Leaving My Kid Home Alone

The other day I left my 4 year old son home alone. It wasn't my intention to do that, but he just didn't want to follow me out. I had to run to a nearby shop to get something urgent and when I asked him to come with me, he said "No". So, I let him stay home...alone. All kinds of thoughts went through my head before I actually made that decision - should I, shouldn't I, will he be able to go to the toilet himself if he needed to, will he open the door for strangers, what if there was a fire in the house, will he feel lonely and start bawling his eyes out. I even tried to call my hubby to check with him if it'd be okay but couldn't get him on the phone. So, I finally made the decision to let him stay home alone. Not before I took these things into consideration...

1. My boy is pretty mature for his age. He's starting to make a lot of his own decisions and taking responsiblity for them. So when he told me he'd be fine, I trusted that he would.

2. The shop was less than 300m away from my house. I made a 600m dash that day.

3. Told him NOT to open the door for ANYONE. Not even a cat.

4. Barney was there to help. Yes the T.V. was on and I was sure he'd be glued to the couch.

5. I checked with him a hundred times. I sounded like a broken record. "You're sure you'll be okay...you're sure....sure you'll be okay....okay-ah....sure-ah"

6. One thing I didn't do which I realise now that I should have done was to tell a trusted neightbour.

I don't know if I was a bad mommy for leaving a 4 year old kid home alone; but it certainly was one of the most difficult decisions I've had to make.

Was I a bad mommy?



Back when Macaulay Culkin was still cute!