What age should you leave your teenager alone?

[Amy Schofield]

I have friends who are happy to leave their teenagers alone for a couple of hours at 13, a couple whose kids are latchkey kids, some who won’t contemplate leaving them in the house – is there a legal age at which you can leave your child alone? Do you believe it’s down to how responsible they are? For me, I’m not worried about him trashing the house but some freak thing happening and him not being able to get to me…morbid I know 🙁 . I’m ok with leaving my teenage son for an hour or so if I’m no more than ten minutes away but any more than that makes me twitchy. What do you think?

[Kevin Smith]

Hi there – My rule is that I leave my teenager in the house when it’s light, but noit at night. the NSPCC website says: The law does not set a minimum age at which children can be left alone. However, it is an offence to leave a child alone when doing so puts him or her at risk.

How to decide if you can safely leave a child alone

There are many important things to consider before you decide to leave a child alone. These include:
•the age of the child
•the child’s level of maturity and understanding
•the place where the child will be left
•how long and how often the child will be left alone
•whether or not there are any other children with the child.

For example, most parents would think it is okay to leave a 16-year-old alone for the evening. But to leave them for a week would be unacceptable.

Hope thats helpful. always a judgement call.

[Amanda]

I think it really does depend on the child. My son is 17 in September but I wouldn’t leave him overnight yet, even though he says he will be fine. He’s been on his own during the day for several hours, but if he chooses to go out he does things like leave the back door open and all the lights on. I think it will be a while before my husband and I can go away for the weekend 😉

[Les Smith]

I’ve got this really mad fear about burglars breaking in when my teens home alone. That is mad, isn’t it. Never heard of it being a problem in real life. only my imagination

[Amanda]

I don’t think that’s mad. I worry about that sort of thing happening too. The advantage of having a big dog at home though is that she would bark her head off and hopefully frighten any suspecting burglar away 😉

[Author]

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