at what age would you allow your teen to babysit a newborn?

[Anonymous]

Never.

A sleeping newborn can easily be awake in a minute and start screaming. A frustrated teen can easily be triggered by the incessant crying and make dumb choices in moments of anger and frustration - shaking, screaming, or worse hitting

[Anonymous]

I definitely babysit for my neighbor’s 2-3 month old when I was 14 or 15 years old. I remember thinking, what the hell am I doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I babysat for a 2 year old, a 4 year old and a 10 day old baby when I was 12. This was in 1973. Thank goodness nothing happened, the baby just slept.

I took care of a 6 mo old and a 3 yo every day for a summer when I was 12. I can't believe someone hired me to do this! Everyone survived.

Yeah, my mom has similar stories -- she started babysitting at 11 for neighbor kids, including babies, in the 1970s. One factor that is relevant here is that at least in her neighborhood, there were many SAHMs who were around and at home at the time. So if she had trouble she could call Mrs. So-and-so at the next house over.

[Anonymous]

Never.

Also would not want my adult brother watching a newborn.

Older baby, different story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never.

A sleeping newborn can easily be awake in a minute and start screaming. A frustrated teen can easily be triggered by the incessant crying and make dumb choices in moments of anger and frustration - shaking, screaming, or worse hitting

Shaking is worse than hitting.

[Anonymous]

Never for my teen.

Too many possibilities for things to go wrong. I'm sure it would be fine, but I wouldn't be comfortable with it.

[Anonymous]

I really care for children

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teens and babies do not mix. If the teen can't handle the babies crying they may throw the baby. I've heard it happen.

omg. My 16 year old is not going to throw any babies. She might call me but I can guarantee that she won’t be tossing babies around.

[Anonymous]

I would start her out as a mother’s helper

[Anonymous]

My 16 year old has been babysitting for a family who had a 6 year old for a few years.

Recently they had a new baby, and my 16 year old has gone over there several times as a mothers helper type situation while the mother is home. That has included stuff like the mom driving the older kid to a drop off birthday party and leaving the 4 month old home for 15-20 minutes with my teen.

[Anonymous]

My teen would never want to take care of a newborn so....

[Anonymous]

There are some younger teens who have been caring for siblings for years, but for my own teen, I would allow this for her now - she’s 16, mature and has babysitting experience.

[Anonymous]

Newborn? Never. 3 months and older, maybe at 16, depending on experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never a newborn. When my aunt was 20 and a nursing student, she and a fellow nurse had night duty in the maternity ward nursery. It was not a NICU or anything. This was in the 1960s. Women and babies without any complications regularly stayed 4 or more days before being discharged. One night, a baby died in its little bassinet. They only noticed because all of the babies were bottle fed on a schedule and if still sleeping were flicked on their heels.

How is that their fault?

[Anonymous]

When DD was a newborn we paid the 16yo across the street to babysit her but with the agreement that one of her parents were home. We are close to the family and knew a parent would come and help their kid if she got overwhelmed with ours.
DD is 11 now and I would let her be a mother helper in a year I or two if she wanted to… if she got newborn experience doing that I’d probably be ok with it at 15ish