Teens alone at home

[CdnCarrie]

At what age would you leave a teen at home alone for a few days?
Family is in city if need be,
Would you leave the country? As in not driving distance away.

 

[tvguy]

Depends on the maturity of the child. Not before 16 for sure, and only if the child had a Driver's License and access to a car while I was gone.

 

[Mle8308]

I wouldn’t consider it until after they graduate from high school. 18 minimum. Not for a few nights where you can’t return within a few hours by car.

 

[Skywalker3]

For being away overnight even for just one night, 18 or older, and only if we also had trusted neighbors/friends or family nearby , who could help out in an emergency. Honestly, probably in our case, maybe a little older.

 

[TwoMisfits]

At what age would you leave a teen at home alone for a few days?
Family is in city if need be,
Would you leave the country? As in not driving distance away.

Someone would need to be 18 and with a driver's license.
If I were to leave the country, that someone would also need to be entirely self-sufficient as would all others in the household (I'm not having my 18 year old watch my 8 year old while I'm in Canada)...

 

[tvguy]

Times are different now, but due to circumstances beyond our control, my mom and I agreed when I was 14 that I would stay home alone at night five nights a week. My dad had passed away and my mom worked graveyard shift, and after 4 years of having a stranger in our house overnight with me to have an adult in the house, it just wasn't working. My mom did put a burglar alarm on the house, which was not common in 1971. Her work was only 6 miles from home, but she was a surgical nurse so there would be times when she couldn't come to the phone, let alone come home. Never had an issue.

 

[prairie_girl]

I agree that it would depend on the child but since there would be family around, I’d probably say 16.

 

[prairie_girl]

I agree that it would depend on the child but since there would be family around, I’d probably say 16.

It’s funny that we let kids babysit at age 12 and that involves taking care of at least one additional person. It’s not the same as overnight, but 12 seems awfully young.

 

[ronandannette]

Not until he was out of high school, which for our DS was at 17. Before that, we did go away a few times but always had someone come to stay to handle getting him to school and to his activities (he wasn't driving then).

 

[Disneylover99]

18. Driver’s licence and access to a car, sounds about right for leaving the country.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Times are different now, but due to circumstances beyond our control, my mom and I agreed when I was 14 that I would stay home alone at night five nights a week. My dad had passed away and my mom worked graveyard shift, and after 4 years of having a stranger in our house overnight with me to have an adult in the house, it just wasn't working. My mom did put a burglar alarm on the house, which was not common in 1971. Her work was only 6 miles from home, but she was a surgical nurse so there would be times when she couldn't come to the phone, let alone come home. Never had an issue.

I wouldn’t have liked that at age 14. That must have been hard

 

[DisneylandFreak2013]

I would be fine with a responsible 15-16 year old being at home by themselves if it were in the summer (no school). But, it would depend on how trustworthy they were. I wouldn't permit any driving or going out and would leave a credit card or something so they could order in.

One of my coworkers kid's keeps sneaking out to be with her boyfriend. She ended up a few cities over from where they live because she drove over there at 15, so that would be a big no on staying with no supervision for them I'm sure.

It's amazing how times have changed. My mom had her own apartment at 16 years old, working two jobs and going to school. Very dependent on circumstances.

 

[Minnesota!]

Timely. I'm giving my youngest son the option to stay home alone for 2 nights next weekend or go with me and DH up north. He's a homebody, and it usually isn't an issue as older son is typically home on weekends in the summer, but won't be next weekend. He's 16.5.

So...alone, overnight? I'd say 16. I prefer he isn't driving yet, since I don't have to worry about him cruising all over the place when we are hours away ..

 

[mumto3girls]

I think our oldest was a week or 2 shy of 18 when we left her alone overnight when the rest of us went out of town. She is much more mature than my middle child who I didn’t leave until she was 19 and home from college last January between semesters. Youngest is 16. I haven’t left her yet. I am not worried about the younger two staying alone and not being able to fend for themselves; I am worried about underage parties in my house. We just left the 19 year old home last week for 5 days while we were out of town with youngest DD for her sport. I was relieved when I heard oldest DD came home for a few days around the 4th because she had plans with her local friends.

 

[tvguy]

I wouldn’t have liked that at age 14. That must have been hard

It was hard, but not as hard as having a stranger living in our house.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Depends on many factors. Access to transpiration would be where my limit would be. So driving age I guess or a city kid with public transportation experience.

 

[ronandannette]

It was hard, but not as hard as having a stranger living in our house.

Was it the same person, or a long string of different people? After 4 years, I'd think whoever was chosen, if it was just one person, would have developed some level of relationship?

 

[kymom99]

I think my step daughter stayed alone at our house at 17. Just for a weekend. She had her mom and grandmother as well as lots of other family nearby if needed.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Depends a lot on the kid, how much experience they have "adulting" for shorter periods of time, how comfortable they would be asking local family for help if needed, and how much I trusted their friends not to pressure them to have a party (not even that the kid would cave and actually have one, but that they would be put in a miserable position when they were already not able to go on the trip for whatever reason).

For me personally, I'm a "slow ramp up" person. - I don't think I could do a foreign country the fist time. I'd need to do maybe a close weekend away first.

 

[slo]

At what age would you leave a teen at home alone for a few days?
Family is in city if need be,
Would you leave the country? As in not driving distance away.

*I think it’s different for every teen.
In my house, my oldest stayed home alone for 5 days when she was 17 years old. She would not have been ready to be alone any younger.
DD19 has never been left alone because there’s been no reason - all our trips are either for her softball tournaments or a family trip. But if we did leave without her, she wouldn‘t have wanted to be alone until about 17 years old - she used to get nervous being alone to long at night.

My family is in town too, and that did give me peace of mind.

I would not leave the country - that would make me to nervous and I probably wouldn‘t have fun. But I guess it depends on what out of the country means. If I’m going to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, then yes. If I’m going to Europe, then no,