Babysitting Age
What is the Recommended Babysitting Age?
One of the questions that many parents who seek child-care support worry about is the right babysitting age. Having a clear answer on this will help many parents in figuring out how to plan for an evening out or a parent-teacher meeting. There may be plenty of neighborhood teenagers available for the job and it may be harder to coordinate with an adult baby sitter from outside the immediate area, and it is also likely that a teenager will charge less for the same amount of time.
The truth is that there is no straightforward answer to this question. It depends on where you live. Some states have a mandated minimum of 13 years as the babysitting age but there are many states that have no rule in place and leave it to the discretion of parents. The reason some states do not have a minimum age is that at best it is only a guideline. Even where the state mandates 13 years as the minimum babysitting age parents have to take several things into consideration before deciding on a babysitter.
The most important consideration is the age of the child or children who need a care-giver. It is not a good idea to leave an infant or even toddler with a teenager because there are situations with infants that may need extra patience and care that may not come easily or naturally to many young people. There is also a greater risk of accidents or physical injuries if the child is at a crawling or exploring stage and a teenager may not be equipped to deal with such emergencies. A young baby may also tend to put things in his or her mouth or eat improperly and this can lead to choking hazards. A teenager who is trained in CPR and first-aid can be equipped to deal with this but you also have to assess the mental maturity of the teenager to know if the person can handle stressful situations.
This then becomes the second important consideration - assessing the personality and maturity of the prospective babysitter. There are very young children who are mature and responsible and older teenagers who are less responsible. In this sense age is just a number and a parent is better-off making a case-by-case judgment rather than following a blanket rule on babysitting age. There are families that use the older sibling as a babysitter even when they are not quite 13 because it is convenient. While this is tempting, it is important to know whether the babysitter is really capable of handling all situations that may arise in the absence of parents or other adults. The babysitter should ideally be calm and mature and should be able to ask for help as soon as it is needed. While it is hard to predict exactly how a person will react in stress, a detailed conversation with a babysitter will give you a fairly clear idea of their capabilities. A young adult who converses clearly and answers questions with poise is likely to be competent. A distracted teenager who seems preoccupied with their cell phone or iPod is probably not going to be a focused babysitter. In this assessment of personality age is less a factor than the overall bearing and capability of the person.
Whatever the age of the babysitter you use it may be worth making sure that they are qualified to be babysitters. There are many local community departments that offer babysitting courses that reach important life skills such as CPR and first-aid. A teenager, or even an adult, should go through these courses before babysitting as it will give them valuable insight on how to deal with emergencies. Another indicator of preparedness can be finding out how long the teenager has been babysitting. Someone who has done if for a few years, either as a babysitter or as an older sibling helping out the family, is likely to anticipate and handle different issues that come up with different age groups. The experience may even help them ward-off potential problems such as bed-time or fights between siblings.
You can use 13 as a broad guideline for determining babysitting age but you should ultimately base your judgment on the actual babysitter you are using and go with someone who inspires confidence in you and shows that they can relate to your child or children.