RNS story: Is your ‘tween prepared to stay home alone this summer?
Time: 4:42
URL: http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=345
C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health finds parents often don’t provide tweens with home safety guidelines & worry about guns, Internet use
Suggested lead: School will be out soon for kids across the country which means millions of ‘tweens – children between 11 and 13 - will be left unsupervised at home sometime during the summer months. But just how old should a child be before he or she should stay home alone, and what safety concerns should parents be aware of if they do choose to leave their kids alone this summer?
I’m speaking today with Dr. Matthew Davis, director of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health about their latest findings on home alone safety. We’re discussing safety concerns and what parents should the take time to discuss with their ‘tweens before making the decision to leave them home alone.
Dr. Davis, can you first explain why so many kids this age are left home alone?
Summertime presents a lot of challenges for parents who are trying to sort out how their children should spend their time during the summer months. Many camps restrict participation of kids in their ‘tween years, or 11 to 13, and for a lot of families it can just be too expensive to try and find supervised activities the whole summer long. So for that reason, parents often do consider whether to leave their kids home alone for brief periods of time.
What did you find in your poll about parent’s beliefs about how a kid should be before they can stay home alone?
Health we asked parents around the country how old should a child be before he or she can be left home alone safely. What we found is that parents on average think that a child should be age 11 or older before they can be left home alone safely.
Do parents tend to leave their children home throughout the workweek or for long periods of time?
We asked parents of ‘tweens, age 11 to 13, how long they had left their children home alone in the past. We found out that about two thirds of parents of ‘tweens had left their children home alone for one to two hours at a time, about one third left their children home alone for four to five hours at a time and nearly one out of five parents had left their ‘tweens home alone for the entire day.
I know quite a few parents who feel comfortable leaving their children home alone, but they probably consider their homes pretty safe that the their children are responsible. But they may not be aware of all the dangers that their children may face when left home alone. Explain to me what some of those concerns might be.
When parents leave their ‘tweens home alone there are several common safety concerns they need to consider and discuss with their kids ahead of time.
What we found in this National Poll on Children’s Health is that about one third of parents say they had never discussed storm safety with their kids, nor had about one third discussed internet safety with their kids. And we found that discussing those topics with their kids was directly related to confidence in their kids following those safety guidelines when they’re left home alone.
We know that we’re in the middle of tornado season in the U.S. and unfortunately there have been several natural disasters related to tornados this season and we know that we’re coming into hurricane season in other parts of the U.S. That means that storm safety is a major priority for many families, especially if they’re going to be leaving their children home alone. There needs to be a family plan for where to go in case of emergency and a back up plan for where to go if nobody can return home.We know from a prior CS Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health that internet safety is a major health concern for adults across the U.S. about children in the United States. Therefore, it is really a high priority for parents to talk with their kids about how to use the internet safely, whether they’re home with those parents and especially if they’re home alone.
Do parents who leave their kids home really feel like their kids are safe?
One surprising finding in this National Poll on Children’s Health is the proportion of parents who are not very confident their children will follow safety guidelines, even though they are having their ‘tweens, ages 11 to 13, stay home alone. For example, about one third of parents are not very confident that their children will be safe and follow storm safety guidelines if left home alone. This suggests that parents need to have more conversations with their kids and get more confidence perhaps before they leave their children home alone the next time.
We also asked parents who have guns in their home whether they feel confident that their children will follow appropriate gun safety guidelines. About one out of every ten parents who leave their ‘tweens alone said they are not very confident that their children will follow basic gun safety guidelines. Given how lethal guns can be this seems to be a major area of concern and one that we hope parents will exercise a lot of caution about before they leave their ‘tweens home alone.
So are tweens too young to be left home alone?
There is no magic age at which a child can be left home alone; it’ll depend on parent’s judgment about how mature that child is and how ready they are to take on the responsibility of being home alone.
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