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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP referred to "surviving" 20 unsupervised days?!? 
It's really funny that there are people on this forum who don't think they can leave their 12 year old in a car alone... and then people like you who think it is ok for a 13 year old to home alone 10 hours a day, starting a lawn care business and refinishing furniture.[/quote]

Ha!  I know.  :-)  I tend more toward the "let them walk to school", "let them get wet", "let them climb the tree even if they end up falling out and breaking an arm; it's better than never climbing a tree" mindset.

I seriously think it's insane that a person wouldn't leave a 12 year old alone in a car while running an errand.  We're turning into a nation of scaredy cats (and teaching our kids to be scared of our fellow man) for almost no reason.  Yes, there are kidnappers and predators out there, but they are rare, so rare that I would not hesitate to leave my 13 year old alone during the day or allow him to ride his bike in our neighborhood without us at home.

And yes, I think mowing neighbors' lawns and sanding and staining some wood furniture are both completely reasonable activities for a 13 year old to do without direct adult supervision.  (Maybe not power tools, but hand sanding is fine.)  And yes, it was 20+ years ago since I had a newspaper route, shoveled snow, and mowed neighbors' lawns at age 12, but guess what?  The world has gotten SAFER in the last 20 years.  Kids are SAFER, statistically.  Yet we are treating them like calves to turn into veal.  [/quote]

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