Cops Ticket Mom for Letting Son, 14, Babysit His Pre-K Brother

this is the craziest bs ive ever heard. theres no way this poor lady should have been sited for anything. allover the world kids help their parents by watching the other kids while something else is accoplished. if we dont let our children be responsible at some point they will not grow up to very good adults, ya think? i do think, i think alot about this , because i have three teenagers and they need to be able to take care of things around here occasionally and i would hope that i have raised them well enough to let that happen. i feel really bad for this lady that this happened to because now she cant even make money to take care of them because her career is ruined and so what now?, they just gonna take her kids and raise them for her now . the next step will be sayin she dont provide for them and take them away from her. i tell ya what it just doesnt pay to have kids anymore, as soon as one pops out you are in danger of going to jail for some stupid shit that the law has dreamed up. i tell my kids to not have kids of their own because of this kind of shit. sad sad sad,,just sayin'

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I was babysitting (and doing it well after taking a class and preparing through training and creating a "professional babysitting kit") when I was 12.... This is outrageous as stated in the article, and so I am wondering if there is more to this story.

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Thank God our ancestors escaped the tyranny of England! How rediculous their laws are, and their socialist government is destroying their country.

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My mom went back to work when I was 12- and that was it, I was responsible for my 6 yr old brother. I was just enough ahead of him in school so that I could get to the bus stop to wait for him...and as soon as I turned 16 I had my drivers license and would drop him off and pick him up from elementary then junior high. I also used to watch him during snow days after I was 12. We were the "latch-key" keys of the 1980's that researchers thought werent getting enough attention or something like that. Well, in my house, there was no cable tv. I think we got an actual VCR when I was about 16, in 1991. We were allowed to play video games if our homework was done. To this day, I would rather read a good book than watch TV. My brother would tell you the same. So lets see- Will is now 31 and runs his own marketing and ad agency in Boston. I'm 36 and have a have 2 degrees- a BS in Psychology and a BSRN and I work in the Surgical ICU at Yale New Haven. We turned out just fine. So was it "criminal" for my parents to leave me in charge of my brother at age 12? I don't think so. I certainly became more mature than other kids my age. My friends had the same responsibilities I did. My mom was a crappy housewife anyway, LOL. She missed working; and her GOING back to work when I was 12 made it possible for me to go to college with no student loans, something I will always be grateful for.

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I started babysitting for the neighbors when I was 12, and by the time I was 16 I had a regular job after school and no longer had the time or the desire to babysit for my spending money. My oldest daughter started babysitting when she was 11, after taking babysitting and infant cpr classes at the local library. My 10 year old granddaughter is very mature and perfectly capable of being responsible enough to babysit for half an hour (though her little brothers are definitely NOT good candidates for sittees - they are a handful for an adult!)

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I agree with most of you that this is absolutely ridiculous. I cared for both of my younger sibling growing up. At a younger age and for a much longer time. Thats the way this society is changing and thats why we are getting so many young adults that can't do anything for themselves. What i don't agree with is blaming this on the government. These rules are like this due to childless people who think they know better and overbearing parents that complain and cause a stink over every little thing. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Unfortunately most of us REAL parents are too busy raising our own kids properly to worry about how everyone else raises theirs.

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This is crazy! I left three boys at home when they were 12, 14, and 16 while I did my shopping and worked part time. NY state only requires that they know who to contact in an emergency. If they get hurt or burn the house down then you get in trouble for leaving irresponsible children alone. My children are survivors now! They can cook, clean, control their impulses, and self regulate behaviors because if anything went wrong...they had to come shopping with mommy!

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My sister who is nine years older than myself, baby sat me often from the time I was 2 or 3 to the time I was 12 and could be left home alone. Of course our neighbors often knew when my parents were out and would occasionally check in on us and our aunt and uncle lived less than a half a mile away so we could always call them if we had problems. If my parents had to go shopping or wanted a night out we were home alone for a few hours at a time. Oddly enough, we both survived to become productive, reliable adults.

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It's getting ridiculous. Some adults aren't responsible enough to watch kids and yet they have them. When I was in school, childcare was part of the Home-economics class and it taught a 12-14 year old how to take care of a child. Like so many other valid classes from our early education system, this class has probably disappeared. Most young girls especially babysit to earn money since they cannot get a legit job and it has worked for generations.If a young girl hasn't reached the boy crazy stage, they are usually the best babysitters anyway. I know this because I was a very busy sitter between the age of 11 & 14. I also was the oldest of 6 kids so I had alot of experience. Kids are allowed to be too self absorbed today and they are given everything they want instead of earning it. You don't often read that a young babysitter providing a service harms the kids, it's usually a day care worker or the parents themselves who do the harm.

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Who and why was this mother reported? There must be more to the story. Did something happen that caused authorities to respond or was the teenager just upset over being asked to babysit.

We also have to remember that we are slowly being taken over by government controls in the US....what right do we have to get upset by what happened in this case in another country? The mother broke a law... She was dealt with according to her country's law. We should clean our own house before we tell someone else that their's is dirty.

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The English have been way over the top for years. They figure that if they act like this, then the rest of the world will respect them for their knowledge and wisdom. Hah! They don't know it, but the rest of the world are chastising them for their strictness which they have displayed for an even longer time.

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I was also baby sat by a 13 year old girl. I didn't realize that she was a kid, because at 4 years old, anybody who stands taller than you must be a grown up. The girl was my cousin, and today she is a 73 year old retired pediatrician, and I'm 64 years old.

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OMG tell me I read that wrong I was babysitting 3 kids and no not my siblings at age 12 and a live in sitter for 4 kids at age 15 I have a friend that made dinner plates for her teenage kids they should have been doing that themselfskids now a days can not do much except give there parents a hard time sure am glad my kids are grown but they will always need me why cause I am Mom they need to get with the times over there

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@veronica...If you were on wellfare you wouldn't have to sit on your a** all day with the kids, you'd be able to leave them at a daycare all day long at no cost to you and then you'd have the whole day to run around or lie around in ecstasy!

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We don't know the whole story. How did the cops get involved? A couple years ago a family on my street had DYFS called because their 10 year old son was left home alone for 3 hours every day after school. They were told that if he was found home alone again, they were going to take him away. I wasn't left home alone until I was 14 and my two girls ages 12 and 15 are never home alone for more than 15 minutes at a time. You just never know what could happen.

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It is a vicious circle. The more we prolong childhood the longer the young remain children. Pretty soon we will have 26 year olds living in our basements. What ever happened to getting a job at 15 to buy our first used (junky) car at 16?

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I was babysitting my younger brothers (10 and 6) when I was 12, and babysitting for money when I was 14.

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If she was cautioned, there would be some other reason.

There IS NO LAW saying that the babysitter needs to be over 16.

Do your own research and stop believing this article that is so inaccurate it would put fox news to shame,

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I was babysitting five little girls, when I was 12 years old! What did it do for me? It created a responsible adult. I am so annoyed by the 33 and unders who "whine" about how much time it takes out of their day to be a parent! What did they think??

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