12+ as long as they have a way to contact you its fine.

But, lots of camp and other options.

I think it’s fine for 2-3 weeks like you are saying. As a pp mentioned my main concern in my family would be excessive screen time. But let’s be honest, that’s a concern even when a parent is at home. It’s a modern parenting stress our parents didn’t have to worry so much about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. One day? Sure. Two hours each day? Probably. But three weeks? No, that’s asking for trouble.

If you can afford camps great, but most people do leave teens home over the summer because they can't afford hundreds of dollars a week in camp fees. Life has still continued for those kids.

If they're too old for camp then they're old enough to get a job. They can work while their parents are working.

What job employs a 13-14 year old from 9-5 all summer?

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I left my kids alone at that age in the summers while DH and I worked.

They had some camps mixed in, but mostly it was unstructured time alone.

It’s how I grew up in the early 80s, running the streets sans cell phone and calling Mom at work repeatedly when bored.

Kids weren’t sitting on an iPhone and social media and nefarious websites all day long in the 80s.

We found almost zero kids home in summers -either on vacation, in camps or sent to grandparents so nobody around to play with in the neighborhood. I have a 19 and 16 year old. When they were younger o would save most of my annual leave for summer—think 4 weeks of my 5.2 weeks. We’d do a 2-week vacation and fill the weeks I wasn’t home in with sports camps —about 3-4 weeks. Luckily my sons were just 2 years apart and loved the exact same sports so one drop off and pick up.

My biggest concern would be wasting time on the iPhone—we had to take our 16 year old’s phone away at certain points of time last summer. And luckily he had a summer job walking distance from our house- ice cream shop.

Anonymous wrote:If they're requesting staying home, I'd make them give me a plan so they're not just sitting around on phones or video games. One summer they kind of made their own camp with friends, like an outing to a different museum each day

Technically minors aren’t even allowed in the Smithsonians anymore without an adult. It’s not a free-range world for kids unfortunately.

If they’re the kind of kid to find things to do with friends, sure. But staying home alone isolated for weeks on end is not mentally healthy. Not that kids have to be entertained but it’s a different world than when I grew up. I never had any summer camps but there were plenty of other kids to see and places to go, and I also had part-time jobs when I got to be around 14-15.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. One day? Sure. Two hours each day? Probably. But three weeks? No, that’s asking for trouble.

If you can afford camps great, but most people do leave teens home over the summer because they can't afford hundreds of dollars a week in camp fees. Life has still continued for those kids.

If they're too old for camp then they're old enough to get a job. They can work while their parents are working.

I think that’s great (get a job) in theory but hard in practice due to transportation. With my own job, hard to drop off/pick up from anything that isn’t for the full day.

I’m a teacher and these are the PT summer gigs I go for. I’ve driven kids to/from camp and teens to/from their jobs. Easy money and it doesn’t take up my entire day.

And if you’re driving for pay, your personal insurance likely has an exclusion should be in an at fault accident.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. One day? Sure. Two hours each day? Probably. But three weeks? No, that’s asking for trouble.

If you can afford camps great, but most people do leave teens home over the summer because they can't afford hundreds of dollars a week in camp fees. Life has still continued for those kids.

If they're too old for camp then they're old enough to get a job. They can work while their parents are working.

I think that’s great (get a job) in theory but hard in practice due to transportation. With my own job, hard to drop off/pick up from anything that isn’t for the full day.

I’m a teacher and these are the PT summer gigs I go for. I’ve driven kids to/from camp and teens to/from their jobs. Easy money and it doesn’t take up my entire day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. One day? Sure. Two hours each day? Probably. But three weeks? No, that’s asking for trouble.

If you can afford camps great, but most people do leave teens home over the summer because they can't afford hundreds of dollars a week in camp fees. Life has still continued for those kids.

If they're too old for camp then they're old enough to get a job. They can work while their parents are working.

I think that’s great (get a job) in theory but hard in practice due to transportation. With my own job, hard to drop off/pick up from anything that isn’t for the full day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. One day? Sure. Two hours each day? Probably. But three weeks? No, that’s asking for trouble.

If you can afford camps great, but most people do leave teens home over the summer because they can't afford hundreds of dollars a week in camp fees. Life has still continued for those kids.

If they're too old for camp then they're old enough to get a job. They can work while their parents are working.

Yes. I left my kids alone at that age in the summers while DH and I worked.

They had some camps mixed in, but mostly it was unstructured time alone.

It’s how I grew up in the early 80s, running the streets sans cell phone and calling Mom at work repeatedly when bored.

It's fine, kids could use more unstructured time these days and should be able to entertain themselves without getting into trouble. Only problem i see is trying to curb excessive screen time.

No, I’d expect them to volunteer or work. If they have an hour at home I’d expect chores done and dinner started.

If they're requesting staying home, I'd make them give me a plan so they're not just sitting around on phones or video games. One summer they kind of made their own camp with friends, like an outing to a different museum each day

Sort of similar here. My kids are begging to not go to camp. My current solution is camp every other week filled in with grandparent trips. They're still complaining though.