ill stick my neck out about all these catastrophes that kids aged 8 and 11 can’t deal with….
The overwhelming majority of adults have no experience of being in fires. And a high proportion of these will panic, and potentially do the wrong thing. They’ll try to fight the blaze themselves, or rescue precious items, family pets etc and get themselves into trouble.
Most children are used to going through fire evacuations on a regular basis from a very young age from nurseries,to schools. They know a fire alarm when they hear it. Just like all adults. They are equally as equipped following instructions on what to do in a fire at school than an adult is at work.
it doesn’t matter how old a child is, every parent should be telling their child what to do if alarm at home happens. They need to know their own escape plan and emergency routes. Do parents not teach their kids that? You could get overcome with smoke, your child needs to know that they need to get out quickly. They need to know to get out and then ring 999, or get a neighbour to do that. It really isn’t something you need high levels of experience or cognitive processing skills or maturity for. Because even adults, when afraid, get flight, fight, freeze mode which shuts down brain into reptilian thinking and not logical, executive thinking functions. It should be automatic, not something you need to even think about.
similarly the catastrophic thinking around burglary. Do you really think you as an adult will handle a burglar any better, with a better outcome? What do you think you’re going to do? Talk the burger out of nicking your stuff! Adults do some stupid things like challenging burglars that lead to far worse consequences. And burglars have been known to break in when kids are sleeping while parents are at home, even coming into their bedrooms 🤦♀️
It is about teaching your kids on how to deal with emergencies. Giving them confidence to carry out an action plan you’ve practiced frequently with them. Do people not understand that firefighters come to fires confident, with the right skills to do their job, because they spend the vast, overwhelming majority of their time practicing, following playbooks on what to do in a given situation again, and again, till it is instinctive, because yes, they can also be fearful and the reptilian brain can kick in.
When was last time all these parents on here, throwing their hands up in horror about an 8year old left on their own, has taught their child what the fire alarm sounds like, what to do if they hear it, how to get out of house, how to call 999, where the door key is kept at night so they can unlock if needed to get out and not wait for you ( you could be overcome by smoke sadly) . Do you practice these fire escapes with your 4 and 5 year olds. Why not? It could save their life.
we read about amazing kids aged 3, 4, 5 who’ve rung for ambulances cos mummy collapsed! Why have they been able to do that, because they’ve had parents who’ve done the teaching to tell them what to do so they’re confident and knowledgeable to do it
im not saying 8 years old is old enough to spend hours alone, it depends on child. And that’s the OPs post discussion here…but always on these threads there’s a contingent of parents whose argument seems solely based on “ wot about fire/burglary/catastrophe” and it’s the most bat shit argument to present wrt kids being left on their own
These catastrophes happen if you are there or not. Empower your kids to deal with these extreme emergencies without you anyway. their well-being and yours may depend on it .