Big ‘ol business meeting coming up and not sure about leaving your kids home alone? This article is for you. Here we will explore the legal conditions on leaving children home alone and also go through parents’ opinions on when is the right age to let children stay home alone.
What the law has to say?
While most states have no set rules pertaining to leaving children home alone and unsupervised, some states do. So before you cam leave your young ones home alone, be sure to double-check with what your state has to say about this matter. In case you’re part of the majority that don’t have laws concerning leaving children home alone, then you can check these following parameters as outlined by Courts.
According to legalmatch.com, these are the things you must consider:
- The child’s maturity level
- The safety of the child and his or her surroundings
- How long the child was left alone; and
- The parents’ concern for the child’s overall welfare, and the steps taken to ensure their safety and wellbeing
–legalmatch.com
It also states that, if you (when staying in a state with strict laws on leaving children home alone) do leave you kid home alone, Child Protective Services (CPS) would most likely be informed of it and will take acrtion by interviewing your child and the neighbors.
Only three states legally require kids to be of a certain minimum age to be left on their own for a period of time: Illinois (14 years old), Oregon (10 years old), and Maryland (8 years old)
–realsimple.com
Now this is nothing to worry about , as long as you follow the law of teh state when you leave yoru kids home alone. In cases where kids have beem abandoned or left home alone for very long periods of time without adult supervision or help, the CPS may take drastic steps like removing the child from home and placing them with relatives or in foster care.
While I’m sure most of you reading this won’t fall in this category as you must be here because you’re concerned about leaving your children home alone. So moving on to when it is actually appropirate to leave the kids home.
When is it the right age to leave your child at home alone?
Based on a research conducted by ADT (a security company), most parents seem to agree on 12-15 as the perfect age to leave kidfs home alone.
Here are the statistics:
70% of participants : 12-15
3% of participants: 18 and above
2% of participants: 7 and below
Realistically speaking, a child of age 12-15 would have knowledge of who he/she is, would be able to discern between bad and good and would understand the importance of safety and what tp do if asomething goes wrong.
Let alone presence of mind and maturity, most parents felt that kids between 12-15 would be able to cookor at least fix themselves a mean snack platter at the least. They would know how to buy stuff from th grocery store and even be clear at commhunicating their needs with neighbors and fellow humans.
Featured image courtesy: fanaru.com
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