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I totally agree. That 5 year post sort of inspired me to respond to this thread. My children were left alone for brief periods of time since the day they were born. I can't imagine a life, for parent or child, of dragging a child from room to room while doing chores.
Ditto. In the crib in their room while I worked in another, etc.
Yea, definitely depends on the child. My son I could probably have left for two hours at that age and he would be fine. My daughter however liked to find trouble!
My daughter is 4 and has developmental delay. Maybe not autism, but similar. I have no problem with leaving her downstairs while I am upstairs, or vice versa. I also let her play in the fenced backyard alone if I am downstairs with the windows open so that I could hear if she cried out. I would not let her play alone in the front yard or in the street yet (ie on bikes), though we have neighbors with 4 year olds who do allow this.
I would not put 2 year old outside without a fenced in area. they can't think about repercussions like darting out in traffic to chase a ball or kitty or dog. that just sounds too risky.
Thanks all. My son is 4. I could bring him into the room, it's just sometimes he prefers to continue playing in the playroom whiel I do chores. I have a 12 month old who stays with me obviously.
I had to really think as I never thought about this before. My whole house was childproofed and if they walk, they walked all over the house as they want. I would often be in the kitchen cooking and them in the living area or in their rooms. I stopped taking them with me everywhere if they could walk, so 2ish? And the windows/doors were securely locked as well. I would not let them outside at that age unattended.
Is this the one with Autism? Depending on the severity of it and how willing they are to obey/remember rules, I would think 4 would be okay but you know your child best.
Depends on the kid.
Depends on the layout of the house.
My kid 23 months is a very active climber.
So not very long. I have walked into a room seconds behind him to find he is perched precariously high somewhere.
Sometimes we are in the kitchen and he will run off with a dog into the formal living...but they usually thunder back into the kitchen within 30 seconds.
For example, leaving a child downstairs in the TV room while you are upstairs folding laundry? 10-15 minutes or so, without being able to hear them (unless they go to the bottom of the stairs and yell).
Thanks for opinions.
my 3 year old (now 4) is fine by himself as we go upstairs. Always same building.
Hell, if we aren't up he gets up and goes downstairs. . .by himself.
he has never done anything to make us think he wasn't capable.
I totally agree. That 5 year post sort of inspired me to respond to this thread. My children were left alone for brief periods of time since the day they were born. I can't imagine a life, for parent or child, of dragging a child from room to room while doing chores.
This. My kids are two and four and can be left alone throughout the house. They frequently play in their playroom in the basement while I'm doing things upstairs.
Kids vary so much in their maturity and at what age you can trust them alone. I have 4 children and 2 of them I would have been able to trust alone for a short period of time at age 4 and 2 of them I couldn't. No one knows him better than you, so it is you than can best judge if he is mature enough to be left alone like that.
Thanks all. My son is 4. I could bring him into the room, it's just sometimes he prefers to continue playing in the playroom whiel I do chores. I have a 12 month old who stays with me obviously.
If your 4yr old is a healthy and normal child, that is old enough. Honestly, even if you had your 4yr old with you the whole time, you wouldn't be watching him anyways. Can't believe there are people talking about no earlier than 5yrs old on this thread. To each his own.
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