Leaving Teens Home Alone Overnight

CNN asks the question, "When is it OK to leave your teen home alone, overnight?"

http://tinyurl.com/nxd7ewd

...Really? Is this a thing? Are teens such horny, uncontrollable brats these days that they can't be trusted to handle one night alone?? Is this an actual thing??

Cause, I was left home alone a lot earlier than age 13, and remarkably, I didn't turn the house upside-down, pop pills, trash the house in a drunken brawl, or fuck random horny kids on every piece of furniture.

What does it say about the maturity level of today's teens that they can't be tasked with a single unsupervised evening?

eyes2

When I was a teen, I used to house-sit for people in my famblee. Not only did I take good care of their homes, but I mowed the lawn, cleaned up after myself following each meal, and did NOT invite people over unless I was specifically invited to do so. Even then, it would be a friend and I watching movies or just chilling. No parties or drinking.

Kyds today are sooo fucking special, they aren't taught any basic responsibility or respect. Their parunts can't keep them home alone for ONE night, because they might trash their house, do drugs or behave like sex-crazed maniacs?

I may be showing my age, but I was taught HOW to behave, respect people's property (including my moo's) and act like a young adult...not some wild monkey on crack. Parunts today are raising an inept generation of people who will not know how to behave in society.

I didn't mind being left at home. I liked being able to listen to my music or watch TV without anyone saying anything about it, being able to stay up with my shortwave radio all night listening for something exotic, it was great. I never wanted to have big parties or anything like that and never invited anyone over. It was a great.

I never got into any trouble, broke anything or the like. Just enjoyed being on my own.

I was not left overnight in my home until I was 18 and had returned from my first semester at college. That's because I was an idiot and my older brother was an ass and my parents knew it.

I honestly feel something like this depends on the child and the laws in the state.

I'm feeling as if the world is simply deteriorating. Time for a beer! :beer

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So.. We know that food and water are running out, with overpopulation and all... Yet people keep on poppin' out those babies! I guess they want to have their baby and eat it too...

My top reason is that parenting gives you a free license to be selfish based purely on the fact that you're being selfish for an emanation of your own self. The illusion that what you do to benefit your children benefits them solely is a fallacy. Every parent benefits from the benefits that their children receive. Henceforth, it gives one a license to perpetuate a dog-eat-dog mentality that I perceive to be amoral. Parents say that their children are their greatest loves, what they forget to add is that they are their ONLY loves and only because their children are a reflection of themselves. I prefer to be able to love multiple people and have lasting relationships of many types and possess the essential core value of empathy for all than to restrict myself to an echo chamber of ego-masturbation and self-serving chicanery.

In short: Not parenting makes you a better person.

Hmm. Depends on the teen and the circumstances. I wouldn't have trusted fourteen-year-old me to stay alone overnight. I wasn't into booze or drugs, but I still had only a partially-formed brain, and simply didn't have good judgment. By the time I hit sixteen I was much smarter and more mature.

My parents left me at home alone for stretches of a few hours starting when I was in upper elementary school/middle school, but didn't leave me overnight much in general. In high school they went on a couple trips without me, and the first time they had an adult family friend check in on the house. Mostly that meant that she slept there at night, and on the weekend she'd just call to check in occasionally during the day. Second time that family friend was made aware that the folks were out of town, but didn't stay over. I was told to call her with any questions or if I felt sick (I'd been fighting a cold right before the folks left, and mom knew I was susceptible to nasty sore throats).

My parents would have NEVER left my brother alone when he was in high school, as he'd demonstrated a few times over that he couldn't handle it (caught drinking, etc). Actually, his behavior taught me to find other ways of thrill-seeking and pushing the envelope that didn't involve illegal stuff...ah, the lessons of being the youngest.

From the age of 13 years old, I was running my household in almost every respect, attended before and after school clubs and teams, was babysitting about 2-3 times a week, and had a side business.

It would have been a total joke to think that I would not have been mature enough to stay home alone.

I wasn't left home alone overnight until just this past year. When I was a teen and even home from college on break, my mother was always too scared to go anywhere because she figured someone would break into the house and murder me on the one night she wasn't there. So she never went on vacations, never stayed out and partied, never went to New Years' events... always came home no later than midnight because someone would surely kill me while she's away! It's not like I had wild parties, did drugs or fucked people when she was away - she was just that paranoid that someone would be stabbing me in the chest while the house burned to the ground. Though some part of her probably did think that I was too immature to be all alone.

I've LOVED the few times I've been able to be home alone. The house is quiet; I can stay up as late as I want (I'm a night owl and am more productive late at night); I can watch movies on the big TV without the volume at a deafening 100 like Mom has it; I can sleep late and not get told that there's more to life than sleeping, and I could do work while listening to music without having to stop the song every 30 seconds to see if someone's yelling for me. Plus I got to drive the car in peace. It was like having a second birthday, that's how nice it was.

I don't think there ever was a blanket rule on this. My parents wouldn't have hesitated to leave me home alone overnight, because the worst that would happen would be that I would get caught up in a book and feed the animals a little late. On the other hand, they generally knew better than to leave my brother home alone overnight, although once they did try it in the hopes that he'd learn something in his post-party panic of cleaning and stressing over broken things.

Our parents left me and my younger sister (3 years younger) alone overnight a few times when I was about 18 and she was about 15. I don't think it was a point of waiting until that age to leave us. I think it was more that we'd always went on family vacations in the past, because they couldn't necessarily afford a vacation every year, and those we did have were to close-by places and short. Also, the 'rents had just gotten a Gold Wing motorcycle, and was enjoying riding it to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge and staying over the night, which would have been just a couple of hours away. Not really something you can do with kids. Even though we weren't getting this huge opportunity at just so many more freedoms, we were good kids and pretty much ran our own lives, it just was a sense of independence that we enjoyed as much as they enjoyed getting away, I'm sure.

Worst (and only) thing I ever did on one of their trips was have my boyfriend come and stay with me. We had been together since I was 15, so we were more like an old married couple anyway. Just hung out, played house, I made dinner, watched movies, and we went to bed. No alcohol, drugs, orgies, or the like. Sis ratted me out, but they didn't see it as being a big deal.

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Cambion
I wasn't left home alone overnight until just this past year. When I was a teen and even home from college on break, my mother was always too scared to go anywhere because she figured someone would break into the house and murder me on the one night she wasn't there. So she never went on vacations, never stayed out and partied, never went to New Years' events... always came home no later than midnight because someone would surely kill me while she's away! It's not like I had wild parties, did drugs or fucked people when she was away - she was just that paranoid that someone would be stabbing me in the chest while the house burned to the ground. Though some part of her probably did think that I was too immature to be all alone.

If your mother wasn't an older person, I'd believe my grandmother was reincarnated (she died in 1996) :smn

I lived with her for almost a decade. When I got my first real job (as in 40 hrs+pay+benefits) I had to work third shift - midnight until 8. Grandma almost had a nervous breakdown at the thought of me driving on dark roads to work. She knew, with a completely resolute certainty, that someone was going to stop the car, drag me out, and rape me. SHE KNEW IT. No matter my attempts to rationalize ("Grandma, I'm going to be going 55 mph, I sure as hell know not to stop for anyone, and I'll run over anyone who tries to stop me!"), nope, it was gonna happen. Each night when I left, I was told "now, lock those doors and be sure to not stop for anyone!"

For that reason (someone was watching and waiting for the right moment - aka Grandma felt that her presence would make a difference if there was a break-in), and also because she was sure I had a Secret Lover (she was so hateful toward any guys who asked me out for a date that I just gave up and waited until I could escape to have a social life) Grandma never left to go visit relatives for a few days when they extended an invitation unless I could go with her.

Cambion, keep working to get out of that nut hatch. I had moments of true death-welcoming despair that I'd never escape, but I did.

Aaaand, that's it for the threadjack. Just had to acknowledge that there are other reasons than "lack of maturity" that keep parents and guardians hovering over young people in the house.

I think teens just aren't as mature as they used to be.

my brother and I used to be left home alone as soon as he turned 13, so I was 10, my mum took the opertunity to take up extra work hours outside of the 9-3, and ment dad could handle a sick day from his 2 jobs when he was actually sick and needed time off.

we used to swim in our pool, play games in the street with our friends, lock the house up once we were inside or if we were going outside out of view of the front door, watch cartoons, play computer games, use Hotmail chat rooms back when those existed, we'd eat a bit of the food we wernt normally aloud to eat, listen to our cd's.

then when my brother was old enough to work and I was home by myself from 12, I used to just pour a bowl of chips, and a drink of coke, jump on the couch and watch cartoons or movies, occasionally I would get a call from a friend, and they might ask if they could met up or I could come over, so I would call mum and find out, then call them back, lock up the house and call her when I got there.

my brother was the first left home alone at 17, he threw a wild party with drinking, swimming, sexy times and taking dads sports car for a spin, so it wasn't till I was 17 that I was left home on my own, they took the car keys even though I had my own car and had no interest in driving theres, told the neighbours to call them if anyone turned up or if the music was to loud, I had the first night to myself, and I actually cleaned the house, the second night my brother chose to move back home, and I had to call my perants to inform them of this, after which he made a mess of the house, and I had to clean up after him just to not have my efforts undone.

regardless I wasn't a party person, I just wanted the time alone to myself, to watch what I wanted to watch, eat what I wanted, and go to bed when I wanted.

I acatully spent all high school holidays home by myself on week days, when my perants and brother were all working, I really liked the time alone for a week or two, then it would be Christmas or something, then all my friends would be to fussing over back to school, and i'd be bored outta my mind. soon as I was old enough to move out, apart from the first 4 months I rented a place along with my brother, I spent the next 8 years living on my own, and loved it.