leaving children on their own?

FBaby

trevorsminted wrote: »

Surely it is ok to leave a baby in cot for a few hours too? Just curious as not like they can do anything ie get out of crib, just a friend has an 8 month old and never gets out now, surely an hour pub at bottom of road, in fact baby monitor may even work its so close to the house!

That I have ever done and never would. A baby can't get to a phone and call 999, or run to the neighbours.

Person_one

FBaby wrote: »

Example of his attitude: He will make sure that he has switched off the sockets in his bedroom before he goes to sleep. He will ask me if I have locked the back door before we go out. Just remembering now, when we went on hols abroad last summer, he asked me if I had remembered to get travel insurance when we were on the train!

See, I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Should a 9 year old be worrying about things like that?

dandelionclock30

I was left on my own from the age of 6 to cook my tea and then watch T.V/ read until my parents came in from work.It was just the way it was and nobody thought anything of it in the 1970s.
However I think that things are not necessarily more unsafe now but the perception of danger has increased.
In OPs case, I would try to get a neighbour to keep an eye on them, surley there is someone in the street who could pop in a couple of times?

poet123

Person_one wrote: »

See, I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Should a 9 year old be worrying about things like that?

I agree, I don't think that kind of behaviour in a nine year old necessarily, or even usually denotes maturity, it could denote anxiety or insecurity. I would far rather my nine year old knew without question that those things would have been done by the adults, if they thought about them at all.

Snuggles

This is such a difficult subject, not helped by the fact that it is a grey area in law. However, as another poster pointed out, if something does go wrong (and this can simply mean the police having occasion to call at the house and find a child alone, rather than some terrible incident), the parents are often given a caution for child neglect. I see the conseqences of this on a regular basis, as this offence leads to the parent being automatically barred from working with children and vulnerable adults - you do have the right to argue your case but it can be a lengthy process.

So if you work with children or vulnerable adults, or hope to do so, I would think very carefully before leaving your own children unsupervised - it can have unexpected consequences beyond concerns about their safety.

zagfles

Person_one wrote: »

See, I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Should a 9 year old be worrying about things like that?

Some kids are just naturally like that - I would far rather my kids worried about practical stuff like that than worried about their weight, about not having the "right" trainers or keeping up with their friends or fashions in clothes, phones etc or other superficial rubbish that kids often worry about.

poet123

zagfles wrote: »

Some kids are just naturally like that - I would far rather my kids worried about practical stuff like that than worried about their weight, about not having the "right" trainers or keeping up with their friends or fashions in clothes, phones etc or other superficial rubbish that kids often worry about.

It doesn't have to be an either or situation.

FBaby

Person_one wrote: »

See, I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Should a 9 year old be worrying about things like that?

You are using the word 'worried'. He is not worried, it is just things he thinks of when other 9 year old would be thinking about how fun it would be to flood the bathroom He will ask questions about mortgages, insurance, savings etc...

Saying that, he is a boy at heart, plays football in local team and at school, and can have a laugh. He is very popular and has plenty of friends, it's just that he is quite mature in his thinking.

FBaby

Just to add, he is the boy who I never had to worry about crossing the road, even when he was a toddler, he would just stop at a crossing, turn around and wait for me, then ask me questions about why cars don't always stop, what crossing are for etc...

zagfles

Snuggles wrote: »

This is such a difficult subject, not helped by the fact that it is a grey area in law. However, as another poster pointed out, if something does go wrong (and this can simply mean the police having occasion to call at the house and find a child alone, rather than some terrible incident), the parents are often given a caution for child neglect. I see the conseqences of this on a regular basis, as this offence leads to the parent being automatically barred from working with children and vulnerable adults - you do have the right to argue your case but it can be a lengthy process.

So if you work with children or vulnerable adults, or hope to do so, I would think very carefully before leaving your own children unsupervised - it can have unexpected consequences beyond concerns about their safety.

It's a deliberate grey area and so it should be - kids vary a great deal in maturity and if something does go wrong which was caused by the kids being left alone then the parent has likely made the wrong call. Just as if you take the child out and they get killed in a car accident you've made the wrong call.