What age alone overnight?

[disykat]

My son turned 16 last week. This is the 2nd time someone has called and wanted him to petsit/housesit and acted surprised when I said I wasn't ready to let him stay alone at their homes overnight.

I guess if I had to pick an age I'd say 17 ( and this is only if there were no trust issues and he was close enough to think I might pop over!) This year we'll be getting used to him driving and coming and going on his own. I also think I'd let him stay alone here before I'd let him go off and housesit.

Am I overprotective?

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Depends on the child BUT I would still have a friend/neighbor pop-in.

 

[MichelleVW]

I think my DD17 was probably 14 or so when I left her overnight alone. But she has always been really responsible.

 

[pigletgirl]

I started staying by myself house-sitting/pet-sitting around 16. However I was next door to where I lived. I felt comfortable. Every kid is different on stuff like that.

 

[Planogirl]

I think it depends a lot on the kids. DS is almost 16 and I would probably leave him alone if he's comfortable. But I wouldn't go far and I'd probably call a zillion times.

 

[HunnyPots]

My son is 17 and I'm not sure I'd let him do it now! I know him well enough to know that he would definitely try to get away with something. It just depends on the kid...

 

[debabe723]

I had a girlfriend come to town on business and stay in a local hotel about 10 miles from my house. I left DS14 alone overnight and he was fine. He has always been mature and responsible but I still worried (more my fears than his). Ever since then, I have been comfortable leaving him alone if I was in town but I have not left him yet and gone out of town, even though I should, as he just turned 18. It really just depends on the comfort level of both of you.

 

[Katy Belle]

My poor kids.

My mom let a friend and I stay home alone at the friend's house while her parents were out of town when we were 15. BAD idea. We didn't stay there and we did a lot to make it look like we did. Luckily we survived the night.

Soooo based on my own bad judgement, my kids will have to be OLD to stay home alone.

Katy

 

[aprilgail2]

I was 15 and my brother was 17 and our parents went away for 5 days to Barbados. I ended up going to the beach and falling asleep and getting sun poisoning, had to call the Dr get a perscription phoned in and my neighbor drove me to the pharmacy to pick it up. It was actually a good growing up experience, at least I knew how to handle things that came up.

 

[Mermaid02]

18- in other words, old enough to be legally responsible for themselves.

 

[aprilgail2]

18- in other words, old enough to be legally responsible for themselves.

By 18 many kids are already away at college and the parents have to let them stay by themselves. My god daughter turned 17 a month before leaving for college 10 hours away from home. I think they certainly could be left home overnight once they are a year away from going away to college.

 

[Mermaid02]

By 18 many kids are already away at college and the parents have to let them stay by themselves. My god daughter turned 17 a month before leaving for college 10 hours away from home. I think they certainly could be left home overnight once they are a year away from going away to college.

My dd turned 18 last December and we let her stay alone over the summer while we camped (she started college in September). Worked for us.

I know people will disagree with me, but 18 is my answer and my son might even be 30 before I trust him to be alone.....

 

[Acklander]

DS was about 16 when we first started leaving him home alone overnight. We had a friend stop by to make sure everything was ok, and he had phone numbers of who to call in an emergency. It's a good growing experience.

 

[sandy6879]

I'm going with 18 too. SO much can happen to a child home alone overnight. I personally wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my DD home alone overnight. College is somewhat different, they are in a dorm for the most part. There are other people that would hear/see if something were to happen. Now that wouldn't help if they left on their own accord . . .but there are other people around.

 

[Mermaid02]

I'm going with 18 too. SO much can happen to a child home alone overnight. I personally wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my DD home alone overnight. College is somewhat different, they are in a dorm for the most part. There are other people that would hear/see if something were to happen. Now that wouldn't help if they left on their own accord . . .but there are other people around.

I worried about other kids finding out she was here alone and putting pressure on her to have them over. Funny, summer before last she whined and cried and begged us to leave her alone (not happening).... this past summer when we let her.... she joined us camping more often than not..... funny how that works!

 

[mickeysgal]

DS was 16 when we left him home alone. We were being transferred to a city 4 hours away from where we lived. We had to house hunt. He was working two jobs at the time and he stayed back to work, take care of the house, the dogs, etc. He did stay a few nights with friends of ours until his cat allergy triggered and he had to stay back at our house. We had just about the whole town on alert as well. It was a small town and everyone knew everyone. He was very well watched.

 

[DMickey28]

Totally depends on the kid. I stayed alone with my younger brother when I was 16 or 17.

He did not get to stay alone until he was in college!

 

[powellrj]

DS was 19 when he left to go into the Army and I still didn't trust him to stay alone. The key word here was alone because I knew he wouldn't be alone.

With my other kids, I think it depends on the situation. To be honest I can see myself trusting my DD long before I would have left the boys alone. Like I said earlier, key word is ALONE. I am not sure any of them would have been alone and that was the part that I didn't like. What they do on their own time at college and in the military is out of my "parent zone" so I can't really control much there.

 

[NHdisneylover]

When I was 16 my parents went to Mexico for 10 days. I was a very mature and responsible teen who had already spent a year living abroad as an exchange student. They called to check in every 2-3 days and knew I had several friends who I could turn to if I needed assistance (with helpful parents). I did not need any such assistance and so far as I know none of my friends even knew my parents were gone.
Some kids are just very responsible people and can be trusted at young ages with overnights (and more). I imagine the friends who are calling and ask you son to do this were those kinds of kids so that is where their experience lies. Other people probably should not be left alone even as 30 year olds I think persoanlity/maturity is the biggest indicator a parent needs to look at--not age.

 

[NY Disney fan]

My parents *never* let me do a sleep over unless it was at a cousin or family member's house. My first sleepover (I kid you not) was at the age of 25 when I left the house for my wedding!