In summary, leaving your older children`s siblings as guardians is largely a case-by-case situation. Leaving a younger teen with an older child will be much easier for the teen to deal with than leaving a nine-year-old with a three-year-old, which should be avoided as there are many more safety precautions to consider. Similarly, if your 12-year-old feels safe to babysit their eight-year-old brother, this may be something you`re exploring. It could be a very different experience than leaving them at home with three younger children. Instead, the laws contain vague statements that parents should make “reasonable arrangements” for the custody and supervision of their children. But this is usually open to parental interpretation. Child care rules and regulations can be completely confusing, especially when it comes to leaving children home alone or caring for younger siblings. We`ll help you determine if your child is old enough to start babysitting and how to make sure they stay safe when they do. The easiest first step in determining how safe your teen is to play the role of babysitter is to sit down and talk to them about it. Ask them if they would feel safe in different situations when there is no adult around, and you`ll have a good idea of how they might behave and how mature they would be when it comes to taking on the job of babysitter.
The American Red Cross offers childcare and childcare classes to prepare course participants with universal skills and techniques that every babysitter should have. These courses are available online for those who prefer to study as they please or in a personal classroom with access to highly qualified teachers and classroom activities. These courses include basic care for infants and children, basic first aid, child behaviour, emergency protocols, leadership and age-appropriate activities. The Red Cross also offers CPR/AED first aid and certification courses. Some also have laws that dictate the age at which a child can be left alone without a babysitter. Make sure you know and understand your state law and all local ordinances. As children, especially girls, get older, they want to earn extra money by babysitting. Do you know the legal babysitting age in Kentucky and Indiana? While there are a number of benefits to letting an older sibling babysit your youngest children, you may be wondering if it`s possible to know at what age a child can babysit overnight or for long periods of time, and also if it`s a plausible option for you. Once you decide to leave your older child with siblings, make sure they have taken child care and CPR classes through the American Red Cross. As parents, it is up to our own judgment, not the age of the child.
For some, it may be a financial consideration, for example, if a single parent has to work. Working at night as a caregiver, nurse, supermarket worker is a job that many do, and there is a premium payment for night work that can make the difference from survival to prosperity for some families. In this case, you may decide that your older teens can take care of younger siblings. Some children are mature enough to start babysitting as early as age 12 or 13. Others would be better off waiting until they are older. Our best advice for parents when leaving their children as babysitters is to go gradually. Test that you let your child guard while you`re in another room to assess how they handle the experience first, and you can continue from there. You may want to leave the kids alone while you visit a neighbor for coffee so you`re not far away if they need your help. After that, you and your teenage babysitter will feel much more confident about babysitting while you`re further away from home or traveling for extended periods of time. As a busy parent, you may find yourself in situations where you have to leave your children alone at home. Since finding a babysitter isn`t always a viable option, you can leave the responsibility to your older child. However, one question most parents ask themselves is at what age a child can stay home alone with a sibling.
An 11 or 12 year old may be willing to babysit in the afternoon or evening. But babysitting at night is a very different situation, for which they are not quite ready in terms of maturity. Most states don`t have laws setting an age requirement for child custody, and only some have guidelines on how old a child is before being left home alone. Diese Richtlinien reichen von sechs bis 14 Jahren. Hier ist eine Liste von Staaten mit dieser Richtlinie: Colorado: 12*, Delaware: 12*, Georgia: 8*, Illinois: 14, Kansas: 6*, Maryland: 8, Michigan: 11*, Mississippi: 12*, Nebraska: 7*, New Mexico: 10*, North Carolina: 8, North Dakota: 9*, Oregon: 10*, Tennessee: 10*, and Washington: 10*.