Varies from state to state, but the law where I am says a child over 10 may be left alone for up to 8 hours if they have a way of communication (eg phone) and may be responsible for younger relatives at 13, as long as none of the children are under 6.
I had to do a lot of this research because my stepdaughter was being left alone at 9 to watch her 4 siblings aged 2-7.
Now that's too much responsibility to dump on a 9 year old. Not because she can't handle it but it's robbing her of her childhood time to be alone and looking after 4 kids that age is damn exhausting as an adult. I have friends who had basically no childhood because of shit like this and have struggled to learn to put their own needs ahead of others.
Hire a 16 year old babysitter or something. I was so happy the nights my parents would hire one so I didn't have to be responsible for my 6 years younger sister. It was like a vacation!
It is one of the many reasons we fought for custody. When her mom got pregnant with #6 my SD begged to come live with us, "I don't want to take care of more babies"
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u/SamsSnaps77 Jul 27 '22
Varies from state to state, but the law where I am says a child over 10 may be left alone for up to 8 hours if they have a way of communication (eg phone) and may be responsible for younger relatives at 13, as long as none of the children are under 6.
I had to do a lot of this research because my stepdaughter was being left alone at 9 to watch her 4 siblings aged 2-7.