I Am P*ssed

[Heidi]

I see nothing wrong with a 9 year old being left alone for an hour.

Starting with small increments of time during the day is a good way to begin teaching them to be capable of staying home alone.

As long as the child is aware of who to call/contact in case of emergency.

I have definitely left my kids alone at that age, with specific rules like "open the door for no one", "thou shall not use any appliances", and "show me how you call my cellphone".


My mother worked when I was a kid, and by the time my sis and I were 8 & 9, we were left alone all summer. Mom called us several times a day to check on us or stopped in unexpectedly. Of course, all the other moms in the neighborhood were home back then, so there were eyes on us.

By the time I was 11 (and my sister 10), we were quite comfortable riding the Madison Metro bus around town, or riding our bikes several miles to parks, ice cream shops, or the Milk Depot.

I guess we were "free range" before it was a term.

My own kids are no where near that independent though. Too many electronics to distract them, and we live in a rural area, so there's really no place to go on their own...oh, and I am home. ::

As for OP"s dcd, yeah, that was not cool, because if something happened, you know they would have made YOU responsible.

[Blackcat31]

He was absent from school due to a badly sprained ankle.

Apparently dad tried to get ahold of me this am on my land line but I was out at the park w/the preschoolers. Seriously, leave a message, keep calling, call my cell phone....ANYTHING besides what he did.

I'll post more later I've got kids to wake from nap & a preschooler to get in line.

So DCD actually tried to call you and you weren't home so he left the kid anyways????

Wow!

That's even worse!!!

How did he know you were even planning to return home???

[countrymom]

see I have identa call so parents can't use this excuse. I use to have parents say that they called me but I check my phone and there numbers never came up.

[daycarediva]

I see nothing wrong with a 9 year old being left alone for an hour.

Starting with small increments of time during the day is a good way to begin teaching them to be capable of staying home alone.

As long as the child is aware of who to call/contact in case of emergency.

No home phone, child has no cell phone, no way to reach ANYONE. He is VERY immature and has delays.

[CedarCreek]

I would never never leave my 9 year old home alone. He has developmental delays and definitely does not operate on the same mindset as a mature 9 year old.

When I was 9? Home alone constantly. I was pretty mature for my age though.

[hgonzalez]

A 9 year old can be left alone AT HOME with a plan. But to just dump him off on your doorstep with no notice is just unacceptable. What if something had happened to you and you were not able to return home and the child was just left sitting there? Is that Dad nuts?

[Angelsj]

I think it really depends on the kid (not the doorstep thing, that was ridiculous) but being home alone. I was alone from 6-7 years old, and caring for siblings by 8.
My oldest was 10 when we left him for a bit with his younger siblings, maybe an hour and gradually increased it.
My youngest dd is 12 and has been left alone for short times since she was 9 or 10. My youngest son is 13 and I still don't leave him alone. Different kids.

[Angelsj]

So DCD actually tried to call you and you weren't home so he left the kid anyways????

Wow!

That's even worse!!!

How did he know you were even planning to return home???

Right? What if she had decided to go to a park for an hour or two first? Good grief!

[BumbleBee]

So DCD actually tried to call you and you weren't home so he left the kid anyways????

Wow!

That's even worse!!!

How did he know you were even planning to return home???

I know. I've calmed down a *little* bit but I'm still upset/angry over the whole thing.

Basically it shows where dads priorities are. Work is more important than your kid. Mom is picking up (which is probably a good thing at this point).

I'll update later with how it goes.

[TheGoodLife]

If his ankle was too bad for school, then it was too bad for DC, I'd think!

[Bookworm]

This has become a problem in the past few weeks in my center. I am one of the openers and the room where we receive the DCKs allows us to see who comes in. Well one morning, I was there 20 min early and forgot to lock the door behind me and a parent brought their infant in and left her in the baby room. At that hour, I'm not listening for anyone to come in so I was in my class setting up for the day. It wasn't until my co-worker came in TEN MINUTES later that I found out she was there. I was beyond pissed. I called my Director, told her what happened and gave the parents cell number. She jumped all over both of them so bad, they can't look me in the eye anymore. I took me about 2 days to get over it. My head was constantly filled with "what ifs".

[MissSarah]

This has become a problem in the past few weeks in my center. I am one of the openers and the room where we receive the DCKs allows us to see who comes in. Well one morning, I was there 20 min early and forgot to lock the door behind me and a parent brought their infant in and left her in the baby room. At that hour, I'm not listening for anyone to come in so I was in my class setting up for the day. It wasn't until my co-worker came in TEN MINUTES later that I found out she was there. I was beyond pissed. I called my Director, told her what happened and gave the parents cell number. She jumped all over both of them so bad, they can't look me in the eye anymore. I took me about 2 days to get over it. My head was constantly filled with "what ifs".

How could anyone think that was a good idea!?!

[youretooloud]

I wou ld certainly leave my kids home alone at that age too.

BUT, he let you run around the school checking on this one kid, because he didn't have the time to call you? Or look for you? I'd be mad about that mostly.

That, and he left an injured kid on your doorstep. Without knowing for sure you were coming straight home.

[Bookworm]

How could anyone think that was a good idea!?!

This set of DCPs might have 3 brain cells between them. This is the same parent that left DCG (5mos) in a run in a running car so he could get her set up for the week. He was in the room with me for about 10 min before he left. I told him to have a nice day and went on about my business. Not 2 mins later, he comes in with DCG. When I asked where she was, he said that she was asleep on the carrier so he didn't want her to wake up when she came inside so he left her in the car so she could sleep.

[BumbleBee]

Talked to mom - pretty sure she's more p*ssed than I am.

Turns out the whole thing (kid not going to school, then dropping kid on my doorstep when I wasn't there) was to get back at mom.

There's a whole lotta family drama and this kid is right in the middle.

"Dad" of dcb is actually step-dad, bio dad is in the picture when he feels like it, and step dad & mom have recently split up (like last week).

The kid is the pawn between the 3 adults and they're all trying to use dcb against each other.

Anywho, mom is doing ALL drop offs from now on-among other things we discussed.