Living kids at home alone for a short weekend

[Gumtree91]

How old will you start leaving your teens at home alone to go away for a long weekend.

We have left our 17DD at home for 3 or 4 nights but take 13DD with us. DD1 will be 18 June next year and DD2 will be 14 in a few months. Wondering if we can leave them alone to go away for a short weekend

Leaving not living 😂

Well it depends on how much you trust their dynamic. Are they likely to burn the house down or have a quiet companionable weekend?

We will leave DD at home when she is 17 soon. She hates parties, is not a social butterfly so I know she won't start a rave, she most likely will binge watch Netflix.

Friends left their children (17 and 13) alone with neighbours and friends on alert recently when they had an emergency with parents. But these two are responsible, get along ok and the older one has also no desire to party.

Depends so much on the dc. At that age my dd2 was very capable and would be looking after her older sister - we had a sitter who would stay overnight until dd1 was 17 but it was dd2 doing the cooking (sitter loved this as she came home to a meal each night)

They are very responsible; more worried if something happens when out and about or get unwell.

I can't trust DD she'll definitely have a party

I can't trust her she's very mature but she'd definitely have a party

Omg

I can trust her

Would they have a party/trash the house/leave the hob on/forget to lock the door etc?! That's the first question.

And secondly how far away are you? Worst case - how long for you to get back?

Depends entirely on what sort of teens they are. One of mine would have had a couple of friends round, done some baking, watched a film, done some homework.

The other would have had a rave, raided our drinks cupboard and not gone to school.

I wouldn't expect the 18yr old to look after and take full responsibility for a 14 yr old, no.

So your eldest I'd leave happily (and would have done for a couple of years). Your younger I think you need to take with you or arrange other childcare for.

I think 16 is the youngest age I'd leave overnight, and an older teenage sibling being there wouldn't change that.

My parents used to leave me and my brother home alone for the weekend when we were similar ages. Neither of us were the partying type; we used to just buy a load of junk food and watch TV all weekend. It definitely depends on the children.

Thank you. I was thinking 16, maybe 15, specifically if going overseas. I guess we have to wait a bit longer. We had to take DD2 of school a couple of times for some important trips as no family to look after her around

I wouldn't ask a just 18 year old to take care of a younger sibling when the parents are abroad.

Unless you have friends/relatives on standby in emergencies like illness/accident/issue at home like a burst pipe, I think it's too much to ask an 18 year old to have this responsibility

We have just booked our first overnight stay leaving the kids here. They will be 18, 16 and 16. (The 18 year old has stayed home alone overnight before.)

My parents left us at similar ages (with a 20 year old family friend who was living with us at the time too) and went to Italy for a week. There was a freak snowstorm and once we all managed to get home (I had to do a 15 mile, 6 hour round car trip to rescue my 16 year old sister), we were snowed in for several days and couldn't get to school. My parents would have been blissfully unaware of all this (mid-90s, no phones!). We had a great time, but I shudder to think of the same thing happening with my kids now!!

I trusted mine, but they had a party and annoyed the neighbours to the point of almost calling the police. Probably aged about 15 and 17 at the time.

Haha - this is exactly my two youngest dcs!