Babysitting siblings - how old/how long?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only the 13 year old is in charge.

It would be a messed up dynamic to have an 11 year old in charge of a 9 year old.

I would pay the 13 year old a real rate - maybe $8/hour and everybody else gets $5/each if they behave.

You don't pay kids to behave. If they cannot behave you don't leave them.

[Anonymous]

Op will figure out what a mistake is when said 13 flees from her as soon as possible. The fact OP is asking questions about this means it is not a random Friday night. Kids should not be forced to watch siblings on weekends esp when they are at an age where kids start getting together and they are developing a social life. They need freedom to decide to go to a game last minute or over a friends house last minute. Parents should not put this pressure on them. Helping as a family means things like helping set the table or take out trash not becoming the nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have your 13 yr old take a babysitting class where he gets red cross certified for babysitting and CPR before putting this responsibility on him. You will feel better about it going for 2-3 hours then. And he will have training to fall back on.

Good point. My 14 year old who babysits the younger 3 is Red Cross trained.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op will figure out what a mistake is when said 13 flees from her as soon as possible. The fact OP is asking questions about this means it is not a random Friday night. Kids should not be forced to watch siblings on weekends esp when they are at an age where kids start getting together and they are developing a social life. They need freedom to decide to go to a game last minute or over a friends house last minute. Parents should not put this pressure on them. Helping as a family means things like helping set the table or take out trash not becoming the nanny.

OP here. Ha, you don't know us at all. It really IS a random Friday (maybe Saturday) night. We never really bother to make plans in advance, so any of these nights would be nights when the 13 yr old DOESN'T have plans. He would be more likely to plan a social event in advance than we would.

It's my 11 year old who is most impatient about being able to babysit, because he craves the responsibility (genuinely the responsibility and trust, not the "power"). Weird but true.