[ChotooMotoo]

http://news.yahoo.co...29tYW5hbGxlZ2Vk

Quote

Woman allegedly leaves son alone, goes for drive

Sun Jun 20, 5:18 pm ET

BISMARCK, N.D. – A woman was accused of leaving her 6-year-old son home alone at night while she drove to a city an hour to the east. Authorities said the 39-year-old mother drove to Medina late Wednesday, and the boy called 911 when he woke up early Thursday and became scared when he could not find his mother.

Authorities said the mother told deputies she couldn't sleep so she went for a drive.

The woman was charged with felony abuse or neglect of a child, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison upon conviction. Her bond was set at $1,500 cash.

The woman was wrong to go without leaving her kid at least a note. It begs the question, how old is old enough to stay at home alone? I remember from first grade onwards being home alone from 4:00 until my mom came home ~5:30 after school.

EDIT: I was also home alone in the morning to catch the bus from ~7:30 when my mom left until the bus came shortly after 8am.

[sumi]

12.

[zakk]

Hmm, I was never left home alone on a regular basis because my dad's office is attached to the house and my mom worked for him on the minor accounting from inside the house. But I wasn't really left home alone at all until I was around 13 or so, and that was I guess briefly when my parents went to parties or shopping or whatever.

I'm not comfortable with the idea of leaving a 6 year old alone at night and going somewhere an hour away, I think that is pretty negligent. I definitely would not leave my kids alone on a regular basis, I'd prefer to have them stay with someone. Even as teenagers, I don't like to have teens unsupervised on the regular because while it's not necessarily dangerous, I personally think that teenagers have a penchant for making stupid choices which seem harmless to them (maybe I've watched too many afterschool specials or something).

That being said, I know a lot of people who are quite comfortable leaving teens and preteens home alone with good results, it just falls out of my comfort zone.


I get too paranoid about leaving my kids with Madiha (she's 10) to go down the street to the mailbox, because while I'm sure nothing would happen at home in 5 minutes, what if something happened to me? It just makes me feel bad.

To me also, it's like, Madiha is good and fairly responsible, and Haneef (who's 6) tries, but fairly often they'll do some bone headed things and not even know why they did them. And that's with me around somewhere. Also, hmmm, they really do not get along.

[zzze]

Depends on the kid. My youngest brother is 10 and very responsible and loves being left alone. Usually for under an hour. He even has a key to let himself in the house

[kababqueen]

No younger than 14, imho. But if the child isn't mature or gets into trouble when unsupervised, then obviously that's not a child you want to leave home alone.

[nunyobeezwax]

I wasn't allowed to be home alone until I was 12/13. Even then I had to keep all the doors locked, not answer the door if someone knocked/rang the bell, and no friends were allowed over until my parents got home.

[JiveTurkey]

Looking at the numbers above I personally think some of you sound kinda overprotective, I was left alone for 2-3 hours starting at age 5. My mom just gave me a box of cereal and said "eat this if you get hungry". I mean kids are working full-time jobs and getting married at 12-13 in some areas; and you won't even leave them stay home alone? Islamically aren't kids considered adults by age 12?

Are you all just making motherhood harder than it really is? Please don't the unnecessary stress will make you age quicker with wrinkles, white hair, and put you at a higher risk for diabetes and heart disease (true story bro). I find the more overprotected the kids are, the less they appreciate their parents and are more likely to blame them for life's bitter disappointments. I see it as a lose-lose, extra effort for worse results. It's also making kids psychologically mature at a slower pace compared to rest of the world.

I think the women in the article got a bad rap. She just needed to get out at night without waking her son. I think she went a little too far though. She could have left a note, but the kid may not be able to read fluently yet. Should she have bothered to wake him up just to say: "I'll be back in a few". Easy to criticize her in hindsight. I think having a story on her exemplifying neglect is kind of harsh. The timings are kind of vague though. Instead of telling us how long she was gone they just say late Wed and early Thurs. That could only be a couple hours apart

[fny21]

can't remember how young i was before i was left home alone, but i know i went out to play with friends unsupervised from the age of 7 or 8 at the latest. i'd assume that's more hazardous than being left alone in the house? my siblings were born when i was 4 and 6 so i'm guessing that had something to do with it...

my mom didn't work when i was young so i don't think there were that many opportunities for me to be left home alone...

[Purple_alien]

My parents started leaving me home alone at 7. I would come home from school, let myself in with my key and watch TV. I had to call my parents at work and tell them I got home safely. All the kids in the development were latch-key kids except for this one kid, and his mother was like, the adult we'd go to if we needed help.
When we moved to our house, I was almost 10 and not allowed to be home alone. It was a new neighborhood and was rather rough.
I wouldn't leave my kids alone like that until they were 12. however, I think it depends on the kid.

[Rain]

JiveTurkey, kids getting married at 12/13 or working isn't an ideal situation or one we would choose for other children, let our own. So the whole idea that you can leave your kid alone based on that is pretty stupid. If anything, we have to work towards a society which aims to protect children and put their safety/well being first, not use the inadequacies of other exploitative/less fortunate/ societies to set standards for how we should bring up our own children.

I don't agree with leaving your kid alone, and definitely not at the age of six. My parents didn't leave us alone till we were about 12/13, and we didn't grow up with a mollycoddled sense of the world around us; we were pretty much fine to get on with our lives confidently.

This post has been edited by Rain: 22 June 2010 - 09:44 AM