To leave my 7 yr old home alone for 30mins ?

That your DCs did not scald themselves when left alone is no argument for leaving any 7-year-old alone. Yours might not. Mine might. Hers did. Which is why it is illegal in the UK to leave such a young child unsupervised.

My DCs played out with older children from next door when around 7. On quiet streets and in a spinney owned by the neighbour. I would not have left then alone in the house at that age.

FGS, 11 year olds don't "graduate", they just move up to secondary school. Your 7 year old needs you more.

Not as big a deal as leaving a seven year old alone at home, sick or not, and being reported to Social Services for neglect/lack of safeguarding by possibly one of your yr 6 DC's teachers, who happens to ask how 7 year old is.

None of mine did. They knew not to use the kettle when home alone until about 10 though they used it when I was home without issues from about 8. They just need to be taught properly and to have rules in place.

But that was then. I was allowed to go to the ABC cinema for Saturday morning cinema at eight, with a group of friends who lived near me. Ditto swimming. At eleven I was taking two buses to my secondary school. But I would not have allowed my children to do any of these things because they grew up in a quite different environment.

Why would I think it? Because they do. Or they scald themselves with the kettle making a hot drink etc. That's why you do not leave them alone.

You miss your son's graduation. It is illegal to leave your 7 year old alone at home, besides which anything can happen in half an hour including a break-in, a fire etc. Paranoid to think of such things, certainly, but they are the things you looking at when you think it's ok to leave her. Sorry, it's not.

There will always be the odd child. Usually the ones who aren't allowed to do anything supervised so wait to be unsupervised. I'd say there are far more intoxicated adults and adults with memory issues and cognitive decline who are accidentally starting fires.

This is just not realistic. Ask a firefighter about kids who were told not to play with matches but did.

Why would a typical 7 year old burn the house down? They'd know not to use a gas burner unsupervised or to microwave something for 20 minutes. In my experience they follow instructions well because they want to be trusted. I'd have trusted my children at 7 far more than I trusted a few adults I've known. Adults will think they can do things safely because they have always done them, when sometimes they can't due to intoxication, memory loss, and other factors.

I am very slapdash but I have 2 7 year olds and no way round I leave either of them at home alone. We are camping at the moment and I left one of them playing football with some other boys and went back to the caravan about 5 mins walk away, I told him I’d be back in 20 mins (it was raining but he didn’t want to leave). By the time I got back he was sobbing, absolutely beside himself, his friends had left and he had no idea what to do, even though he knew I was coming back and was just across the camp site. At 7 they’re just babies really, if anything unexpected happens they’re totally clueless. I wouldn’t trust mine not to burn the house down.

Could you ask one of your sons teachers to video call the graduation instead?
I'm sure they'd be happy to help!

@confusedwithschool

i hope DS enjoyed his day?! & saw you there?

and hope DD is back to normal very soon!

There are dangers with that too.

A child I know had the vaccine and when she came into contact with CP, she didn't appear to have it. Problem was, she did & the spits went internal. She very nearly died, she lost all moment in the limbs, stopped being able to speak or eat. She lived, just, but has been left severely disabled and will never function independently.

This would risk spreading CP to vulnerable people, this type of foolishness around illness is just not ok.

There are changes coming to this I think, with proposals for CP vaccine to be given to kids as is done in the US.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know why the NHS has restrictions, if that is the right word, on who can/should get the chicken pox vaccine? Why not everyone, as long as they are not allergic to the ingredients?

Again, just curious not criticism.

Read update so pleased x

No not at 7. Bad timing but sadly you can't leave the 7 year old. Can another parent take a photo of your year 6 child.

I’m so pleased you got to be there x

A plane home is a bit of an overreaction to a child with a common childhood illness. Lone parents manage all the time. If the parent was at the pub, absolutely.

I'm also surprised at not even having a neighbour who would be home, though. When mine were younger our elderly neighbours on either side would have 'babysat' from their own house. As in confirm they would be home and the child could knock at anytime.

That’s a ridiculous thing to say. Year 6 leaving is huge to the child involved.

Other parent should get on a plane home. Why should you have to deal with this situation alone?

Failing that, are you sure a friendly neighbour won't help or a friend? It's less than an hour, there must be someone?