Home Alone

As more and more families see both parents working it’s sometimes the case that a child comes home alone to wait half hour or an hour for parents to arrive home from work.  Called latch key kids in some areas, the incidence of a child of 12 or 13 coming home to an empty house is becoming more common.

This is not a new thing in actuality since the term Latch Key kid actually was coined in the UK more than 100 years ago when children who came home alone wore a house key on a chain or cord around their necks.

While kids of this age are well able  in most cases to stay home for a half hour and await a parent, there are some simple rules that need to be made clear to them and safety tips that all children need to know, regardless of their age.

If your children come home to an empty house make sure that they know the rules that you’ve laid down for their safety and understand not just the rules themselves but also the reasons for them.

When your children are home alone for any reason, they should be taught that answering the door is not acceptable. This holds true for those you know as well as those you do not know. It’s not at all uncommon for a parent to ask someone to look in on them but they should be expecting that and if they are not then answering the door is not permitted. In most cases it is a good idea to encourage that the door be kept locked at all time while you are not at home.

Explain to your children that while you are not trying to frighten them, things do happen and the world has changed somewhat, that you believe in their ability to be safe and secure but that certain rules are necessary to assure that.

When you make the rules for your children who come home alone, encourage certain behaviors

They will always take the same route to and from school so that everyone would know what route that is.

Consider after school activities and prearrange transportation from those events if walking is not an option

Make a plan for an every day phone call or text message from your child letting you know that they arrived home safely and the time they arrived. Assure that they know that they are to come straight home without stops in other places or at friend’s homes.

Friends are not to be in the home unless you’ve prearranged that. To invite others over to your home with your children while you’re not at home is definitely a bad idea.

If the telephone rings and you permit them to answer then they should do so and take a message. If the caller is not someone they know then offering the information that mom and dad are not at home is not a good thing to do. Teach them instead to say that their parents are not available to come to the phone but that you will return their call as soon as you are able.

Practice and make sure your children know emergency procedures so that calling the emergency services is something they know well how to accomplish.

Try to keep the responsibilities lighter for them at first. Assure and teach them about safety and encourage them to discuss any fears they may have about being home alone and address them promptly at meetings or discussions about how things are going so that you are aware of any problems that may be taking place.