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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 251
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In many US states it is illegal to leave a child under the age of, I think, 10 or 11 unsupervised by an adult. I was shocked when I last looked into it, because I was unsupervised at a much much younger age. If other parents report it, your child might be picked up by an officer at the playground or you may get a visit.
No judgement here. Just thought you would want to know.
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Joined: Mar 2013
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In many US states it is illegal to leave a child under the age of, I think, 10 or 11 unsupervised by an adult. I was shocked when I last looked into it, because I was unsupervised at a much much younger age. If other parents report it, your child might be picked up by an officer at the playground or you may get a visit.
No judgement here. Just thought you would want to know. Really?? Last time I looked into it there was no particular age for 48 out of 50 states for leaving a child at home. These kids of laws vary state to state in the U.S. We have a law in my city, about leaving anyone under 15 overnight. And this is different situation from playing in the park while you are home. OK a quick look and I found this list. There are more laws now than the last time I looked into it. http://www.latchkey-kids.com/latchkey-kids-age-limits.htmDon't agree with the absolute don't leave a kid under 12 alone that this site mentions. I feel it depends on the maturity of the kid and depends on the situation. And it's a gradual thing. While I wouldn't leave a 10 year old home for hours, or while I was gone a long distance, or every day after school. I was certainly leaving my kids at home by 9 for 30 minutes while I ran to the store. Very surprised by the 14 rule for Illinois. The law reads "Any minor under the age of 14 years whose parent or other person responsible for the minor’s welfare leaves the minor without supervision for an unreasonable period of time without regard for the mental or physical health, safety or welfare of that minor." The term unreasonable period of time, is a bit vague.
Last edited by bluemagic; 04/19/14 05:41 PM.
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Joined: Dec 2012
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I had a friend's daughter (age 16) stay with us for a few days last year while her parents took her older sister to college because of our state's law. DD was beyond excited so we were happy to play a host family but I thought it was an odd regulation. When I was 16, I was very much living on my own.
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Joined: Jul 2012
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bluemagic ... you're right. Illinois is very vague. One of the reasons why I don't leave DS5.7 alone even in our own backyard. That plus we are next to a vacant lot so basically anyone could come up to the side of the yard and I'm just not comfortable with it. He's the kind of a kid who'll strike up a conversation with just about anyone willing to listing to him talking.
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Joined: Mar 2013
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Figuring out how old to leave your child alone, or let them walk to school by themselves is really a case by case basis. And I think if you look into the details of most of these laws, they do reflex that kids can be left alone for longer & longer periods of time as they get older.
The web-site I linked to is talking out when it's OK to leave kids home alone after school. And around 12 seems to be the norm in my area. Most of the after school daycare programs stop at the end of 6th grade. The assumption being that most 7th graders (youngest ~11 3/4 yrs) can safely stay at home after school for a few hours.
I know 16 year old teenagers I wouldn't leave at home alone for even a few minutes, but 10 year old who cold be left along for hours.
Mana I'm not sure about what state your in but when I was looking I saw no state that makes it illegal to leave a 16 year old overnight. (14-15 seems a more normal cutoff) But that doesn't mean you don't have local rules. I could imagine leaving my 15 year old one night but not much longer.
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Joined: Dec 2012
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Mana I'm not sure about what state your in but when I was looking I saw no state that makes it illegal to leave a 16 year old overnight. (14-15 seems a more normal cutoff) But that doesn't mean you don't have local rules. I could imagine leaving my 15 year old one night but not much longer. Actually, I took their word for it and didn't bother to look it up even though I thought it was really odd. Anyway, I just googled and our state has NO laws on this whatsoever. Now I am wondering if they themselves were misinformed or if I misunderstood them but it'd be too awkward to ask now. You learn something new everyday.
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Joined: Apr 2013
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... our state has NO laws on this whatsoever... It is my understanding that state and local laws about child neglect may come into play, and these may vary in their specificity and be highly dependent upon the circumstances. For example: whether the child was harmed or faced danger of harm while unsupervised.
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Joined: Apr 2012
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I wouldn't let my little one roam free - she will be 10 in a few months. She could find a way to get into trouble. Not only that, but as others have mentioned, if the kid looks younger than her age, someone may call the authorities on you. Kid finally doubled her BMI this year, so she is now 2nd percentile. She is both lightweight and short, looks like a 7 year old.
I would not leave my 16 year old home alone overnight. Nor would I leave my 18 year old home with the 16 and 9 year olds. Even if your kid doesn't do anything wrong, others may find out that the parents are gone. Many years ago a neighbor left their kid home alone - she was probably 17. She was a good kid, but she had a few friends over. These kids were fine, but others heard that the parents were gone, and tons of kids she did not know showed up. There was a racial incident on the front lawn.
When I was in HS, my boyfriend's parents left him home alone for the weekend, and he wrecked a very pricey sports car. Too difficult to explain here how he had access to a car of someone he didn't even know, and he was fortunate that he wasn't hurt and the car owner was cool about the whole thing. These kids went to good colleges and at least one went on to get a graduate degree from a respected university, so they weren't dumb kids.
Too many things could go wrong. I will let her play on the playground out of my sight at her sisters' sports tournaments, but only if multiple kids are involved. If something happens to one kid, another can go for help. A couple of years ago, she was playing with these kids (younger siblings of my older kids' teammates), and a kid sprained his ankle. My kid was able to go get help. And these tournament sites only have player families there - typically there are not random members of the public wandering onto the playground.
And finally, while my state does not seem to have a minimum age to be left home alone, I have seen plenty of cases on the news where parents were arrested for leaving them. Some were cases where the eldest seemed old enough to be home alone, but were left in charge of younger ones.
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Joined: Mar 2010
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Interesting how different kids are. When I was 16, my parents travelled out of the country for two months and I was left in charge of paying the household bills.
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Joined: Feb 2011
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My friends and I were often left overnight by the time we were my DD's age (almost 15). I can definitely remember my best friend and I being alone for a week as sophomores in high school, so 15yo.
Most of the people we know would find that unthinkable now-- or if they did do it, they would almost certainly be furtive about it and hope nobody found out.
Kids can do pretty stupid things no matter how closely adults think that they are watching, so I don't know that this is a completely valid line of reasoning, at least with teens. Oh, sure-- when your 7yo lugs gallons of household chemicals to the sidewalk, you ask questions. I get that. But when your teen offers vague information about where s/he is going to be for the next five or six hours, most parents accept it, ask if s/he has a cell phone, and hope for the best.
The bottom line is that very little can happen overnight that can't also happen during the day and during that five or six hours.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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