where there are multiple neighbors available on both sides and across the street that could help him and I would stay within 5-10 min. I also instruct him not to cook anything lol. I wouldn’t put that pressure to care for someone else. He’s very much learning and practicing how to be independent in little ways. My kids would miss out on a lot of social time if after school care was taken from them.

[Anonymous]

I can’t believe these helicopter responses. I left my kids alone together (granted, as one-offs, not regularly) from a younger age than that. It depends on the kids and how they get along, and they will need a way to contact you. In almost every country other than the US, no one would bat an eyelash at what OP is proposing. Independence is good for kids.

[Anonymous]

I babysat other kids at age 11, but looking back I probably wasn’t ready if there had been a true emergency.

This might work ONLY if you have neighbors who are close by and willing to be backup. And your 10 year old keeps calm in situations. And you have lists of rules (no eating until we get home, no using the kitchen, make sure you lock the door behind you, etc)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe these helicopter responses. I left my kids alone together (granted, as one-offs, not regularly) from a younger age than that. It depends on the kids and how they get along, and they will need a way to contact you. In almost every country other than the US, no one would bat an eyelash at what OP is proposing. Independence is good for kids.

I can’t believe your ignorant response. In many places (including many places in the DMV), this is illegal.