latch-key kids?

[vash]

i remember coming home from school, making a grill cheese sandwich, doing my homework..helping my kid brother..and being tortured by my big sister..all home alone. i cant remember actual ages, but i remember my brother being very very young.

modern times..would my parent be arrested for child abandonment?

on the brightside, i can now make a badass gourmet grilled cheese

[nostatic]

My son has been walking home (about a mile) to an empty house for the past 3 years after school. He's 17 now. Nothing has burned down and Child Services hasn't knocked...

[ThomO]

It all depends on the kid.
Of my two boys by themselves they are good, together or add a friend and they don't always make the right decisions.

[targa911S]

you childhood sounds just like mine..I lived through it..

[Tobra]

In the summer, I would be at the river all day long. As long as I got home before dark, no problem. During the school year, from the time my older brother was about 12 or 13 we would be on our own until around 1700. About a 5 year spread in ages.

Only time there was a problem was when he was 16 and some of the guys in his band would come over. I was 11 or 12, and Joe thought it was funny to sock me in the leg or the arm and give me a Charley horse. I told him not to do it any more and he was sitting in chair and socked me in the thigh. Overhand right to the nose, ruined his shirt and he had two black eyes for a few weeks. Freakin' drummers.

[on2wheels52]

Originally Posted by ThomO

It all depends on the kid.
Of my two boys by themselves they are good, together or add a friend and they don't always make the right decisions.

This. I think Cathy and I were just lucky the way our son turned out. Far more trustworthy than we were as teenagers. Perhaps any grandchildren will be more like us. But for his sake, I hope that is not the case.
Jim

[targa911S]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Freakin' drummers.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by NotaBRG

Here is what the Minnesota Department of Human Services thinks:



• Children ages 8-10 may be left alone for up to three hours



• Children ages 11-13 may be left alone for up to 12 hours



• Children ages 14-15 may be left alone for up to 24 hours



It seems too young to me...

I find it offensive that the government would even have an opinion on this. It depends on the kids / parents, not government bureaucrats' opinions.

[M.D. Holloway]

If I do my job right...they are self sufficient by the time the are 14...

[Christien]

Originally Posted by NotaBRG

Here is what the Minnesota Department of Human Services thinks:

• Children ages 8-10 may be left alone for up to three hours

• Children ages 11-13 may be left alone for up to 12 hours

• Children ages 14-15 may be left alone for up to 24 hours

It seems too young to me...

There's no way I'd leave my 8-year-old home alone for 3 hours! But by the time she's 14-15, I'd expect she'll be fine alone for a weekend.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I would leave home for hours, my parents never knew where I was. The world is a safer place today, yet we as parents are all more paranoid. My 10 year old is self sufficient, we leave him at home pretty regularly for a morning or afternoon (4-ish hours). We will leave him at home to babysit the other two (4 and 7) for an hour or so. I have no concerns for their safety, but if we leave the 4 year old alone long enough, it's guaranteed that he will break something.

[dennis in se pa]

Maybe we are getting more government involvement because common sense is eroding?

[GH85Carrera]

I would have been called a latch key kid except we never locked our doors so I never had a key to worry about. The first time in my life that I had a door key was when I moved into my own apartment.

[71scgc]

We were left alone a lot as kids. Lots of mayhem ensued, but nothing burned down (close...), no lives or limbs lost.

Carter

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by NotaBRG

Here is what the Minnesota Department of Human Services thinks:

• Children ages 8-10 may be left alone for up to three hours

• Children ages 11-13 may be left alone for up to 12 hours

• Children ages 14-15 may be left alone for up to 24 hours

It seems too young to me...

Ironically that seems MORE than reasonable. I carried a key on a shoelace around my neck. Came home, called mom that I was home, made some cinnamon toast, and then played.... Around age 8-10....

[jyl]

My 15 y/o son rides his bike 5 miles across the city to school, then to dance training in the afternoon, gets home 8 pm or later. With the iPhone, I can see where he is at all times. With sunset getting earlier, he is riding in the dark some nights, so I have him lit up like a XMas tree. As it gets darker and starts to rain, I expect he'll use the bus, light rail, or mommy taxi more often but right now the independence is good for him.

I do worry that he is overscheduled, with a full high school classload plus 12-15 hours of dance per week. He has no idle time to get in trouble, that's for sure.