Anonymous wrote:Man, when I was a kid and we went to Ocean City, my mom would send my sister and me back to our condo in the afternoon when we got bored with the beach. We walked the few blocks alone, when we were probably 6 and 9 years old. Leaving an 8- and 9-year-old seems perfectly safe.

In MoCo they have to be 8 to be left alone, and 13 to be left with a younger sibling. Since the younger sibling was 8, I don't think that second rule applies in this case. Of course, that's MoCo and not Rehoboth, but still, seems reasonable for the mom to follow that guideline.

Same here! My mom would let my brother and I walk back to our hotel or condo at OC to take naps when we got tired from playing on the beach. Then in the evenings after dinner, she'd give us each $20 and tell us to be off the boardwalk and back at the room by 10pm. Ah, those were the days!

I was just at OC last weekend and you see plenty of kids that age going to back to their hotel rooms or out on the boardwalk alone. Heck, we just did a big family vacation to the Outer Banks before Labor Day and the adults all went out for a nice dinner and left the kids alone with pizza and movies for about 4 hours. Oldest kid was 14 and youngest was 5; 10 kids in total.

I'm not a free range parent, but I'm also not dragging my 9 year old all over town while running errands when he's perfectly happy to stay holed up in his room, watching YouTube videos on his iPad.

Anonymous wrote:I'm just shocked that anyone would leave a rising third and fourth grader alone at a vacation home. Zero familiar neighbors to look out for them or help in case of emergency. Surrounded by strangers. All I can think of is Madeleine McCann.

Seriously, who does this?!?!

Many, many people have summer rentals and go every weekend to Rehoboth. It's possible they have been frequently this summer, and every summer, AND know the neighbors.