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Leaving 15 year old alone?

82 replies

AWOIF · 31/03/2022 00:23

Would you leave a 15 year old boy alone at home for a week whilst you go on holiday? Family will check in on him.
He doesn't want to go with the rest of the family.

OP posts:
Sarahplane · 31/03/2022 00:25

Absolutely not. He either goes with you or stays with family/family member stays at yours with him.

adriftabroad · 31/03/2022 00:29

No way.

Yoloohno · 31/03/2022 00:30

Not this year but he’s in apartment with his siblings in alone but next year he’ll not come but we gave grandparents 2 minutes awa.

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Doona · 31/03/2022 00:32

Definitely not.

TooBigForMyBoots · 31/03/2022 00:34

Depends on the 15yo boy and the family nearby.

Braproblem · 31/03/2022 00:37

No. Why doesn't he want to go?

Germolenequeen · 31/03/2022 00:46

No

VeniVidiWeeWee · 31/03/2022 02:09

Just over a hundred years ago he could have been in France fighting for his country.

Have teenagers become incapable of behaving well since then?

RobertSmithsLipstick · 31/03/2022 02:11

Yes, I might.
It depends on a lot of factors.

DidWeHaveAWinter · 31/03/2022 02:11

Nope

icelollycraving · 31/03/2022 02:14

Not a chance.

lighterskies · 31/03/2022 02:50

No.
Not a week while you are away.

moonbedazzled · 31/03/2022 03:00

No.

PuppyPowerTool · 31/03/2022 03:05

If he's a sensible lad, and family are close by, then yes. My main concern would hi getting bored.

Rainbows89 · 31/03/2022 03:07

Not for a week. Unless family are really close by?

My 14 yr old doesn’t like holidays. We might leave him alone for a night next year but not a whole week.

Strokethefurrywall · 31/03/2022 03:07

If he were sensible and had family close by yes.

If he were me as a teenager, not a fuckin' chance. I was a menace at 15. Had sorted my shit out by 17/18 admittedly but definitely not at 15.

You know your teen though, we don't.

Inthetropics · 31/03/2022 03:13

Yes!

Jongy · 31/03/2022 04:31

Yes, no problems with my son at 15 who could feed and clothe himself, feed the pets and travel independently to where he needed to go. Grandparents an hour bus ride away or they came to him by car and another grandma who was a half hour walk away.

The only thing I could have nit picked was a shoe/trainer mark/imprint on a wall where he wasn’t taking his outdoor trainers off indoors and when he lay on a sofa his trainer scuffed the wall next to it.

Jongy · 31/03/2022 04:34

I meant to add that he didn’t drink alcohol but a lot of his friends at the same age did and the rule was no friends allowed back with him.

This was not long before he met his girlfriend so he was single as well. I might have reconsidered it if he had a girlfriend at the time.

EveryFlightBeginsWithAFall · 31/03/2022 04:37

Depends on the child, ds1 no, ds 2 yes

SonicBroom · 31/03/2022 05:09

No. My parents left me for about 2-3 weeks when I was about 17 and I really didn’t look after myself at all.

Graphista · 31/03/2022 05:12

Absolutely not he won't be anywhere near mature enough to cope alone on an emotional level even if he can on a practical one.

He's still very much a kid and you are the parent (I think - you're not being clear on this) therefore what you say goes whether he likes it or not generally it's a teens job not to like what you want them to do

He can either go with you or stay at grandparents

Any number of things can go wrong, from simple loneliness to running out of money for food, to unexpected visitors in the shape of tradesmen/cold callers (which could include con men or potential burglars) etc that he doesn't know how to handle to him or friends/acquaintances of his realising he has an "empty" and throwing crazy parties where your home gets wrecked etc to various accidents and emergencies from slip and falls to full on house fire.

He's too young to be expected to deal with or bear the burden of responsibility for anything like the worst ones.

I've experience in a voluntary capacity over several years with kids this age and they THINK that they can handle an emergency situation and I've even trained them on some actions but on an emotional level they can't always in fact rarely.

When it actually happens they panic and their brains freeze.

I've seen this many times and I'm not even talking major emergencies I'm talking sprains and strains from falls or breaking something they perceive to be expensive/they'll get into loads of trouble for breaking!

PugInTheHouse · 31/03/2022 05:44

Yes mine would be fine but I know many who wouldn't. I don't think this is something MN could answer as I find on here that teens are treated like babies and many wouldn't leave their 17 yos for an evening but also everyone's kids are different and no ine can answer uf yours is mature enough.

We would be leaving DS 16 and DS 14 later this year but we're now getting a new puppy so we may get a dog sitter and send the kids to my mums, mainly because it would be a lot for them to get 2 dogs sorted before school if they needed dropping somewhere. They have stayed home for a weekend with 1 pup alone but that's easier than the weekdays.

Frenchfancy · 31/03/2022 05:46

No. They are still children.

CarryonCovid · 31/03/2022 06:08

Just over a hundred years ago he could have been in France fighting for his country

Only if he lied about his age. Dd is 15 and in cadets they do look after them pretty well. Not looking after a house alone.

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