Is it ok in CA to leave my kids home alone while at work?

Question

My son is 12-almost 13 and my daughter is 8. I know its okay to leave my son home alone, but I need to know if its okay to leave my daughter with him while I'm at work during the day.

Answer 1

More than likely no she is too young to be left alone and your son is not old enough to be responsible for her

Answer 2

My friend does this and they are always calling her 20 times a day, I told her that is case in point they are not OK to be on their own.

How long will they be alone?

Answer 3

i was home alone when i was that age. i did perfectly fine.

Answer 4

In the state of California it is ok ONLY if the 13 year old is mature enough to handle the responsibility of the siblings

Answer 5

hello... im a deputy sheriff here in hot smokey california... it is not agains the law to leave a 12 year old at home.  if he is responsible than it is your call.  as long as there is a phone at the residence and he knows how to dial 911 in case of an emergency that is fine.  is he able to use the microwave to cook?  that is fine too.  as long as he has the means of taking care of himself and your daughter.  if he knows how to be safe by keeping the door locked and not talking to strangers and all that good stuff, sounds like he is good to go.  i actually got a call like this before from the husbands ex wife.  she called to tell on him for doing this and it was unfounded for all of the above reasons.  i woiuldnt worry about it.  enjoy wrok and dont worry about it.

Answer 6

I do not know about in Ca, however I do know that I was being left alone with my brother who is 6 years older than I am since I was like 4-5 so if you feel that he is responsible then I don't see why not.

Answer 7

no it's not ok cause there still to young. my cousins never leave there kids alone they always leave them with our aunt.

Answer 8

Wow !

Get real ....

Here in UK it would be legally borderline to leave a 13 year old alone daytimes (but you'd be in deep trouble if anything went wrong) let alone an 8 year old, and carers for real young kids need to be 16+

Leaving a 12 & 8 year old alone regularly would be inviting social services to take the children into care.

Many European countries have strictly defined laws about this.

But its just plain common sense isnt it ?

What you're proposing is deeply irresponsible .... how can you ever be at ease at work leaving your 8 & 12 year olds unsupervised ?  What if they came to harm ? How would you feel ? How would you live with yourself ?

There are things like creches .... they make more sense than any luxuries not using them would buy.

Surely living in CA doesn't absolve you of basic parental care and duty ?

P.S.  In the UK a discussion like this would not be happening as a) you'd want to "keep it quiet" b) you'd be "crucified" for even suggesting such a thing.

P.S. Beetlemama "The law does not set a minimum age at which children can be left alone. However, it is an offence to leave a child alone when doing so puts him or her at risk." .... which is why I said it was "borderline" as it is entirely at the discretion of the authorities to judge the risk .... and 8 & 12 would be skating on thin ice !  Other European countries have better defined age legislation .... Madeline McCann's parents would have been prosecuted under Portugese law for abandonment !

P.S. Beetlemama .... followed your "latchkey kids" link and am amazed and dismayed that so few USA state have defining legislation for leaving even the youngest children alone.

Answer 9

You know your children, if you feel this is something they can manage with comfortably, then give them perhaps a week trial run to see if they manage, cope and appear happy with it.

The officer of course is right, they are allowed to be home alone. I have included a link to this below.

The poster above me is wrong about the law, the regulations in the UK state:

The law does not set a minimum age at which children can be left alone. However, it is an offence to leave a child alone when doing so puts him or her at risk.

Though it is common sense not to leave a five year old home alone - it's just a matter of time before there is a disaster.

I know my parents left my sister and myself for periods up to a couple of hours when they went shopping when we were about the age of your daughter.

Answer 10

Uhm, yes, I do think it is ok. Just, try it one day to see how he does. If you don't think you can trust him, but you want too, then set up a little Camera in the house then watch it at the end of the day. :]]

Hope this helped!!

Answer 11

Yes, assuming your son is responsible.  I would suggest a babysitting course and test him on it.

Answer 12

I think it all depends on how responsible and dependable your 12 year old son is. Some 12 year old boys are highly inmature and thus should not be left to look after an 8 year old. Don't look at the age as much as the ability of YOUR 12 year old.