When do you let your teenager spend the night alone?
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Anonymous
| Not worried about this particular kid and parties. |
Anonymous
| When he/she feels comfortable with staying alone? With my 16 DD I have no worries about parties but she is not ready, she'll feel lonely and possibly scared at night. |
Anonymous
| Around 16. Except once in an emergency it was much younger - I hadn’t expected to be gone the whole night but the ER was really busy. |
Anonymous
| We did at 16. Once they could drive. |
Anonymous
| I did at 15/16 |
Anonymous
| Just did it last week. Finishing 10th grade and 15 1/2 years old. |
Anonymous
| Never. It's not always about the particular kid. If others find out no parents are home, word gets out on SM and they can swarm the house |
Anonymous
| We did because of an unexpected flight cancellation when she was 17 and could drive. Also had the dog home with her. |
Anonymous
NP.. For us, some of this is about particular kid. Who doesn’t let others know that she’s home alone; she keeps the routine and provides continuous (at times too many) updates. We let our kid stay alone overnight, when she was comfortable with it. We notified one neighbor and gave them a heads up. Mainly, so if we need to text or have them to do something for us, that they would be around and expecting it. |
Anonymous
| We left DS home with the dog for two nights at almost 15 with grandparents nearby. It was fine and I think DS enjoyed the independence and having the house to himself for a weekend. He’s fairly introverted and we had no concerns that other kids would come over or that he would get into any trouble. It really depends on the kid. |
Anonymous
| 16, for one night, but not worried about parties (just has a few friends), and I am very close friends with my next door neighbor, who agreed that he could reach out to her for anything he needed. |
Anonymous
Well some of our kids are grown up enough to not post in SM they’re home alone. We’ve left our kids many times (they’re now adults) and our house was never swarmed. |
Anonymous
|
16.
I actually moved out at 17. |
Anonymous
I did too and I would leave my 16 yo home alone if there was an emergency, like one of us was out of town and the other had to go to the hospital or something. For general weekends away, no, I’m not comfortable. I trust my kid and our neighborhood is safe but I read about more break ins now than years ago. My biggest concern would be my kid here alone and no car in the driveway so someone breaking in would think the house was empty. It’s a one in a million chance but that’s my hesitation. |
Anonymous
| My 14 year old would be fine. I’d have no issue with leaving him. In fact we actually did when he was 13 but only because both parents were at hospital with sibling and hadn’t expected it to take all night. One parent went home at 5am to be there when he woke up but then promptly fell asleep and 13 year old got up and went to school without any interaction with the parent anyway. |