When I was 12 (54 years ago), the mother and father across the street went to New Mexico for a week. I stayed at their house and watched their 4 kids (10, 8, 6,and 3), cooked, did the laundry, supervised the kids in the pool.
My mother was across the street in case I needed anything (I didn’t).
It seems crazy now - especially supervising the kids in the pool - and I feel fortunate that there wasn’t any kind of medical emergency.
Yep—I was babysitting my sister and BIL’s baby by age 12, and then with the second one as well by age 14—though only for a day or evening.
Other family were in nearby houses, as with your situation, but still, that was considered normal and I was fine.
Who stayed with the children at night?