I have kids with a 10 year age gap. Once he was 12 he started doing babysitting of the 2 year old. He knew how to change diapers and was early to puberty so picks the toddler up with ease. He also knows how to use a phone and has for many years.

Depends on many factors.

How much babysitting experience does your kid have? How old a newborn? (Difference between a two week old and a 12 week old). How much experience does your kid have with newborns? What are the circumstances of the babysitting?

A kid with a ton of babysitting experience who has also been a mother's helper to this particular newborn, who is now 12 weeks old and a great sleeper, the parents want to go and get a drink after they put the baby down at 7pm, they're going to a restaurant four blocks away? I'd let my 13 year old sit with the sleeping baby.

If we go with a more typical arrangement, 2-3 hours of babysitting, typical newborn, between 1 and 3 months old - I'd say a minimum of two year's babysitting experience including at least one infant, and having served as mother's helper with this particular newborn on at least three separate occasions. Plus having spent significant time with at least one other newborn. And they'd have to be very responsible. So the bare minimum is probably 15 years old.

An actual neonate? Never unless they’d spent a lot of time getting the basics of tiny infant care from the parents (and she likes kids and has lots of babysitting experience for preschool and up.)

I wouldn’t. I let my teen neighbor watch my 5yo. I have a 6yo and I would leave her with teen sitter.

Never a newborn.

I know I'll sound crazy, but I've never allowed my teens to babysit. Not even their younger siblings. I don't want to put that responsibility on them if something should happen.

A cousin of mine was babysitting her younger siblings when something tragic happened to one of them. None of them have ever fully recovered. It's a sad situation and having seen that growing up, I knew I would never put my kids in that position.

Anonymous wrote:No teen should be responsible for a newborn. Hire a nanny who wants to make extra money. Must have lots of experience with newborns.

Agree. It's too much to put on your teen.

No teen should be responsible for a newborn. Hire a nanny who wants to make extra money. Must have lots of experience with newborns.

An actual newborn? Never. Not a fan of teenage sitters for older infants and toddlers either- but depends on the context. We used a wonderful neighborhood teen sometimes when our twins were older infants/toddlers, but only after bedtime or for very short periods <2hrs (for example, if I had a dentist appt or similar and DH couldn’t cover- paid teen well despite the short amount of time). We used an adult sitter for anything more than that.

When you say newborn you’re talking > 2 months, right? Before that I wouldn’t allow anybody to babysit.

One of my kids is just really mature and an excellent caregiver. She is 14 and I know she would do a great job, and she probably would have done a great job at age 12. My other kid…maybe 17. He’s just a little spacey. He adores babies though.

Basically this depends a ton on the teenager.

I would say 16 if the teen has a lot of experience with young babies.

I wouldn't let my 15 year old babysit children younger than 6 months but that is mostly because they don't have any experience with babies.

I definitely babysat newborns when I was 14 but I had a baby sister so I knew how to care for young babies.

I know a lot of grown men, including fathers, who could not be trusted with a newborn.

DD babysat for a 6 month old and 3 year old at age 14. She has done it multiple times and not had a problem. It might be babysitter and baby dependent.

Anonymous wrote:

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%.

Well no that's now how life expectancy works. The second part, yes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to babysit newborns when I was a teen. I remember having a baby who would not stop crying no matter what I did. I ended up just putting her in the crib and standing there staring at her. I would never ever have done anything harmful to her but I had no idea what to do (and no way to get in contact with the parents).

Thing is, that’s always a safe decision. Better to put the baby in a safe place and take a breather than to get frustrated.

For sure. But I didn’t really know what else to do. Now I would try shushing her, swaddling, taking her temp to see if she was sick, etc. Back then, I changed her diaper, fed her, and had no idea what to try. Just no experience.

I would never leave my baby with a teen unless it were an emergency. And I wouldn’t want my teen to babysit a baby. Toddlers and up.

Same