One of the many questions that pops up in Mom Groups is “How old would your kid need to be for you to trust them home alone for 15-30 minutes?”
The problem is that Louisiana doesn’t have a clear-cut age to leave your kid home alone. I am not here to give you an answer, because I don’t have one. I think each kid is their own determinant. I will tell you, I’ve seen many legal and law enforcement mention there is a particular base age that you would be safest from prosecution of “abandonment” if something were to happen.
But that’s not why I’m here. I’m here to share how we’ve been preparing our children for the days they could potentially be left home alone. First and foremost, our kids memorize parent and grandparent phone numbers as part of their school curriculum. They have also memorized their address and surrounding landmarks if there was ever a need to give directions to our house. We also run regular 911 practice calls (NOT actually calling 911) where we walk through how 911 would answer, how they will ask for your location address twice (this is where landmarks come in handy), and how my kids would need to disclose our Great Pyrenees for the safety of Emergency Services.
Recently, I was talking among friends about how old, and how long, they could trust their kids at home and I mentioned our Alexa training. I was shocked that many didn’t know about this feature as it’s become so commonplace to us. I was quickly told, to “write a post about this!” So here we are.