Babysitting jobs for teens in Sydney (2026)

Most babysitting in Sydney is done by people under 25, and a good share of it by people still at school. Nobody writes for them. The guides that exist are written for adults with a car and a Working With Children Check, and they skip the questions a 16-year-old actually has: whether it is allowed, who will hire someone they do not know, how to get home at midnight, and what to tell their own parents. This is that guide. It is not legal advice, and everything in it is free to do.

How old do you have to be to babysit?

There is no law in NSW that sets a minimum age for babysitting. The decision belongs to the parents who leave their child with you, and the legal responsibility stays with them. Some families are comfortable with a 14-year-old from down the street for an hour after school. Most will not leave a baby with anyone under about 16, and they pay more for someone who can drive. Sixteen is the age it goes from a favour to a job, and it is the youngest age you can list a profile on this site.

The age that does matter in law is 18. That is when NSW will issue you a Working With Children Check, and it is the age at which the Check scheme starts applying to you at all. Before then you are legally a child yourself, which is exactly why the scheme leaves you out. It is not a gap you need to explain to anyone: casual babysitting arranged privately with a family does not need a Check at any age, and families hiring a teenager know that. They go on who you are, who they know in common, and how the first evening goes.

If you are 13 or 14 and asking, the honest answer is that a family who already knows you may well ask you to mind a school-aged child for an hour or two while they are close by. That is babysitting, and it is where a lot of 16-year-olds got their start. Nobody will hire a stranger at 13, and the site does not list under-16s, so the two years in between are for building up the family and neighbour jobs that turn into references.

Outside NSW the age rules on the check change, and the Northern Territory issues its clearance from 15. The state-by-state table in our guide to becoming a babysitter has each one.

Can a 12-year-old babysit? The ages people ask about

The questions families and younger teenagers actually search are more specific than "how old", and each has a different answer.

What is the legal age to babysit in Australia?

There is none. No state or territory sets a minimum age for babysitting. In NSW and Victoria the check scheme does not apply to anyone under 18 at all, the Northern Territory issues its clearance from 15, and the other states vary, but none of that is a babysitting age. The one law that comes close is Queensland's, which makes it an offence to leave a child under 12 without supervision for an unreasonable time, and it says nothing about how old the person supervising has to be. The age is set by the family, and the responsibility stays with them.

Can a 12-year-old babysit?

Legally nothing stops it. In practice a 12-year-old minds a younger sibling, or a neighbour's school-aged child, for an hour or two while a parent is close by and reachable. Nobody hires a 12-year-old they do not know, and no site lists one; this one starts at 16. If you are 12 and asking, the answer is the one above for 13- and 14-year-olds: the families who know you, short jobs, daylight, and a parent a phone call away.

Can a 13-year-old watch a 2-year-old?

A two-year-old is the hardest age to mind: no longer a baby who stays where it is put, not yet old enough to be reasoned with, and quick. Most families would not leave one with a 13-year-old for an evening, and most 13-year-olds should not say yes to it. A sibling for half an hour while a parent is in the garden is different, and it is how a lot of people learned.

Can a 14-year-old babysit a 7-year-old overnight?

No. An overnight means being the only person responsible in the house for twelve hours, awake for any of them, and able to deal with a fever, a nightmare or a knock at the door. That is an adult's job at any rate of pay, and no family that has thought about it asks a 14-year-old to do it. Overnights come later, at 16 or 17 with families you know well, and our rates guide sets out how they are usually priced.

Where the jobs come from at 16

Your first three jobs will come from people who already know you, or who know your parents. That is not a consolation prize. It is how nearly every babysitter in Sydney started, at any age, because a family's first question about a stranger is "who can vouch for them", and at 16 the people who can are the ones who watched you grow up.

So ask them. Not "let me know if you ever need someone", which nobody remembers, but a message to the families you know with kids, naming the nights you are free: "I'm doing babysitting this year, I can do Friday and Saturday nights and school holidays, $25 an hour." A family with a six-year-old and no regular babysitter will reply to that within a day.

The second wave is the school community. Parents of younger children at your school, or at a primary school your family has a link to, are short of babysitters and already trust the school. A note in a class group chat from your parent, or a word at pickup, lands better than any advertisement. Sports clubs, a church or community group, and your parents' workplaces work the same way.

After that comes the wider net. Families in Sydney who need a babysitter this Saturday post in local parents' groups and on this site, and they read profiles. Yours should say your age, your suburb, your rate, what you have actually done (younger siblings and cousins count, with ages), and name two people they can ring. Our babysitter resume guide covers how to write that up when you have no paid work to list yet. The open ads near you are in babysitting jobs in Sydney.

The hours a teenager can actually sell

Being at school takes weekday daytimes off the table, and that is where most nanny work sits. What is left is exactly the hours families struggle to fill.

Friday and Saturday evenings are the babysitting hours. Parents cannot cover them themselves, adult babysitters with weekend jobs often cannot either, and a 16-year-old who is reliably free on Saturday night has an advantage over most of the market. The same goes for Sunday afternoons.

School holidays are the other one, and it is the one most teenagers miss. Working parents have to cover about twelve weeks a year when school is out, holiday programs are expensive and book out, and a teenager with the same holidays as their kids is the obvious answer. Three days a week in the July holidays with one family is more work than a term of scattered Friday nights, and it is the kind of job that becomes a regular.

Regulars are the goal. A family who books you every second Saturday knows the routine, knows your rate, and asks you before they ask anyone else. Two regular families and one extra night a fortnight is a steadier income than any amount of hunting. It is also what a reference is: a family who can say you came back nine times.

What to charge at 16

Casual babysitting in Sydney in 2026 mostly settles between $25 and $40 an hour. A 16-year-old starting out with school-aged children sits at the bottom of that, $25 to $30, and it moves up with experience faster than most people expect. It is the same advice we give families paying a 16-year-old: someone alone in a house with a sleeping child is carrying the same evening at 16 as at 26.

There is a legal floor for junior employees, and it is much lower. Under the Miscellaneous Award a 16-year-old casual's minimum is $15.23 an hour in weekday daytime hours and $17.66 after 7pm. That is the floor for a regular employee, not a private babysitting arrangement, and it sits well under what any family in Sydney is actually paying. Our guide to what to charge has the full range and what sits behind each band.

Say the number before the first booking, in writing, along with how many children, what time you will finish, and how you are getting home. A family who has to ask what you charge has already started negotiating, and one message settles it. Anything above the agreed hours because they were late is paid at the same rate. That is normal and you do not need to be awkward about it. We never take a cut of what you earn. What a family pays you is yours.

Getting home, and your own parents

The job most teenagers get first is Saturday night, which ends at eleven or midnight, and the question of how you get home is the one to settle before you say yes. Under 18 you cannot open your own Uber account. A teen account exists, but your parent sets it up and it runs on their card. So it is one of three things: a parent from the family drives you, they pay for a taxi and see you into it, or your own parent picks you up. Any of those is normal. A family that has not thought about it will think about it the moment you ask.

Your own parents will want the address, the family's names, a phone number, and what time you will be back. Give it to them every time, not only the first time. For a family you do not know, it is fine and normal for your parent to come along to meet them on the first booking, or to be the one who drops you off. Families read that as a good sign. A parent who hands their child to a stranger for the evening understands another parent wanting to see the house.

Once you are in the house, the briefing before the family leaves is the same for you as for anyone: where they will be, a number that will be answered, allergies and medication, the bedtime routine, and where the first aid kit is. Our guide to becoming a babysitter has the list to ask, and it is worth reading before the first job rather than after. In an emergency, 000 first, then the parents, and nobody will ever mind that you rang them for nothing.

First aid, and the Check, at 16

Nobody makes you hold a first aid certificate. Almost every parent asks, and at 16 it is the single thing that most separates you from every other teenager offering to babysit. The course to do is HLTAID012, Provide First Aid in an Education and Care Setting, the one childcare centres require. It covers infant and child CPR, anaphylaxis and asthma, and it is a few hours of online theory plus a practical session. There is no age rule in the course itself. Ask the provider before you book, because some set their own minimum.

The Check is for 18. Until then nothing about it applies to you, and there is no form to fill in and nothing to explain. When you turn 18, apply, because from then on families will ask whether you hold one and a babysitter who answers with a number is easier to book. The application is $112 and lasts five years. Until then, the two people who can vouch for you do that job, and they do it well.

Tax at 16

You will not owe any. Australians pay no income tax on the first $18,200 they earn in a year, and no teenager babysitting on weekends gets anywhere near it. A few nights a month arranged with families you know is not a business in the tax office's eyes, and there is nothing to declare.

Get a tax file number anyway. It is free from the ATO, it takes a couple of weeks, and the first job with a payslip, a supermarket shift or a cafe, will ask for it on day one. Keep a note of what you earn babysitting once it becomes regular. Our guide to becoming a babysitter has the longer version for when it does.

If you are hiring a teenage babysitter

A 16-year-old with two years of minding siblings and neighbours is often a better babysitter than a 22-year-old with none, and cheaper by exactly nothing, because the going rate is the going rate. Pay them the range, not the junior floor, and you will get someone who comes back. Our rates guide sets out what to pay a 16-year-old.

Two things are different. The legal responsibility is yours in a way it is not with an adult, so the first booking should be short, the children should be ones a teenager can manage (a sleeping six-year-old, not newborn twins), and the briefing should be the full one. And they need to get home. Drive them, or pay for the taxi and watch them get into it, and say so before the first night so their parents can say yes with a clear conscience.

Expect their parent to want to meet you, and offer before they ask. Then treat them as you would any babysitter: the questions to ask are the same, and the references matter more, not less. Babysitters near you, with ages on their profiles, are in search across Sydney.

Where these facts come from

The age and Check rules are the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian's, as published in September 2026, and the Northern Territory's own page for its clearance age. The Queensland rule on leaving a child under 12 unsupervised is section 364A of its Criminal Code. The junior award figures are the Fair Work minimums under the Miscellaneous Award current from July 2026, and they move every July. The tax-free threshold is the ATO's. The rate range is what Sydney babysitters on this site list and what families report paying. The advice on regulars, holidays and getting home is ours. None of it is legal or tax advice, and nothing here binds you to a number.