Our two are 6.5 years apart from eachother. When we would leave them alone for any length of time. The youngest one was in charge of the animals and the oldest was in charge of the house, but not of the youngest one, who mentally is older than the oldest.
We would have never put Patti (23) in charge of Cassi (16) because Patti would do things to CAssi to make her life a living hell.
So Patti always had control over the house, meaning if something happened she was to grab the phone and 911.
Cassi was in charge of the dogs, specifically, that meant if something happened she was to grab the other phone (in case Patti forgot) and the dogs to get out of the house.
That was the only way to keep the peace, otherwise we would be having 20-30 calls in a 3 hours period about all the stuff that cassi was doing to patti and visa versa.
This worked awesomely. We even got to one night when we didn't receive not even one phone call. It was a miracle!
Got home dogz were all in bed with Cassi and Patti had the phone in bed with her. Everyone was asleep, the doors were locked and the house was clean, I about passed out.
4?????? OMG.. i would need a straight jacket!!! sheesh.. my 2 fought like crazy... and thats scary cuz they are 7 yrs apart... never let the old one watch the young one, cuz thats like lettin the fox watch the hen!!!
my other child is 10) I feel like a yo-yo most days 
