Recovering Baby-Sitting Culture

In a recent edition of the Kids Today online newsletter, correspondent Anna North asked, “What do we lose when teens don’t babysit?” In her article, North tells us how the teenage baby-sitting culture has changed over the years, with fewer and fewer teens actually baby-sitting, and fewer and fewer parents hiring teen baby-sitters. With a smaller amount of teens engaging in this once widespread rite of passage, North argues that kids are missing out on a formative experience that can build a teenager’s confidence level as they learn to exercise responsibility. Kids who babysit others are given the opportunity to learn social skills, they learn to deal with problems, and they develop in their critical-thinking abilities. In a day-and-age when kids are tethered to their phones, and phones are even used as baby-sitters, why not encourage your kids to take a baby-sitting course and take on the baby-sitting responsibility. This is one more way to nurture our kids into a healthy adulthood.