Babysit teenagers

[Simo Ita]

Hi there,

Can the verb "babysit" be used with the word "teenagers"? If not, which verb should I use?

I was babysitting two teenagers.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Uncle Jack]

Yes it can. You can babysit almost anything. Children. Pets. House plants.

Everyone realises that the word does not really suit looking after older children, and some people may try to avoid it for this reason (and other people joke about it). There isn't another similar word I can think of, so an expression like "looking after" would be used instead.

 

[Rover_KE]

For older children, in BE you can mind them or keep an eye on them; in AE you can watch them.

 

[Edinburgher]

Can the verb "babysit" be used with the word "teenagers"? If not, which verb should I use?

There is no language reason why not, but in real life it's pretty unlikely. Teenagers are responsible enough (well, some of them are, and of course I was) to act as babysitters, so they don't really need to be babysat.

 

[LVRBC]

If you want to avoid insulting the teenagers, you could say "I was supervising two teenagers while their parents were gone." (In US-English, we usually say house-sit rather than baby-sit a house, so I am not sure that you can baby-sit almost anything.)