13yo boy babysitting 5yo girl?

[SweetPotato]

How would you feel about this? If he has taken a safe-sitter/child cpr class, you know the parents very well, and he's a very sweet, responsible kid whom your daughter adores? Would the gender difference alone affect your comfort level with the idea?

[Multimomma]

It wouldn't bother me...my son was 14yo when he starting babysitting 2yo and up. He's fifteen now and sits 18 months old and up...can do diapers and rocking to sleep.

[AFWife]

For me? Not one bit. I'd be fine with it in the circumstances you described.

[dakotablue]

If I knew the child very well then I would be comfortable with that particular child regardless of the sex of either child.

But, around here 13 is too young to be left alone, it would be more of a mothers helper type situation.

I think if you know the child yourself, not based on others 'oh he's great', but then again I think I'd feel the same way about any female as well.

[Alyantavid]

If I knew the boy extremely well I would. But we don't tend to let many people watch our kids, so I'd have to have alot of trust in him.

The gender thing wouldn't bother me so much.

[Attached2Elijah]

Depends on his maturity level. My 13 year old step son would NOT be able to watch my 4 year old... I don't trust him. He's not NEARLY responsible enough. The gender would not matter to me one bit as long as he was mature enough.

My step-daughter, at 13, though was a different story. She's always been VERY mature for her age and incredibly responsible, especially with little ones. I would have and DID trust her completely with the little ones on many occasions.

He sounds like a mature kid to have taken the classes and such, I would do it.

[ChetMC]

Agree

For me, it would be a matter of maturity, not gender.

Some 13 year olds are very capable of babysitting a five year old, others can hardly be left to take care of themselves for an hour.

[limabean]

Originally Posted by ChetMC

For me, it would be a matter of maturity, not gender.

Same here. The only people who have watched our kids so far are their grandparents and aunts, so when we start using teenage babysitters it probably won't be a 13-year-old. Maybe once our kids are a little older and we get more comfortable with the idea of non-family babysitters, but for now that'd be too young for us to be okay with the idea.

But since you know this kid and are presumably okay with his age and comfortable with teen sitters, it sounds like it'll be fine.

[meemee]

i'd feel great.

its a boy your dd ADORES.

you know him.

i assume he is a mature 13.

wish we had one.

i know for my dd age difference makes a huge difference. a teenage child would be a much better baby sitter than an adult for the things seh would like to do. she is more open to listening from a teenager than an adult.

[beebalmmama]

I think it's more a maturity issue too. We had a 13 yr old girl babysitting our almost 4 yr old ds. She was great! She had a lot more enthusiasm and interest in him than any of the 16 yr old babysitters he'd had.

Although we only felt comfortable with it in that her parents were home and didn't live too far away, in case she needed someone to call in an emergency.

[Calee]

It would depend.

The gender would have nothing to do with it, at this age, for me.

I know some 13 year old that would panic in an emergency, etc. I would be more wary of his age than his gender.

I would want to be not gone long and not too far away, in case I needed to come home.

[CherryBombMama]

i agree with everyone that its more about maturity than gender. but personally for me, i would never leave my kids with anyone under 16. but im kinda paranoid with things like that. i still see 13 y/os as "kids" ...

[Marissamom]

I don't see any issue with it as long as he's mature enough to handle him and they get along. 5 year olds , in my opinion, are really easy to babysit (you just have to play with them, and maybe feed them, depending on the situation), so I have no problem trusting a mature teenager with one as long as they know what to do in an emergency. and I don't see any issue with the gender difference. we let girls babysit boys all the time and don't even give it a second thought.

[Ornery]

My oldest son started babysitting at 13. For us and for our neighbors. However, if it was for our neighbors, he only did it when we were home and if it was for us, it was only when our neighbors were home. That way, if there was an emergency, he had an adult close by to help out. At 15, I still make sure there is an adult available to call in an emergency if he is going to babysit for us for over an hour.

[treeoflife3]

the gender thing bothers me as much as it bothers me to have a 13 year old girl watch a 5 year old boy. I don't assume that because he is male, this means there is going to be a... problem anymore than I assume that because it is a girl, there were be issues with her watching a boy.

as PP said, maturity is the only factor here. I would let a 13 year old boy babysit my 5 year old daughter assuming I know the boy and trust his ability to handle things that might come up as a babysitter and to adhere to my rules and expectations (as much as any babysitter would... I'm not obsessed about letting my kid stay up 15 minutes later hehe)

these are the same rules I have for anyone of any gender or age babysitting my daughter at any age under the age where she no longer needs a sitter. This is also why only four separate people have every watched my child with only two being trusted to do so at bedtime/mealtimes.

[EdnaMarie]

I'd be okay with it, of course depending on the teen, but supposing he's as responsible as he seems to be (cpr course etc.) then sure.

The gender difference is not an issue. That would only come up if my child had survived sexual abuse or for some other reason was uncomfortable with it herself.

[texmati]

OK, i'll bite.

on paper, I admit it made me blink twice. Right after that though, I remembered that my brother has 'nannied' for ds, and I can think of 4-5 boys off the top of my head that I would be comfortable leaving DS with.

[rightkindofme]

One more maturity not gender person. I was babysitting at 11 (I shouldn't have been... I totally wasn't ready) so the idea of a 13 year old doing it doesn't phase me. By 13 I was being left with my niece and nephew for a whole weekend. We did fine. (Now, the fact that we were left alone because my sister wanted to go party is a whole different matter.)

[Bluegoat]

Well, I've had really good luck with sitters that age. They are generally really big on proving that they are responsible, and not so into some of the stupid stuff older teens are into. And they can still have a lot of fun playing with little kids too.

[Lisa1970]

13 yr olds are old enough to babysit. I would not not hire him just based on gender. I would, however, want to know him quite well, as I would want to know any babysitter quite well. My son babysits for us. He does not like it I don't think. But, he likes money and wants a job so if you asked him...I am sure he would do it. But my daughter would be the more nuturing babysitter.