Would you leave a 16 year old home alone for 1 week?
I was left home alone for a week when I was 16… There is no way I would leave my teenage child home alone for a week 
Uh NO. I remember being left home alone a lot of weekends as a teenager and no way would i leave my kids home alone. I got in to a lot of trouble during those weekends i can only imagine if it had been a whole week.
Anna?
No way-I guess it depends upon the maturity level and depends on the level of being home alone will be too. Such as will a neighbor or family member come by to check in or what? I don’t think I would feel comfortable doing that quite yet but then again that’s just my opinion.
No. They don’t require round the clock care during that week, but someone should be there during evenings, during periodical points of the day, and available for contact at any time in case of emergency…essentially the level of supervision/availability typically given to teens.
For a night. Yes, if the child was trustworthy. It would take very special circumstances with a very special kid to make me leave him/her home alone for a week. When we had to leave SD for several days, we enlisted the help of family and friends so she was somewhere responsible every night for the 4 days we were gone before her mom could get her.
no way!
no…a weekend maybe but no longer than that
No. Absolutely not. I was super responsible and mature and was left home alone for a week when I was 16. As soon as my friends found out they started planning a big party at my house. I was just planning on having a few close friends over on one of the nights and I overheard them talking about all of the people they invited to my house and the keg that they were getting. I was so worried it made me sick to my stomach. I ended up pretending I was sick that night. I had so many people come knocking on my door it was ridiculous. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I would have let them in and had the big party that my friends planned. There is no way in the world that I would trust a 16 year old home alone for that length of time. Even if your child is responsible, their friends may not be.
Legally, at sixteen, they’re still minors, aren’t they? So you would be legally in the wrong for leaving a minor unsupervised for a very long time. Even if you don’t care about the legal side of it: Imagine how you’d feel if something happened to your kid and you weren’t there?
The legal aspect aside: If you wanted to do this without regard for leaving a minor unsupervised: This is impossible to answer without knowing the teenager well. Is he or she responsible? Has the teen ever been home alone for any length of time (two days, three days, more) previously and done OK with that? Do you have any reason to believe that the teen will cave when friends call or text and say, “Come on, let us come over! It’ll be fine!” even after you said “No one can come over while we’re out of the house”? The questions could go on and on and on. Ultimately this cannot be a generic “would you do this for A kid” question; it is only a “should I do this for MY particular kid” question.
But ultimately, even with a very responsible and mature kid, I wouldn’t do this. At sixteen they are still very much in teenage brain mode and that means that even the very best kids may want to experiment and break out a bit and will invite the friends over or stay up too late, etc.
Friends of ours have very sensible and mature kids and at 17, their son went with friends his own age on a tour of several weeks (no adults) in Europe; he did it again this summer with friends. But they live in Europe, where kids seem to be expected to do more things on their own earlier in life, and where it’s pretty typical for teenagers to travel solo over long distances. These friends have also left this son alone at home for a week at a time while they were on vacation (he didn’t want to come, he wanted to earn some money working that week, etc.) and it was fine – but they also live out in the country in a village and not a lot goes on after about 5:00, and a working kid didn’t have time to go out or get into much trouble.
But I personally wouldn’t be comfortable doing it with MY child, no matter how mature she was.
Hell no-you’re opening yourself up for a peck of trouble
No freaking way, crazy.
By law it depends on your child. I was left home alone and did nothing but read books. Then again, I had 5 brothers and sister (two were party kids and the other three relax kids). I think someone should check up on the kid ever so often but whether you can or can not, will or will not depends on how responsible your child is. If your child is going to get into trouble, he’ll get into trouble if left for a day or two just as much as 7 days.
I guess if there are more kids your child is less likely to get into trouble too but even if it were me alone I would not have done anything bad.
Hell no
Nope. I have a 16 yo and a 14 yo and I wouldn’t. There’s too much peer pressure. They’re both responsible kids, but I still wouldn’t put them in that position, even for one night.
There are no laws that govern this, you could leave them alone. Hopefully they are able to drive if needed.
However, I wouldn’t recommend it. Years ago (probably 40 years ago), our parents left for a week and my 16 yo sister was in charge…she had a big party and made me and my sister stay upstairs. Very wrong!
If you did this, you should have a neighbor close by or a relative come and stay at night perhaps.
No way.
Nope.
I remember being sixteen and all the stupidity my sister and I would get into when the adults were away for the weekend. (and it was of the ‘no drinking, no smoking’ variety, but still, too much drama!) We were fairly responsible, even at that point, however, there’s a lot of peer pressure that goes with being a teen… esp. a teen with an unsupervised house.
Sixteen means ‘not quite an adult, still living by the good graces of mom and dad’. Most sixteen year olds still get into fights with their parents over rules and boundaries, still need parental support from time to time, and still need parental presence from time to time. As I said before, even the most responsible teen can feel pressured to ‘have a few friends over’ and then word spreads too easily, via social media… Just not a good idea.
Totally depends on the kid. Some are very responsible. If it seems appropriate, also make sure an adult friend or neighbor checks in once in a while.