Home Alone???

bobsa1

I've been leaving my 12 year old alone since xmas for short periods of time (up to a couple of hours) tomorrow she will be left with my nine year old for about 1hour whilst dh takes little one to nursery and drops some stuff off at work.

I would probably leave 12year old alone from 9-3pm (she'd be in bed most of the morning) but not with 9yr old. Too much time to fight. However couple of hours together would be fine.

Could you get grandparents to do half days instead of full days childcare?

Dora_the_Explorer_5

To the OP. A couple of generations ago your daughter would have been starting work at 14. Do you think your daughter is mature and sensible enough to work a five day week doing a real job? If she is, then she should be perfectly capable of looking after a child.

Kimberley

Some parents do not have a choice, your talked about if you don't work and when you do want to work your talked about if you have to leave a 13 year old with a younger sibling. Sometimes you have no choice otherwise you will have to give up work and live on benefits until your youngest has left school Then you are called a scrounger, sometimes you cannot win :rolleyes:

buxtonrabbitgreen

My oh started a new job about 6 months ago and my then 11 and 12 year old were alone from 6.30 in the morning. They have to get themselves up and ready for school ,get thier breakfast and leave by 8.10. So far only one has been late once, but at first I was really worried about them and rung them up every morning to make sure they were up, still up ,had got every thing etc. Eventually they told me to stop ringing as I was making them late! Since last sumerr holidays they have been alone, I am home by 2 but to be honest, being typical teenagers they are usually still in bed when I get home from work. I dont tend to worry now. Sometimes the older one goes off to friends but always rings me first to tell me. Looking back like many of you I was the second of 5 kids and often left to babysit 3 younger ones from about 10 and it didnt do me any harm. I dont remember any rules being in place either apart from the usual. So I would say go with your instinct. Like you I have to earn a living and though I have paid for the holiday clubs up till last year £8 each a day, they just dont want to go and be organized/ do sport anymore.

Kimberley

6.30am?? :eek: Blimey, i'm still snoozing then

bookworm1363

janb5 wrote:

Although your daughter is nearly 14 and mature, I think the law states she is not allowed to look after anyone younger.

That is quite incorrect.

From the CAB website:

Babysitting (England and Wales only)
You can babysit at any age, whether you are paid or not. You are allowed to look after a child of any age.

.

Februarycat

My ds is 13 and I'm going to have to leave him on his own for 3 weeks of the holidays but I only work til lunchtime and he is very sensible and he can come into my workplace if he wants but he gets bored, he's happy to watch TV or be on the PC and I always give him a call mid morming to check he is ok and I have a very good neighbour who he can go if he wants. I think you have to decide how sensible your child is, I know my ds is ok on his own and would not mess about.

Kimberley

Februarycat wrote:

My ds is 13 and I'm going to have to leave him on his own for 3 weeks of the holidays but I only work til lunchtime and he is very sensible and he can come into my workplace if he wants but he gets bored, he's happy to watch TV or be on the PC and I always give him a call mid morming to check he is ok and I have a very good neighbour who he can go if he wants. I think you have to decide how sensible your child is, I know my ds is ok on his own and would not mess about.

Yes it's called trust, they respect you for that, well the good ones do As long as they know how to deal with an emergency.

bella4uk

The section below is taken from The Childrens Law Centre website.

http://www.childrenslawcentre.org/babysit.htm












Baby Sitting

The whole issue of babysitting is a very complicated one and therefore it would be advisable to check with either the children's law centre or your local advice centre for more information. The following are just general guidelines which may be of help.

The law does not state an age at which young people can babysit.

You have to be at least old enough to work part-time (13 Yrs) before you can babysit (refer to section on part-time work).
The law does not state the youngest age at which a child should be left with a babysitter.
If children are left with a babysitter it is important for parents to remember that no one under the age of 16 can be charged with neglect or ill treatment of a child left in their care. Therefore parents remain responsible and can be charged themselves should any harm come to their child.
We recommend being over the age of 16 to babysit.

Raksha

What sort of relationship do your children have with each other? Would the youngest respect any decision made by the older one? Or would they question it or down right refuse? If anything went wrong - would you blame the older one 'because they should know better'?

I was regularly 'left in charge' of my younger sister from the age of about 10 - but she made my life hell be simply refusing to do what I said, and then blaming me to our parents when they got home......

I occasionally leave my 11 year old home alone - when popping out to collect the younger one from Cubs etc. I always have my mobile with me so he can contact me if he needs to, he also knows not to answer the door or the phone.