12 and 13 yearold babysitting?

[linwell]

We are going on Carnival Sensation in December and wanted to know if our 12 and 13 year old could go to the babysitting service that starts at 10:30?

[mommiejaxx]

Not sure about Sensation but on the Inspiration they said there was no babysitting for the 12 year olds because I asked for mine. There were so few kids onboard that I probably could have asked the supervisor and let her stay in the kids club area after 10 but she didn't want to.

[solesman]

We are going on Carnival Sensation in December and wanted to know if our 12 and 13 year old could go to the babysitting service that starts at 10:30?

 

Just curious, have you considered letting them stay in the room by themselves for a couple of hours?

[klauer]

I thought the same -- I was babysitting younger kids when I was that age.

[Uncle Fester]

We are going on Carnival Sensation in December and wanted to know if our 12 and 13 year old could go to the babysitting service that starts at 10:30?

 

The would be in Circle C, and not Camp Carnival. Circle C is pretty much a teen group for 12 to 14 year olds with activities going until midnight in most cases. This is not a baby sitting service though since the kids can come and leave as they like.

 

With that being said, if you could talk the director into letting the 12 year old into the 9 to 11 year old group, then they would take him or her into the late night party. There is no guarantee though that they will let him or her move down. As for the older one, I've never heard of Carnival moving down a person that is a few years above the age cut off.

[mommiejaxx]

We did let our 12 year old stay in the room by herself evey evening for about an hour. I was uncomfortable with the idea at first but once we were onboard we found we didn't really have a problem with it. It appeared very safe and our daughter is very responsible. We would just walk around or go to the shop or casino or something. The longest time we were gone was an hour but there was no problem..

[gazingm42]

I would allow her/him to stay about a hour or 2. But depends on your kids

which you know best. If you feel like it may be a issue. Use the ships phone

to call the room a time or two.

[greatdanemom]

I would put him/her in the ship's young teen program with instructions that they are not to leave until I return. I would feel safer having them with a group activity rather than alone in a cabin. They're pretty defenseless in a situation like that. I may be wrong but I believe there is safety in numbers, especially at that age. Maybe my brain is fried after raising 6 teens. :eek:

[Uncle Fester]

I would put him/her in the ship's young teen program with instructions that they are not to leave until I return. I would feel safer having them with a group activity rather than alone in a cabin. They're pretty defenseless in a situation like that. I may be wrong but I believe there is safety in numbers, especially at that age. Maybe my brain is fried after raising 6 teens. :eek:

 

That's a good idea, but one thing you'll need to be careful of is some of the cruise lines will cancel a scheduled teen event if not enough people show up.

[linwell]

Thank you so much for the suggestions and responses. I never really thought about leaving them alone (wasn't sure how the cruiseline felt about this) They are both very responsible so depending on how they feel I may be ok leaving them for 1 hour. But if the activities last until around 12:00 then that should be fine. I don't plan on being out late...:)

[Cruisin' Chick]

Usually the kid sitting consists of the younger kids watching a movie or playing on the gym equipment, and the slighter older than that playing video games. Your 12 yr old may feel a bit too old to be in that group.

 

On our last cruise, my girl was 8 and when we left her there one night (New Years Eve) after 10pm, she was ticked off at us because the planned 8-12 and teens activity scheduled then was cancelled. At least she likes to listen to music and the shows so she'll go with us.

[Travelitis]

The cruiseline lets them sign themselves in and out at 10 yrs. - no parent permission needed, so being on their own in a cabin at 12 and 13 is not an issue. We let our 2 oldest (12 and 10) who were very responsible use the buddy system and go get pizza and ice cream. They had orders not to step out on deck after dark but to stick to inside routes. The exception was to play ping pong or hang out by the pool. Sometimes the older kids had night swims.