From what age can a child be left alone at home -

Parents sooner or later face the need to leave their children alone at home. We will tell at what age you can leave a child alone at home, how to prepare a child for the fact that he will have to be alone without adults.

When you can leave the child alone in the house

It is believed that leaving a child alone at home can start from 5-6 years. This, of course, is very individual, because some children at the age of 5 can spend time on their own, and some at the age of 12 can arrange such a home that parents will have to understand for a long time. Before leaving your child alone at home, you should prepare for this. The preparation consists of the following stages:

Give the child more freedom next to you. For example, you do your business for an hour, and the child does his. In an hour you can discuss what the child was doing. Leave the child alone for a while, but do not leave the apartment. You can lie down to relax or take a bath. This will teach the child to rely on himself, and he will get used to the temporary lack of help and control from adults.

Teach your child domestic independence. For example, she must be able to pour herself water or milk, make sandwiches. At this age, it is too early to learn to use a sharp knife or plate, so all ingredients should be chopped and do not require heating.
The child is at home: what to do for the first time

For the first time, parents should not be away for a long time. You can, for example, go to the store. Before leaving, you should explain to the child how many of you will not be, show where the hands of the clock will be when you return. And this promise is worth fulfilling.

In this situation, you can use fairy tales. Explain that the mother bear will go to the forest for berries, and the baby bear will have to stay alone. Ask what the child would do in the absence of the parents, which scares her to stay at home on their own. Speak your child’s fears and anxieties so that he or she stops feeling frightened before his or her imagination draws.

Instruction before leaving

• Before leaving, you should remind your child what not to do under any circumstances. List of strict prohibitions for children:

• No one can open the door, not even acquaintances. Those closest to you have the keys to the house, and they can enter themselves.

• You can’t tell strangers that you are at home and talk to them for a long time. It is best to say that the parents are busy.

• You can’t open windows and drop any of them. Before leaving, it is better to close all the windows and put special locks on them so that the child can not open them himself.
You can not play with electrical appliances and light a fire.

It is necessary to start leaving the child alone at home for a short time, from 15 minutes, each time increasing this segment. The child needs to be taught to use the phone and leave phone numbers: his own and those relatives and friends to whom he can call in an emergency.