Child Wellness: What age do you start to leave a child alone?
If you are a parent of a young adolescent there comes a time when you ask yourself, when can I leave my child alone. According to the experts, there is an age where you can start thinking about it.
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"For small periods of time, where you have easy contact with the child and you have easy contact with you, probably somewhere around ten years of age is reasonable if it's going to be for a few minutes less than an hour, "said Dr. Manny Cirenza.
Pediatrician Dr. Manny Cirenza says its acceptable to allow kids older than 12 to be alone, a main reason is, it's at that age most begin to babysit other kids for money.
Set up guidelines ahead of time. Know contact number of neighbors in case of an emergency. Don't allow them to answer the door or the phone unless its a relative or someone you have approved ahead of time. No friends should be allowed over and stay off the internet.
"In the advent of Facebook, many children are updating their status, indeed its been know to occur and log on and mention, I am home a lone not a good thing to broadcast over internet," Cirenza said.
Depending on the maturity of your child, cooking may be allowed, but keep it simple.
"I wouldn't want to play around with any chemicals, tools. Usually is has to do with something more quiet, watching tv, playing video games, doing homework," said Cirenza.
It's a good idea to have a code word already assigned to your child. In the event that something were to happen to you, maybe at work, and not able to take care of the child, that person would come to the house and that child would know that it's ok and it's already preplanned and it's safe to let the person in.
"If you can come up with some type of code word that is something that can stay in the family and be a unique word and always going to recognize," Cirenza said.