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user1751825
user1751825
10:43
@forest You asked me why I think it's innapropriate and potentially dangerous, and I told you. I'm sorry if my answer offends you. Of course I don't know this particular person, but I would consider it extremely suspicious for a 17 year old (almost adult) to be "hanging out" with a 9 year old child. I make a point of not assuming every random person has good intentions. You might live in a world full of sunshine and rainbows, but I don't.
 
4 hours later…
user1751825
user1751825
14:31
@forest You're perhaps thinking of it as one child choosing to hang out with a somewhat older child. However, a 17 year old developmentally is essentially an adult, not a child by any stretch. So you have a situation where an non-related adult, is choosing to hang out with a young child. Consider then, what if this older person was not 17, but 55? Would you still be perfectly ok with a random 55 year old adult wanting to hang out with a 9 year old?
@BCLC The difference between social hanging out and babysitting is in the motivation behind it. For babysitting, the babysitter is usually doing it for payment, or as a favour etc. They're not doing it because they just want to "hang out" with young kids. Since it is so unusual for a 17 year old to seek out the company of young children, it's reasonable to be highly suspicious of their motives.
 
3 hours later…
ribs2spare
ribs2spare
17:45
@user1751825 this is really well put!
 
2 hours later…
forest
forest
19:22
@user1751825 It's not unusual at all. It's actually extremely common.
Why do you think the post has been downvoted? The fact that people disagree shows that it's not uncommon and that there are benign explanations. My own daughter hung out with older kids from time to time, and even with adults. She simply liked their company. Nothing bad came of it. This kind of thing is also common in families. Would you object to 17 and 9 year old cousins hanging out?

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