Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

No, its 100% not ok. Can you seriously talk to this person...??? **** to think you know this and something happens to this kid...it would eat you up alive. I dont know I might give her the benefit of the doubt and speak with her and tell her that its not ok BUT after that if she tells you to MYOB which she probably will, then you need to call authorities.

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

my first thought are all the What IFs...

What if theirs a fire, what if theirs an intruder.. a 7 year old wouldnt have a clue on what to do.. No way unacceptable.

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

I won't even leave my 3 year old in the house when I take my 5 year old to the bus - across the street!

What the hell is she thinking?

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

I think I agree with one of the PPs that it is one thing to just run 1 kid up to school a short distance away, but she should not be stopping for coffee.

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

I wouldnt do it....

I do think it's too young....

But there is no straight forward answer on what IS old enough....

For those of you that know me you know that my eldest daughter has Down Syndrome....If you spoke to my daughter you might think that she is NOT capable of staying home alone. As her mother I know that she is quite capable of staying home alone...in fact, although I never would, she could be left alone for a weekend and she would be fine. Yet...I would never leave her to babysit...My younger girls are better capable of babysitting than she is..Yet I generally dont leave them home alone. They get in to too much mischief...

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

OMG, NO WAY!!

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

I wouldnt do it, I am too paranoid... what if something happens to her, like a car accident and noone knows the child is alone at home... no way!

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

I dont even leave my almost 10 yr old alone

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

The other day my husband called me and said he planned to leave Robbie home while he went to pick up the car at the garage. I could NOT believe my ears. I asked him to repeat himself and he said "I'll only be gone 10 minutes max!"

I had to calmly explain that:

a. it only takes a SECOND for something to happen

b. he could get in a car accident or be delayed by traffic or something else - extending our child's time alone.

c. YES - Robbie does know how to dial 911, YES - he does know not to answer the door for strangers, YES - he does know all about stop, drop and roll.. but do we really want to potentially put that knowledge to the test?

So no - it's not okay. It's unacceptable. BUT - I don't think it's a criminal offense. I don't think CPS needs to be called.. but I do think she needs a reality check as to the possibie repercussions of this innocent decision.

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

OMG...my son will be 7 in 2 weeks and I would NEVER, EVER leave him home alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's crazy!

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

the more I think about it the more I feel she is just being a LAZY mom

I have to drag 3 kids in car seats to do 2 drop offs at different times and 3 pick ups
so that is a total of 6 times in and out of the car thats 18 times of unbuckling and buckling them in car seats and I dont leave anyone home

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

No, it's not something I would recommend, but it is a judgement call - not worthy of calling CPS

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

I know someone who left her 11 year old and 9 year old over night while she worked the grave yard shift...for years...so your story is nothing compared to that.

I easily could leave my 9 year old sleeping b/c she could sleep through anything BUT....I would never due to something called a conscious.

Nope couldn't do it, but I don't judge her.

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

i just couldnt chance it, what if something happened. You never know....

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

I would not do this. But as a single mother you make difficult decisions and maybe for her this is one of them. I personally would not stop for coffee and add time to the process though.
I would be uncomfortable with this but I am also not in her position.

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

No way! I have a 7 year old daughter and by no means would I leave her home alone to run my son to school and then get coffee. God forbid there was a fire, a break in, or some other disastrous event. I could never live with myself. Trust me, sometimes I wish it were a possibility, but it is completely irresponsible.

I understand that the mother has no one else to watch her child, but in the morning I have no one either and I have to drag both my kids out of bed to take the one to school.

Sometimes you wonder what people are thinking when they do things that could have such awful consequences....

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

A 7 year old can get into ALOT of trouble by themselves!!!!

If you told me she was leaving her young baby (young enough they can't get out of the crib) home sleeping I would be less shocked, because at least a baby can't do anything but lay there and cry in the crib. A 7 year old has a mind of their own.....lol
XOXOXO
BOTB

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

Personally, I wouldn't. If heaven forbid something happened, and anything can happen (a child's judgment is always off, no matter how mature they are), I would never get over it...

I have seen many 7 year olds in my career, and I believe some may "seem" mature enough, but still, they are not. All you need is some WACKO knocking on the door, saying "mommy was in an accident and told me to come get you....hurry we have to go to the hospital to see her", and BAM, all over. Wackos watch houses for patterns....this is all I think about.

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

Irresponsible behavior....

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

How hard is it to get both kids up and in the car? I do it all the time with a 2 and 4 year old....so with two school aged kids its pretty easy.

That mom is setting herself up for a possibly tragic situation. What if a fire started?

Edited to add, that after thinking more I dont see any relevance in her "im a single mom" arguement. My DH leaves for work at 4:45 am so he can go to the gym, so every morning I wake up a "single mom" in terms of the logisitics of handling the kids on my own. Add in her coffee stop....totally irresponsible!

Message edited 2/3/2009 5:07:15 PM.

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

Why does it matter if she is a single mom?

DH is out of the house by then. If we have a #2, I will be "single" too during the day.

It's NOT OK. Wake up the 7 year old, get her dressed and take her with you. That's that simple.

And yes, you are NOT allowed to leave a child that young alone at home.

Buying coffee on the way home tells me she is more looking for a "break" than the difficulty of bringing the older child. Seems more like convenience and getting a break.

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

Single mom or not, wrong.

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

Re: Leaving a 7yr old home asleep by themselves WITH POLL*****

Not OK at ALL!!!

And someone probably should call CPS...

What is this 7yr old supposed to do in the event of a fire??? Or if a break in occurs???

Not safe...not ok...

How hard is it to wake the child up and put them in the car for the ride???

And having a husband means what in this situation???

Im able to get myself, my 3yr old and all of our crap out of the house @ 6am every morning... many times ripping my son straight from bed...

My husband is not home to help AT ALL... its needs to get done..therefore it does...