January 25th, 2019 / 0 Comments

For Christmas this year our 13-year-old daughter asked us to help her find babysitting jobs. I ask you, “What teenager ASKS for work?”
This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to us. She started inquiring when she was 12 years old. We dodged the conversation by saying she had to take a formal babysitting class where she could learn the basics of caring for a baby or young child and CPR. Surely that would derail this process. NO! She searched online and found the local American Red Cross Babysitting Course last summer and paid for it with her own money.
Okay, our next rule. You must be 13 before you can babysit. Surely she would forget this crazy notion in 6 months. Her life is busy. She plays sports. She is super social and has a boatload of friends with activities all the time. I thought this would be forgotten when school started. She will be more focused on becoming an official teenager, right?
Little did we know how strong the entrepreneurial spirit could be.
Her birthday is very close to Christmas, so shortly after she joined the teen ranks, we got the Christmas request. And here we are again, in new parenting territory. Going around to our friends asking if our kid can take care of their kid. As with most things, our daughter has to jump through a few more hoops than most. I suppose it is the price of having a mother as a pediatrician. It’s like having a teacher for a mom (that was me) plus 100. I’ve already mentioned the requirement for CPR training and taking a formal babysitting class.
Here are a few other things on our babysitting readiness checklist:
Posts from Ivor Horn, MD, MPH
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Debunking old wives’ tales: part two
Talking to your teen about sex
When your teen wants to babysit