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How old does a child have to be to stay home alone in ontario? What happens if social services agencies finds out about it?

+1 vote
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As a lot of parents know that baby sitting a child at all times is not possible and parents have to go to work to earn a living. Even a housewive need to do house chores and may time to time need to leave a child at home for a few hours. I mean if a child is well behaved and does understand the dangers around doing something stupid in the house, I don't see any reason why they can't stay at home alone for a few hours.

My child may seem to be young but they have the mature mind compared to most kids of their age. I train them at very young age and I teach them what is right and what is wrong thing to do. I discipline them in a kind way and I do not instill fear in them in order to make them listen. I find that using force and threatening kids to listen will only end up in disaster and kids grow up traumatized likely to go into depression in their later adult life.

I show my kids and teach them to do daily chores, and they learn pretty fast. I allow them to have all those fun things most kids do and only at certain rare situation do I ground them for breaking rules in the house. For that I give them verbal warning that they broke the house rules and they will need to do better next time if they want to continue to have the privilege of enjoying certain activity.

I have seen first hand how mistreating a kid badly in their young life will cause the kid to grow up depressed and mental issues. It happened to my friend and I learn a lesson from that. Always learn from the mistakes of other people so we don't have to go through the same problem ourselves.
asked in Lanaudiere by Barbara Watson (142 points)

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2 Answers

0 votes
Ontario's Child and Family Services Act states that a child under the age of 16 may not be left unattended "without making provision for his or her supervision and care that is reasonable in the circumstances." Typically, if a child is under 12 years of age, they cannot be left alone at home. But if a child Is between the age of 13 to 15 years old, based on their maturity level and home training, they could be left alone for a short period of time only and not extended period of days. Sometimes, children with certain mental problem are more risky to be left alone at home because they could harm themselves and in this case, hiring a babysitter would be a good option.

Children should be taught what to do when a stranger comes to the door or calls at the phone line, and also to deal with certain emergencies such as fire, water or gas leakage. I know it seems extreme to be teaching these stuffs to kids at this young age, but believe me, kids these days are very mature compared to the previous generations. Humans are evolving at each new generation and younger generation are learning and doing things that previous older generation would never dream of or think of at that young age. So it is high time, that the minimum age for child to stay at home should be changed to reflect the reality of maturity level of the kids mind these days. A 16 years old would be considered still kids during the 18th or 19th century, but these days, 16 years old are more like young adults judging at their physical and mental side.
answered by Homealone
0 votes
Watch video on "What age can your child be safely left at home alone?" :

answered by Safe parenting

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