Anonymous wrote:Hi, At what age would you allow your teen to babysit a newborn? Thanks in advance for any opinions, trying to form ours.....

Never? Sorry, a newborn is too little, too much responsibility, too fragile.

Never.

I refused to leave my children as babies with teenagers. They just don’t have the judgment and shouldn’t be expected to take on so much responsibility.

Their brains (especially part responsible for making good decision) don’t finish developing until mid twenties.

I would not want my teen babysitting anyone younger than 5-6.

If they're a Duggar, then 15. Other than that, I wouldn't let a teen watch a child younger than 1 by themselves.

The teen across the street from us babysat our newborn a couple of times BUT her parents were home both times, it was part of the agreement. I wouldn’t let a teen watch a newborn in any other situation unless 18/19 and I knew they had newborn experience.

Anonymous wrote:I personally would only ever leave my newborn with a professional nanny or someone who has had her own kids, not a teen.

+1

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.

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.

Me too, I babysat a newborn preemie baby adopted via Operation Babylift from Vietnam and a 4 year old. I was in 7th or 8th grade. They lived across the street, but i don’t remember my Mom helping out.

As in a Mother's Helper? Where the teen woukd push the stroller around the block for an hour?

Is the newborn a sibling? A la Duggars?

I babysat newborns when I was a teen, but I don’t think I would hire one to watch my baby. I remember having a baby who would not stop crying. It was awful. I did everything I could to try to get her to stop crying. I eventually just put her in the crib and she fell asleep after about 20 mins of crying. It was awful.

My teen and tween? I would allow them to babysit a newborn only after serious lectures, CPR training and watching them hold, feed and change diapers on an infant for multiple days. They are responsible kids in general.

I would not allow any other teen to babysit my newborn.

A newborn? Maybe early 30s. Lol! There's no way I'd let a teen take care of a newborn alone.

A newborn ~ never

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.

Anonymous wrote:Hi, At what age would you allow your teen to babysit a newborn? Thanks in advance for any opinions, trying to form ours.....

You need to tell us more. Who is going to hire a teen to watch their newborn?

Anonymous wrote:Y'all realize that teens took care of newborns for several millennia in human history right?

People also died by 35 and child mortality was 50%.