Every parents’ biggest nightmare is leaving their kids at home. Alone. Only when you become parents yourself will you then understand why your own parents were so paranoid about leaving you at home
You may have your reasons for but rest assured that leaving your child at home does not make you a bad parent and well, not every child is as resourceful as little Kevin in the 1990 family hit movie, Home Alone. There are situations where you may not be able to find a babysitter on time, you may have events that strictly prohibit children or simply because both you and your husband are working parents.
You can’t tell if your children are old enough to take care of themselves until you try it but naturally, we’d advise against leaving a child below the age of 12 alone for days without any guardians to check in on them daily. Firstly you must decide if your child is mature enough to handle whatever situation they’re in especially emergencies. Make sure that even in difficult situations they are mature enough to stay calm and safe without panicking.
Equip your child with first aid knowledge and show them where the first aid kit is kept and teach them how to clean wounds, bandaging and cleaning up after. If they’ve broken something fragile, tell them they should never use their own hands to handle glass. Instead, wear a pair of slippers with thick soles and proceed to clean up with a broom. Sometimes, doing everything for your child doesn’t really help them in life later on.
There are a few things that your child must learn how to deal with: a fire, a power outage and a stranger at the door. Run through with them a step by step on how to deal with each situation. You can also print out a pictorial guide and have it displayed prominently in your home for your children’s reference.
Everytime your child goes in and out of your home make sure they call to let you know what time they’re going out, who they’re going out with as well as when they’ll be getting home. This system will give you ease of heart.
Set rules when it comes to having visitors over, homework, computer usage and household chores. Let her know that schoolwork and chores come first before fun or else there will be consequences. Discipline can be instilled even if you’re not around.
Prepare a list of emergency phone numbers from the hospital to the ambulance, relative and neighbours. Leave this list by your house phone or mobile. Also have details like your home address and directions so that your child can guide help to your home when required.
Children are vulnerable to danger whether in or out of the house so don’t freak out about leaving your child home alone sometimes. You can’t protect your kids forever but what you can do is to equip them with knowledge and information they need to protect themselves because that’s what responsible parents do.
