Ok to leave a 16 year old?

[IncognitoUsername]

I know that this will provoke a variety of responses but just wanted to get a selection of ideas
Is it ok to leave a 16 year old home alone for four days/three nights? DH and I have the opportunity to go to a wedding- in this country but few hours drive away. Midweek and DS has college. We are involved in the wedding (complicated) so would be away for the above time. We have a fab neighbour who would be on call for any domestic dramas, he can have tea with his best mate every night (we did same over Easter for the friend) and my best friend lives two minutes away and would check on him every day. At the moment we have 3 options - we all go and he misses college, one of us goes and the other stays with him, or no-one goes.
DH says he’s old enough and very sensible but my mum heart says he’s still my little boy! What would you do?

Goodness, you sound so very reactionary!

We really are not pathetic as a society, our young people are fantastic by and large.

Society was no better 30 years ago, it is just middle-aged people were young then and still had a positive attitude!

If he’s sensible enough then yes. But it’s ludicrous to expect other people to feed him. Teach him how to cook easy meals

Only you know your child, but I’d think it should be fine. Maybe just have clear discussions about things like locking doors/windows etc.

I leave mine alone but she's very sensible. I've never left her longer than two nights though. She's 17.

I left home a few weeks before my 16th birthday. My parents regularly left me at home to go on holiday for up to two weeks from 14. 16 is fine.

Sounds like he'll be busy and have plenty of company and help if needed. Absolutely I would leave him.

Absolutely yes. Give him experience of coping in his own in a safe environment.

He is old enough to get married here in Scotland !

I was married with a baby at 16. My husband worked on oil rigs and was away for 6 weeks at a time. I was on my own with a baby. A 16 year old can get married, in half of the UK they can vote. They can get a job. Why on earth would you think being alone for a few days is a bad idea?

We left my eldest at 16 because he wanted quiet to revise and we wanted to take the other kids on holiday.

Another chose the day we were going away to simply refuse to come with us. Fine. Bye.

When we got to the airport and said we weren't all flying, the woman on the Check In rolled her eyes and said, "Did one of them just say he wasn't coming? Happens all the time."

All of ours have been left at 16 and we haven't had a single negative incident beyond one of the boys not having flushed the toilet for several days. Which was grim but easily solved.

Of course it's fine.

Word of the wise
i thought my DS was same , non party type…he may have been but when his mates found out he did have party. Not big. But various minor damage done which is how I found out…chair and ketchup sauce bottle was worse!
it doesn’t n m she me think I was wrong to leave him…but I was wrong to think it would be no parties …I should have issued house rule for party /no party much more strongly

Oh, and 16 is fine. People used to leave home and work at that age …people saying no are helicopter parents
they’ll make mistakes, but you’ve got emergency back up plan nailed

These threads always make me laugh. If the OP asked what should a 16 year old be doing around the house the answers would be laundry, cooking a meal for the family including all the clearing away at least once a week , walk the dog, feed the cat and wallpaper Buckingham Palace in a day and a half.
Suggest going away and suddenly this 16 year old wouldn't know how to close the door let the dog out for a wee or know how to phone 999 if they need to.
Of course its fine to go

This thread is over a year old. I'm sure it was fine