How do I know when it is ok to leave my child alone?

Mar 03, 2009 in Parenting

How do I know when it is ok to leave my child alone?
A general rule of thumb is to not leave your children home alone until they are at least eleven years old.

However, some children are perfectly fine for a short time period at ten, and there are some teens that still require constant supervision and cannot be left alone.

The best way to determine whether or not your child is ready to be left alone is to talk to your child to see if he or she knows what to do when faced with different situations.

Does your child realize that he or she should never open the door when you are not home? Would they know what to do in the case of an emergency? If you are confident, begin by leaving your child for only a few minutes while you run to the corner store, or visit a neighbor. After several short periods, you can leave your child for an hour or so to see how he or she does on their own. Only when you feel confident should you leave your child alone for extended periods of time.

What you need to remember is that whatever has to happen …happens only once. So it is better to be over cautious than over confident in such cases.

Even when you are leaving your child alone, make sure that your neighbours are informed and your child has `including yours to contact incase of need.

It would be a good idea to also keep all emergency numbers like fire dept.,police, hospitals etc pasted near the telephone in case of any emergency.