Overprotective? Or good sense?

[Anonymous]

I'm one of the less protective parents on here, but let me run this by you. Responsible 11 year old stays home alone for a few hours as needed. Husband scheduled some in-house painters to come by to do some painting at the same time. I'm not comfortable; we don't know these people. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I also tend to be on the more relaxed side, but I wouldn't be comfortable with this arrangement.

[Anonymous]

Hmm. I nearly left my young teen to open the house for the chimney cleaning service, in our absence, with check in hand, but ultimately it got rescheduled and I happened to be there.

I don't know, OP. If I didn't routinely hear of sexual assault cases, I wouldn't hesitate to do this, but I would never forgive myself if there was a crazy person on this staff of painters. The risk is minimal. But...

[Anonymous]

This is a hard no. Do not want to scare you but look up the Goff murders Potomac .

I’m not an overreacting parent either. This one is a no brainer. It's probably one in a million but no reason to risk.

[Anonymous]

Reschedule. There's the safety of the 11 yr old, but also it's not fair to the painters. I do some contract work and would be angry if parents set me up to be in a home with a child that age and no other adults. There are false accusations made all the time.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't be concerned about risk to the child but what is more likely is the painter (if not a good person) stealing stuff due to no adult at home.

Also the painters may have questions and it would put the 11 year old on the spot about the job.

[Anonymous]

Hard no. Would never do this.

[Anonymous]

Nope. Not okay.

[Anonymous]

Also no.

[Anonymous]

I actually don't think the painting company would be cool with this either. No adult (male) wants to be in this position, OP.

[Anonymous]

Hard no. Not in a million years.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks. I would never buck a rare DCUM unanimous thread. Didn't think about the painters; that's a good point. There's not really anything worth stealing, so not concerned about that so much..

[Anonymous]

i am also super not over protective but this is a HARD NO.

[Anonymous]

Yup. Hard no. Not fair to painters among many other reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm one of the less protective parents on here, but let me run this by you. Responsible 11 year old stays home alone for a few hours as needed. Husband scheduled some in-house painters to come by to do some painting at the same time. I'm not comfortable; we don't know these people. Thoughts?

No way! Make plans for child to go to friend’s house.