Would a parent get in trouble for allowing a kid to see a movie alone?

[bcla]

I was just thinking of the case where the 10 year old kid was left at a Lego Store and then mom was cited for child endangerment.

Back when I was 7 or 8 my parents would buy me a movie ticket and I'd go see a movie by myself and they'd pick me up when it was over. I'd also spent time with younger relatives just watching a movie and it was never an issue where we thought someone might get in trouble for it. We were 8 and 9 when I went to see Star Wars with my cousin.

My kid is 6 turning 7, and I don't know if I could just buy a movie ticket and come back without getting in trouble these days. There just seem to be cases where a child was allowed to walk home and the parents get in trouble for it.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

It wasn't only a different time, it was a different world.

My parents wouldn't have thought twice about it.

Today? I am sure someone would be arrested.

 

[kimblebee]

As the pp said, different times. I definitely wouldn't have let my daughter see a movie alone when she was 8. Not because she couldn't handle it, but because I wouldn't want to put up with all the comments.

 

[mousehockey37]

A more common sense answer to this is... If you have to ask, you probably already know the answer.

That said...

Other posters are right. It's a completely different world now. Sure, the creepers and stuff were still around years ago, but there just seems to be more of them. We see small kids wandering alone in the mall and it's like "and parents wonder how kids get snatched"... Put that thinking towards a creeper in a dark movie theater... Probably best to send an adult along.

 

[CarolAnn856]

A more common sense answer to this is... If you have to ask, you probably already know the answer.

That said...

Other posters are right. It's a completely different world now. Sure, the creepers and stuff were still around years ago, but there just seems to be more of them. We see small kids wandering alone in the mall and it's like "and parents wonder how kids get snatched"... Put that thinking towards a creeper in a dark movie theater... Probably best to send an adult along.

And that, the bolded, is the problem. There aren't any more now than there were, we just hear about them non-stop on the news. That makes people paranoid, myself included when my kids were younger.

 

[EveDallas]

A more common sense answer to this is... If you have to ask, you probably already know the answer.

That said...

Other posters are right. It's a completely different world now. Sure, the creepers and stuff were still around years ago, but there just seems to be more of them. We see small kids wandering alone in the mall and it's like "and parents wonder how kids get snatched"... Put that thinking towards a creeper in a dark movie theater... Probably best to send an adult along.

There aren't more of them. We just hear about them more. Big difference.

 

[Kaytie]

Provided the theater doesn't have a Lego Store-like policy prohibiting unaccompanied children, no reason any parent should get in trouble.

 

[bcla]

Provided the theater doesn't have a Lego Store-like policy prohibiting unaccompanied children, no reason any parent should get in trouble.

The issue wouldn't really be store policy, but what happens once a movie is over. I used to go to a local mall with my parents, they'd drop me off at a movie theater, and they'd come back for me. Sometimes they weren't back when I had exited, and I had to wait for them. This was well before cell phones, although I suppose handheld radios might have been possible.

Of course these days young kids have cell phones, so that might make it a lot easier to contact a parent. I'm really just thinking of what happens when a kid is just hanging out there waiting for a parent, and security might get called.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Provided the theater doesn't have a Lego Store-like policy prohibiting unaccompanied children, no reason any parent should get in trouble.

Doesn't always matter on store policy. Here it's against the law to leave a child unattended under the age of 10. So I would think it would depend on state/provincial laws.

 

[Skippy918]

6 and 7 is too young. I think that 13-14 would be a better age to drop off at a movie. Things were different back then.
My cousin and I were dropped off at a NKOTB concert when I was 12 and she was almost 11. No cell phones back then. I don't even remember how we met up with her parents afterwards.

 

[bcla]

6 and 7 is too young. I think that 13-14 would be a better age to drop off at a movie. Things were different back then.
My cousin and I were dropped off at a NKOTB concert when I was 12 and she was almost 11. No cell phones back then. I don't even remember how we met up with her parents afterwards.

Well - I do remember once I went to Oakland just to watch the fireworks after an Oakland Athletics game. I didn't actually see the game, but I was at another event and I figured I could park across a ramp that leads from the stadium/arena complex to BART (our public transit system). I watched the fireworks from one end of the ramp. However, during the fireworks the ramp is shut down because the fireworks are going off and it's considered a hazardous area until the fireworks are over.

Well - when I got there they also had a concert at the arena (Lil' Bow Wow I recall) and I saw one mom was completely freaked out when she found out her kids who walked back slower than she did were stuck at the other end of the ramp. In the end she just waited for them and all was well.

 

[PlainJane]

Doesn't always matter on store policy. Here it's against the law to leave a child unattended under the age of 10. So I would think it would depend on state/provincial laws.

The child was 10, not under 10. As you said, it's completely up to the local area's laws. I've heard the stories though where the laws were very vague and they still cited people.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I am 40 years old, so I was raised in the 80's. There is no way my parents would have dropped me off at a theatre at 7 years old, and I wouldn't have done so with my children, either. 12 or 13, maybe, but not 7.

 

[mjkacmom]

I am 40 years old, so I was raised in the 80's. There is no way my parents would have dropped me off at a theatre at 7 years old, and I wouldn't have done so with my children, either. 12 or 13, maybe, but not 7.

I was a child of the 70's, I'd say kids were going to the movies at night starting around 5th grade, but for a Saturday matinee, there were younger elementary school aged kids without parents (and no one was dropped off, we walked). Our theater was right in the middle of town.

 

[pryncess527]

It really depends on the town. My mother would not have dropped me off at our closest theatre when I was under 10 because frankly it was a bit sketchy, but the town my grandparents lived in was much sleepier, and so her and my aunt would drop me and my sister & cousins off there at a young age. They'd look at the start time and running time and just shop in the mall or do what they wanted and were always back on time.

Now it should be even less of an issue, cause I could even track my hypothetical kids cell phone the whole time.
If I were a parent, I'd check local laws & store policies to avoid a legal/media circus, but if permitted I would not hesitate to trust the right kid in the right place alone. That's how we build independence & common sense, something we complain this generation doesn't have enough of.

 

[Wishing on a star]

I wouldn't even consider it anyhow....
Wouldn't matter to me what anyone else thought.
Just not something I would choose to do with a younger child.

 

[rastahomie]

Oh hell. When I was 9-10, I walked to the (city) bus stop, took the bus downtown, went to the library, took the bus home, and was back before Mom & Dad got home from work.

My how times have changed.