Tips for Keeping Your Home Alone Child Out of Trouble

Leaving your child home alone, no matter how long, doesn’t have to end in disaster of Macaulay Culkin proportions. Use the tips below to ensure the safety, security, and comfort of your child while he’s home alone.

Know Your Child
This is probably the best thing you can do and the best way to determine the rightness of leaving your child home alone. Consider his age. Can he be mature enough to understand the need for following your rules? Consider his personality. Precocious is nice and all, but it can lead to all sorts of trouble.

Establish Rules
Your kid is less likely to disobey your house rules if you’ve enforced them early on and they know what to expect when they do end up disobeying them. The rules must be clear and valid; they will make it easier for your kid to understand, appreciate, and obey them.

Punishments for disobeying these rules must be reasonable, constructive, and dealt consistently. If not, they might only provoke rebelliousness in your kids.

Be sure that your house rules cover everything that could put your child in danger while he’s staying home alone. Review and evaluate regularly.

Practice Makes Perfect
If leaving your kid alone at home is a new experience for you and your kid then you better start practicing immediately. Such practices are essential especially when an emergency occurs. You want your kid to be prepared for any eventuality and capable of saving himself.

For your practice sessions, play make-believe with your kid then guide him step by step in determining the appropriate responses for the different emergencies he could encounter. Teach him how to call 911 but don’t stop there. Let him know that during those times, he could be suffering from panic and anxiety but stress to him the importance of giving the right details.

Keeping Contact
Leaving your child home alone doesn’t require you to severe contact with him completely. You can give your child the responsibility of having his own temporary mobile phone. Teach him how to send you SMS and make calls. Stress the importance of contacting you regularly so that you’ll be constantly updated of his status.

Avoid Too Much Responsibility
Your kid can only be responsible so much. Be reasonable with your expectations. It’s still best to ask help from a neighbor or friend and have him check your child once in a while. Install a security system to provide additional protection for your child.

wireless home security system image

image credit to greyarea

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