Children Left Home Alone - Child Trends Research in New York Times
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QUOTATION OF THE DAY - New York Times
"It's the rule of fate. If something goes wrong, then you are a bad parent
and you will be charged. If nothing goes wrong, you won't."
- RICHARD WEXLER, director a children's advocacy group, who has compiled
research on children left home alone.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/nyregion/19MOTH.html?th
From the story:
. . .The Child Trends researchers found that higher-income children
between 6 and 9 were actually more likely than poor children to be left
unsupervised for several hours, even after controlling for the fact that the
better-off parents were more likely to have jobs.
The authors of the report, "Left Unsupervised: A Look at the Most
Vulnerable Children," warned that leaving children under 13 routinely on their own
may put them at risk for injuries and developmental problems. But they also
hedged, writing: "Self care is not always harmful. Children typically become
more independent as they mature, gradually spending more and more time alone and
taking increasing amounts of responsibility."
When unsupervised children become notorious, the legal system may feel
extra pressure to hold parents accountable, even when the case did not end in
tragedy. . .Yet in other strikingly similar cases, parents were not
prosecuted. . .
Professor Lareau said that among the well-off families she followed
for her new book, "Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life (University
of California Press, 2003), were a pair on an out-of-town trip to a soccer
championship who left two 10-year-olds, two 8-year-olds and a 5-year-old alone in
a hotel room while the two sets of parents went out to dinner a mile away."
They left the kids with cell phones, pizzas and videos saying to each
other, `They'll turn us in,' " she recalled. The children did not turn them
in, however, and no fire broke out.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
"It's the rule of fate. If something goes wrong, then you are a bad parent
and you will be charged. If nothing goes wrong, you won't."
- RICHARD WEXLER, director a children's advocacy group, who has compiled
research on children left home alone.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/nyregion/19MOTH.html?th
From the story:
. . .The Child Trends researchers found that higher-income children
between 6 and 9 were actually more likely than poor children to be left
unsupervised for several hours, even after controlling for the fact that the
better-off parents were more likely to have jobs.
The authors of the report, "Left Unsupervised: A Look at the Most
Vulnerable Children," warned that leaving children under 13 routinely on their own
may put them at risk for injuries and developmental problems. But they also
hedged, writing: "Self care is not always harmful. Children typically become
more independent as they mature, gradually spending more and more time alone and
taking increasing amounts of responsibility."
When unsupervised children become notorious, the legal system may feel
extra pressure to hold parents accountable, even when the case did not end in
tragedy. . .Yet in other strikingly similar cases, parents were not
prosecuted. . .
Professor Lareau said that among the well-off families she followed
for her new book, "Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life (University
of California Press, 2003), were a pair on an out-of-town trip to a soccer
championship who left two 10-year-olds, two 8-year-olds and a 5-year-old alone in
a hotel room while the two sets of parents went out to dinner a mile away."
They left the kids with cell phones, pizzas and videos saying to each
other, `They'll turn us in,' " she recalled. The children did not turn them
in, however, and no fire broke out.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]