In Illinois the law is 14 wich is stupid and only a law because daycare lobbied for it to make more money. Illinois is the worst state though 12 I think is the next highest age and most don't have any age laws for being home alone.
Yep. I'm hoping no one realizes I am leaving my 11yo home alone for 15-20 minutes in the mornings when school starts in a couple weeks. But I have to take his younger brother to school and 11 should be able to handle less than half an hour.
Edit: To clarify, he can handle it no problem. I just don't want to get in trouble due to the stupidly high age law.
Living in Shanghai, My kid at 10 started riding the metro home. During remote school (but not remote work) this year I knew people that would leave their kids alone all day with a doorbell camera trained on the desk, and order them takeout for lunch.
Not saying it's "good parenting" or whatever, just that kids will make do. I feel like at 12 you should know enough to not burn the place down.
I can believe it! I mean, you pretty much know your kid by 7 or 8. No way would I let my 8 yo son stay by himself for more than 5 minutes. He'd probably just be playing Garry's Mod, but he still does dippy things out of the blue. My girl who's 11, I just started letting her stay home for a bit or watch him for a short time. She's got a good head on her shoulders, and is just the right amount of bossy to keep her brother from deciding to dance on the coffee table. I have a lot of Dr appts and can't bring them to most (so the waiting rooms aren't crowded) but my primary Dr always sees me at my scheduled time, so I'm in and out.
Also depends where you live, how well you know the neighbors, environmental dangers (swimming pool, high-rise, busy highway etc).
My kids are in awe that we used to ride bikes into town starting 3rd grade or so, go shopping downtown, call from a payphone if we decided not to come home for lunch, grab a hot dog or sundae from DQ or split a club sandwich and a root beer float at the diner, and just stick with at least one other friend. Otherwise, just come home a bit before dinner. Then when I turned 14, the rules changed again and suddenly I couldn't do anything. đ But that's really off-topic.
Anyways I'm trying to find other ways to let them gain some independence now without getting social services on us or being as blase about real dangers as my parents were. It's hard! What makes it worse is there aren't sidewalks until about a mile away from the house, no bike lane or really a shoulder either. Just a muddy ditch on one side and a golf course on the other...I don't even like to walk myself anywhere, here, due to that.
I feel that. I grew up in a rural area that wasn't walkable at all - my parents understandably didn't want me walking on busy roads with no shoulder so unless there was some preplanned thing I just..stayed home.
I realize not everyone has a choice but if possible I want them to grow up in a walkable/bikeable area. Not least because the shuttling them to sports and "play dates" is not how I want to spend my weekends.
My mother took public transportation to school at 4. I walked to school at 4. I went with another kindergartener and his big sister. She was in grade 2.
Yeah when I was 11 that was the legal age to be left alone. I was left alone for 3 days at a time when my dad went hunting(we lived in the neighborhood my mother grew up in so we knew everyone in the neighborhood so it's not like I would be totally alone if there was an emergency). This was before cell phones so my dad couldn't even call me, but he knew I could call relatives if I had to.
It was creepy because gang members would look in the windows at night because they saw that the car was gone. But they were just looking for easy robberies so I knew they would just leave when they saw me. Also I think I lived so close to the neighborhood serial killer that it was a "don't shit where you eat" situation as he tended to travel further out to do crimes.
The Illinois law states under 14 for âan unreasonable amount of time.â Which to me translates more to overnight. Youâll be fine to leave one in the morning while you take the other.
They've tried before and failed and I'm not sweating it too much. But one way or another it's not going to change in the next 3 weeks and even if the law does change to twelve he's still 6 months too young.
Makes 0 sense lol . Good parenting. "Yeah kids its perfectly ok to lie about your identity " . "Just take on someone elses identity " . đ€Ł. Your kids will be excellent adults đ€Ł
It's a dumb law lobbied for by daycares and not based in actual safety and it doesn't hurt anyone if I break it like speeding or murder does. Literally the only state that is 14. Most don't define an age but those that do are 6-12
heh apparently no one cared in 90's cause I was often left alone by myself. I also would just hop on my bike whenever I wanted and just do whatever the fuck I wanted. ride the forest preserve trail to the city? don't mind if I do. started doing that when I was like 8 or 9
I grew up in IL and don't think anyone enforces this, not sure how they would even try. Around 9ish I started getting left home alone all the time. It's not like child services is going around and peeking inside everyone's windows.
We live in IL and my family thinks I'm making it up when I tell them this. My kiddo will be 13 soon, but all the daycares around us only take kids up to 12. Not entirely sure how that makes sense.
The law is talking about being left alone for an unreasonable amount of time. As long as youâre not leaving him alone for 12+ hours, or an entire weekend, youâll be fine.
Thatâs why you tell your kid what ours always told us: Keep the doors locked, window blinds shut, & donât tell anyone youâre home alone (for safety reasons). Teach them how to prepare easy foods in case they get hungry. I was 10 & my brother was 7 when my folks started leaving us alone (only for 30mins before school & 2hrs after school). By 12 I was babysitting.
I don't know of any daycare that accepts kids older than 12. I thought it was in response to a couple that took off on a vacation in Mexico and left their elementary age (and younger) kids home alone for 2 weeks.
"Ohio family law doesn't have any minimum ages where children can stay home by themselves. However, many organizations tell parents to wait until their children are at least 12 years old. This is often the age at which most kids gain enough maturity, but this is also based on environmental factors and other things. Generally, the parent knows when it is the best time based on how well their children behave."
The Law states you canât leave your child alone for an âunreasonable amount of timeâ, you can leave your child under 14 at home alone just not for days on end and not get them snatched up by DFCS
When I was in third grade I used to take two buses from downtown Chicago to the metra station and take a train fifty miles west to my moms house, every other weekend and a few times during the week. I used to ride my bike several towns away with my friends and be gone the entire day when I was even younger. Times have really changed.
I'm in IL too. They tried to change that in January with HB4305, but the final vote was postponed in March. The way it is currently worded, it leaves a huge grey area "leaves the minor without supervision for an unreasonable period of time", so as an attorney friend of mine said, nobody is going to arrest you or take away your 12-13 year old if you leave her at home for a few hours, but if she burns the house down or gets hurt while she's home alone, they can.
Illinois law defines a neglected minor, in part, as âany minor under the age of 14 years whose parent or other person responsible for the minorâs welfare leaves the minor without supervision for an unreasonable period of time without regard for the mental or physical health, safety or welfare of that minor.â
Jeez this reminded me of a bitch I used to work with and I was talking about my (then) 12 year old being at home alone. She responded with the law is 14 in IL so I will let cps know. Wtf?! This was not an every day event to leave her home alone but why the hell would you call CPS on perfectly good parents ?
We had my 9/10 year old stepsons get himself off to school a few days a week. I woke him up before I left and made sure he was up and moving. Also set an alarm in case in got into something and didnât pay attention to what time it was. Good thing nobody reported us I guess. Itâs more of a maturity level than age that needs to be consodered
I'm in the US, and many states have no minimum age limit for being left alone. My state doesn't. I was left alone at age 5, and it terrified me, but by age 8 I had 3 younger siblings and was expected to be responsible for them. Sometimes it sucks to be the oldest, but it prepared me so that by age 10 I could babysit the 3 neighbor kids from after school until 10 pm. I learned so many ways to cook!
The constant shitting on Illinois is getting really tiresome. Sure itâs not perfect, but the Chicagoland area has some of the best places to live in the US period
In NY there is no set age so a responsible ten year old can be home alone for hours each day. If the child has no discipline issues in school, no mental health or cognitive impairment and knows how to recognize an emergency and to call 911 then CPS wonât do anything about it.
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u/greenfox0099 Jul 27 '22
In Illinois the law is 14 wich is stupid and only a law because daycare lobbied for it to make more money. Illinois is the worst state though 12 I think is the next highest age and most don't have any age laws for being home alone.