Is it odd to have a teenage guy babysitting my kids?

There's a 17 year old boy who lives next door to me, and my kids absolutely adore him. I've had him over to babysit more times than I can count, and he's always been excellent. He's one of the sweetest kids I've ever met, and I've never had any second thoughts about letting him watch my children.Last night, though, I'd gone out to dinner with a few friends. One of my friends had told me that it was so difficult to find a babysitter to watch her kids on the weekends. I offered to reach out to my neighbor, to see if he'd be interested in helping out, but my friend told me that she'd never hire a male, especially a teen, to babysit, because "It's too risky and dangerous." I was taken a bit aback. Several of my other friends agreed with her, saying that they only hired women to babysit their children.Is that the general consensus on male babysitters? Why does it seem that being teen boy automatically makes you dangerous to kids? I really don't understand; shouldn't we judge people based on their characters, not their age or gender? via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2bKadwD