Leaving an 8 yr old home alone all day

[Meiya]

Hi there,
is it ok to leave an 8 yr old home alone all day while a single parent goes out to work from 9 till 5.?
the child has a kitten for company ( she loves cats) but is an only child and spends most of her time alone when not in school because of her fathers work.
she has a phone she can contact him on if need be .

My son would hate to alone for 10 minutes let alone all day! That's awful 😢

Has to be a joke surely?!

No one would be that cruel and ridiculous.

Not a chance. If I knew for a fact it was happening I’d be reporting the parent to police, social services and letting their school know.

You need to report whoever is doing this.

The parents need to be reported to the authorities.

All day everyday during the school holiday? Nope. The odd one day? Not OK in the UK, but quite normal in other places in Europe. Is the person from somewhere else?

You can not seriously think that is OK

Sorry but it is illegal as well as being wrong

of course not.

No my youngest is 10 and I wouldn't leave him for longer than an hour on his own.

I know someone who I used to work with who would leave her 12, 5, 3 year olds on their own all day. I used to worry about it all the time.

I don’t think it’s ok.

But I completely understand why people might do it and I don’t think it is as monstrous as some seem to.

If you need to work for your own agency you might do this. There maybe a local neighbour giving top cover.

Out of interest - how would others solve this problem without stopping work? Imagine low wages and no outside support, you have to work in order to live.

The answer - don’t have children is off limits.

Bizarrely, I don't think it actually is illegal insofar as there is not a specific age where you can/can not leave a child alone.

@Bumpsadaisie secondary schools don’t assume anything. They’re not childcare, they provide a statutory number of hours education (not childcare) each year and parents are responsible for childcare outside of those times.

No - far too young

It's not illegal.

There's no minimum age to leave a child home alone.

That's an abhorrent suggestion. Pay for holiday club.

I don't understand why people keep calling troll on threads like this. Yes to leave an 8 year old home alone is bad but I can absolutely believe it might happen.

Single parent must work to keep a roof over their heads, it's half term, possibly they had arranged childcare that has fallen through, desperate skint parent has a choice between leaving child to go out to work or losing job and with no savings and delay on benefits upping or kicking in would leave them with nothing.

Anyone who can't see that this situation does arise in this country must be oblivious to the dreadful choices facing many families.

Pay for holiday club.

Beautifully demonstrated that so many people haven't got a fucking clue about a large segment of our society for whom this is out of the question.

Neither is leaving your 8 year old alone ffs.

Thanks for clarification.

It’s more common than people think, and it certainly happened when I was growing up.

As @pigcon1 has said, it’s incredibly difficult to manage childcare.

Many people answering are answering based on their own eight year old, or ones they know or knew. A child who is used to it is unlikely to be bothered by it, although I agree it’s far from ideal.

@AlmostOver22 Whilst I agree schools are not childcare and parents are responsible, I disagree that schools don’t make these assumptions. DD’s school closes for a day every September due to an event at the school. They know the date months in advance but do not state the date until start of autumn term and do not state the school will be closed until the week before. Obviously once it’s happened to you once you are prepared but when DD was in y7 we didn’t have a clue and we both had important work meetings that day so she had to be alone for most of it. We raised with the school that they needed to be clearer and earlier in their communications, particularly to y7 parents, but they’ve not changed, so clearly assume y7 are ok to be left in their own (or that parents never have other commitments).

Is the child a Ukrainian refugee? As it's common in Ukraine to leave children all day alone from the age of 6. It's given rise to a LOT of cultural clashes between British Homes for Ukraine hosts and Ukrainian parents! A few councils have prepared written guidance on the issue and provided a simple explanation of UK law and what social services would look at/when they'd be involved, which has helped a lot.

No definitely not!