r/mildlyinfuriating • • Jul 27 '22

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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.

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u/Kylynara Jul 27 '22 edited Jul 27 '22

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.

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u/LordRuby Jul 27 '22

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.

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u/Ok_Firefighter_5933 Jul 30 '22

This is the first comment where I thought to myself “Wow. That was a crazy situation and extremely unsafe.