Posted on 10/16/2025 4:58:21 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Pennsylvania’s “Reasonable Independence for Children” bill pushes back on overzealous child neglect laws.
When single mom of two and home health aide Alice (a pseudonym) needed to run a brief errand, she tasked her 13-year-old brother (whom she is also the caretaker for) with babysitting her nearly 1-year-old child. For this, she was placed on the state's child abuse registry.
Mariel Mussack, an attorney with Community Legal Services, told Alice's story during testimony before the Pennsylvania House Children and Youth Committee in favor of H.B. 1873—known as Reasonable Independence for Children—on October 6. Similar bills have been passed in 11 states to date, clarifying that neglect is when a parent puts their child in obvious, serious danger, not anytime they simply take their eyes off of them.
As in most of the other states, the Pennsylvania bill has bipartisan sponsors: Rep. Jeanne McNeill (D–Whitehall), who is majority chair of the committee, Rep. Rick Krajewski (D–Philadelphia), and Rep. David Zimmerman (R–Reinholds). Krajewski opened the hearing by noting that he'd grown up with a single mom who worked two or three jobs, and therefore, he had to get himself to school and help care for his younger sister. "It really does chill me to think that, in the eyes of our state statutes, that could be seen as neglect," Krajewski said.
Zimmerman recalled growing up on a farm. "We'd be gone all day," he said. "And we really would look out for each other."
Peter Gray, a research professor of developmental psychology at Boston College and a co-founder of Let Grow, a nonprofit fighting for childhood independence, testified that an independent childhood helps inoculate kids against despair.
"Over the last 60 years, we've seen a gradual but overall huge decline in children's opportunities to play, roam, and generally engage in activities independent..."
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
This was common when I grew up.
Same here. I use to baby sit my cousins at that age. They were little but not infants.
13? Try 11
When I was 14 I was babysitting pretty much every weekend. Made I think 25 cents an hour.
My grandma once hired an 10 year old girl to babysit me...when I was 11 😩. How humiliating that was.
Ok thats crazy. The mom was perfectly fine doing this.
Sounds crazy to me.
But it would,I think, depend upon how smart and good-natured the kids are. Iff tthe little kid was a hellion and big one dumb, outcome could be pretty bad.
I was 12/13 in 8th grade. Every morning I would hop on the bus and go to a babysitting job. The little girl was in second grade. I would feed her breakfast, walk her to school, back home for lunch and back to school and finally home at the end of the day. Both parents worked. I got $10 a week, lunch and bus fare. This was in ‘56/’57.
You did all that while you also went to school?
Schools must have been close together.
When did you eat?
I took Algebra in the 8th grade so
I have no illusions what 12 year
olds can learn, and do.
I was also apprenticing as a
wood boat builder.
Seems like you were learning how
to be a good mother.
The Red Cross provides a babysitting course for ages 11-15. I wish I could remember the old work law age for babysitting and newspaper delivery as the ages for that was younger than for other part time jobs.
Should have specified Pennsylvania in my above post.
It was common for kids to be grown up much earler, responsible and trustworthy. The problems we had were solved with a basketball, football or a bat and ball. We played all sports, and rode our bikes in groups. My sister babysit us, and my older brother was working in a grocery store when he was 13. I worked with him when I turned 12. Plus we had a daytime paper route, and a weekend paper delivery at 3 AM.
Life man, and the money we garnered from the paper route went into the family kitty. We got to keep $1.00 and tips. Mom had 7 kids, and the paper route was handed down until the youngest girls gave it up.
When I got my first real job as a fry cook, my parents gave me a choice. Pay them $25 a week rent, and get out of chores. Or do chores. I chose chores, making $1.60 an hour did make much of a paycheck.
They used to have schools side by side, Elementary and Jr High and High Schools were very close together. Then, administrators got greedy, wanting new buildings, fancier. BITD, there was no AC, and the heat was not all that hot.
I delivered newspapers when I was 11, although it was just before I turned 12. It got me able to speak with adults, including asking them for money. I also got some lawn and landscaping type jobs later, when I was 14/15, because the neighbors knew me. One weekend night, when the family I worked for was in a pinch, I finished up doing the yard work in the early evening, went home, took a shower, and went back to babysit their kids.
There is a documentary about the Donner Party that was made some 20 years ago or so. I used to show it to my 7th graders before Christmas, because there’s a lot of snow involved. Anyway, the second or third rescue mission reached the group, but the snow was so deep that the adults had to leave kids behind. Eight-year-old Patty Reed, was told to take care of her three year old brother.
A few weeks later another rescue mission came back and the two were still alive. One reason I showed it to my students was to instill in them the idea that they all had the potential to be much more competent than they or the adults around them believed.
Me too. Firstborn of five kids. I was often left in charge of my siblings starting at 11. It freed Mom up to run errands and stuff while Dad was at work.
When I was 13, I got PAID to babysit.
Who ratted on the Mom?
If only he had asked to change his sex. That would have been OK.
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