13 year old home alone??

[Scotsmum1988]

I'm in a bit of a dilemma!

Does anyone think that 13 years old is too young to leave a child home alone if they are asleep?

The story is this. My partner works offshore, and often goes away at awkward times of the day. This time he has to be at the helipad at 5.45am 😖

I can either wake my child up at 4am and make her come with us (on a school day), or leave her sleeping at home and be back before she even wakes up for school.

She is happy to be left sleeping in bed. She has had time alone at home before, but not that early in the morning. She is my only child and I worry every time I leave her at home, but she seems to want to do it??

What would other mums do? Am I worrying too much? 😕

Erm she's 13.... Yes it's fine!! As long as she knows where you are, and knows how to contact you or someone in an emergency, it's absolutely fine!

i would be fine about my 13 year old doing this. He is very responsible, the house has fire alarms, we have good neighbours and he could have a phone by the bed to contact me in an emergency while out. .

if unsure ask if she can stay with a friend overnight.

I think if she's happy with it then it's fine

We used to leave for work at 8am and leave sleeping teenager in the school holidays.

Thank you 😀 i know it sounds silly me asking this even though she is 13, but to me she is still a baby 🤣 x

Yes I'd leavey 13 year old in these circumstances. I'd lock the front door behind me and make sure she had a key to let herself out were there to be an emergency (if your door works that way)

That sounds fine to me.

You should have a contingency plan in place for what she should do if she wakes up and you aren't back. E.g. you could get a tyre puncture or something unlikely obviously, but leave her a phone number of a backup-adupt to call if you aren't there.

As long as she’s ok with it then that’s fine. DD was 14 before I’d leave her home alone all day while I was at work. I think it’s different with only children as they’re on their own, she was sensible enough to be left long before that but it was an issue of her being lonely during the day