Letting your child come home to an empty house to wait for you to return from work can be worrisome, especially the first few times.
However, there are measures you can take to make things safer for your child. By setting your home up the right way and educating your child on proper protocol, both you and your child will feel a lot more comfortable staying home alone.
Systems and rules
Develop a set of systems and rules so that your child knows what to expect.
For example, you should start with creating a routine that he should follow when he gets home from school. He might close and lock the door behind him, call you to check in, then fix himself a snack and start homework.
You might set a rule that no friends can come over, that he shouldn’t open the door if someone knocks and that he can’t go on the Internet while you’re not home. You should also make sure that he knows he shouldn’t go in the house if the door’s open when he gets home. Instead, he should call a parent for help.
All of these little things can keep him safe.
Safety training
When your child is home alone, it’s extremely important for her to know what to do during an emergency situation. Practice doing fire drills, and if you live in an area that might experience an earthquake or tornado, practice what to do in those types of situations.
This shouldn’t be about fear, but about feeling comfortable handling unusual situations. She should also know your full name and phone number, so that if she needs to contact you, she can.
Ask a neighbor who’s usually home during the daytime to be a “safe place” for your child to go in an emergency situation.
Safety measures at home
It can also be really helpful to set up some safety measures inside the house.
For example, a chain lock on the inside of the door can make him feel better about not fully opening the door when someone knocks, and being sure that there’s a fire ladder from his second-floor bedroom in case there’s a fire downstairs.
No matter what types of safety devices you install in the home, make sure he knows how to use them.
Home security systems
Using a home security system can definitely give you some peace of mind when you have a child alone at home.
Most systems will alert the security company and the authorities if there’s a suspected break-in or a fire in the home. If you decide to have a security system installed, teach her how to use it, and ask her to turn it back on once she’s inside the house.
Remind her that you’re only doing this so that she can feel safe. You can also keep an eye on your kids with security cameras hooked up to your smartphone. Read Northstar alarm reviews for more information.
Video monitoring
You can also set up video monitoring systems throughout the house.
Certain systems allow you to check the cameras in real time from your computer at work. With video cameras, you can check in to make sure you’re child’s safe and that he’s not breaking any of the rules you’ve set.
As a parent, you can choose whether or not you want to tell him that the cameras are there, but he could become emotionally upset if he feels you’ve been “spying” on him.
Letting your child stay home alone is a big step, and it shows that you trust them and think they have the maturity to handle any bad situations that could come along. However, when you put rules and other systems in place to ensure safety, you’ll find that everyone feels a lot better about the situation.
Anita Ginsburg
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