Is it okay to let 10-year-olds hang out in a house with no parents?
Leaving pre-teens inside a home without any adults present creates safety risks and discomfort for parents who do not know the household. This lack of supervision stops parents from feeling secure about after-school playdates, leading them to restrict children to the yard or require trusted adults to be home.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Requiring kids to stay outside or in yards rather than going inside homesDid this help you?
- 2Insisting that a trusted adult be present in the houseDid this help you?
- 3Allowing neighborhood roaming and outdoor play while forbidding unsupervised indoor gatheringsDid this help you?
- 4Sitting outside while letting kids play outside togetherDid this help you?
- 5Waiting until kids are older, around 8 years old, before allowing visits without a parent presentDid this help you?
- 6Only allowing drop-off playdates after meeting the parents and feeling comfortableDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We are now dealing with my kid wanting to go into a friends house after school with a group of other kids. Yesterday there were five of them in one house with no parents present. The kids are aged 10-11. I’m uneasy with this, but wondering if I am overreacting.”source ↗
“5 kids in a house with absolutely no adults around is an issue for me”source ↗
“Yards yes, into homes, no. Too many weirdos and opportunities for tragedy. If there isn't an adult I know and trust in that home, they can stay outside to play.”source ↗
Where this came up
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