My boy has been playing with another local boy today. The wife got chatting with this little boy, and it turned out that his mum had left him alone and gone to work for the day. He’s nine.

I got her work number and expressed my concerns, and she said words to the effect of “He’s a really sensible boy, and he’s got his phone to call me if there are any problems.”

I’m sure he is sensible, but I still think nine is too young to be left alone for the day. The wife has subsequently called 101 and reported it.

Have we done the right thing? I feel a bit unsure about getting the police involved, but the boy could have wondered off anywhere and she’d have been completely unaware.

https://www.gov.uk/law-on-leaving-your-child-home-alone 😯

Talk about vague

Totally did the right thing. Well done.

depends if the child is capable of looking after themselves. would I leave my 12 year old at home yeah for a short period of time, would I leave the 7 year old no.

It’d not going to do any harm what your wife has done although in my experience woman (mums) over react to pretty much everything to do with kids.

I can’t imagine any reasonable reason why someone would willingly leave a 9 year old child at home for a whole day. I think you have done the right thing.

My parents used to go out one evening a week leaving us kids at home in a big country house and big garden. There was a shotgun and cartridges under the stairs and weedkiller in the garage, which we discovered would burn rather well if mixed with sugar. I really don’t know how we didn’t shoot, electrocute or blow ourselves up.

I can’t imagine any reasonable reason why someone would willingly leave a 9 year old child at home for a whole day

No-one available to look after them? Shitty job that doesn’t pay enough for childcare? Can’t imagine it would be “willingly”, but I’m sure there are imaginable reasons why someone would do this and I bet there are 1000s of kids left alone in the easter hols.
Social services are the ones to call rather than the cops.

Whilst we are a bit over cautious nowadays, I can only imagine how I’d feel if something did happen whilst the wee one was on her tod.

Out of interest, what age do you allow your kids to walk home from school themselves?.

It depends where you live, on the child, how long her work day is and a whole raft of other stuff. You’ve no evidence of neglect, abuse or anything else and her lad may well be perfectly capable of spending a few hours on his own. I think calling the plod was excessive. When I was nine I often jumped on the bus down to Brixton market and picked up some stuff for my mum or wen’t off to the park for hours, where’s the difference?

Instinctively feels too young to me. I too spent hours out playing with friends at that age but still checked in at lunch time either at home or a trusted friend’s house. At 11 I’d be home alone for a few hours after school. But 9 is young for a whole day.

I doubt it’s a choice in the strictest sense of the word. Are you able to point her to free or cheap clubs in your area where the lad could go?

I’d have no moral qualms about reporting something like that. Bottom line is they’ll either do something about it if there’s a problem and won’t if there isn’t. Ie, you’ve moved the burden of making that judgement call on to them. (Whether I’d actually report it is another matter…)

Just a thought though. When the police come round to investigate the day after you talking to her about it, she’ll know it was you who dobbed her in. Might sour relationships.

I’d always go for the individual kid over some arbitrary limit based on age.

We’ve started to leave the 11-year-old at home on the odd day / half-day, but we’re not completely at ease with it – still with High School coming in a few months he’s going to have to fend for himself to a certain degree – it’s an easy introduction.

My two are 14. I’ll leave them at home for maybe an hour max. Then again, one of them is daft as a brush.

#overprotective

There are simply too many factors to take into account which is why the legislation is “vague” but it’s mostly about the individual child. Calling 101 though?

When the police come round to investigate

I’ve been informed that the police will refer it to Child Services, so hopefully she won’t have the boys in blue screeching to a halt outside and battering the door down. Not yet anyway.

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/leaving-child-home-alone/

Children under the age of 12 are rarely mature enough to cope in an emergency and should not be left at home alone for a long period of time

Strange as it may seem, there’s no set age for leaving children home alone. The law simply says that you shouldn’t leave a child alone if they’ll be at risk.

Bit of a grey area.

I’m all for giving kids a bit of responsibility, but leaving them alone all day aged 9 does seem a bit much.

Out of interest, what age do you allow your kids to walk home from school themselves?.

Round this way they go to Middle School after Year 4, which means getting the bus by themselves to the next village. So I guess in Year 4 (so aged 8 or 9) they better start getting used to taking themselves to and from school.

I wouldn’t leave my 48 year old brother alone in the house, but i’d happily leave my eleven year old son for an hour or two.

If i’d left my daughter when she was nine, she’d have put a washing on, hung it up to dry, ironed it, run the hoover round and made the dinner for everyone coming home.I’d have trusted her implicitly.

Now that’s she’s 13 I wouldn’t leave her in the house by herself.
No way.
A “gaff” might occur.

NO WAY would I leave my 10 year old home alone all day, although in 1981 when I was 10, I was gallivanting all over town and up in the hills on my own (or with kids the same age) all day during the hols when my folks were at work, left to sleep in the car whilst they partied at friends, left to sleep in the hotel room while they went to the pub, went to work with my dad in the front seat of the car without a seat belt while he chain smoked 100 fags a day, loved it when my dad did a ‘ton’ on the M61 with me in the front seat (no seat belt…), got sent to the shop to buy 20 No 6 and a box of matches for my dad. It sounds like my folks didn’t give a toss, but as far as I was aware, that was normal back then (feel free to correct me!).

I’ve been informed that the police will refer it to Child Services

As someone who was reported to social services fairly recently 😳 I think you did the right thing.

It might just be a child grossly exaggerating a one-off event for maximum shock value, but it could be the final little danger sign in a catalogue of previous reports that triggers an overdue knock on the door.

I wouldn’t leave my 48 year old brother alone in the house

😆

A “gaff” might occur.

Can’t you just open the window for a couple of minutes?

I walked home from age 9 crossing a busy road in the process, one Mum was quite shocked to hear this. From 10 my brother was travelling by train and bus across London. I wouldn’t have liked being left on my own for so long though, I’d have felt lonely but wouldn’t have caused trouble. My parents kept with baby sitters until I was 13, that annoyed me even though I did have younger brothers.

Going on previous exploits I don’t think my lad (he’s 11) would be safe left alone until he’s about 30.

9 seems too young, i’d say you’ve done the right thing.

Can’t you just open the window for a couple of minutes?

Gaff, not Guff.

It’s what the kids call it now.

It used to be called “an empty” when I was a young ‘un.

My parents would have referred to it as “a house party”

It used to be called “an empty” when I was a young ‘un.

Two otters?
James III?
Captains Log?
Laying a cable?

Kevin on the subject of ” an empty”……

[video]https://youtu.be/ryH8Mrf2Ooo[/video]