Released May 21, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn.— If you have determined that it is safe to leave your children home together without you, talk to them about safety issues so they can be successful with their new responsibility:

Never open the door for anyone.

What are the child’s boundaries? Can they play outdoors or at the neighbors? Can an older sibling bring the younger children to a park?

Have a plan of action in case something goes wrong; post emergency numbers where all children have access; have a back-up plan if you cannot be reached (grandparents, neighbors, close family friend).

Role play with all of your children what they would do and say if they needed to call 911. Tell them to give their full name, address, and telephone number, and to stay on the line until instructed by emergency personnel to hang up.

Go over fire procedures and practice escaping by two routes from every room.

Create a rule about who answers the phone when siblings are at home, and teach your children how to answer the phone and take messages without indicating they are home alone; have them screen calls using voicemail or caller ID.

Lt. Brad Penas of the Moorhead Police Department suggests that if the child will be caring for other children to not only have all phone numbers available, but be sure that you or the responsible parties will be accessible at those numbers. “If a parent is going to be unavailable during their work day or have their cell phone on vibrate, be sure the child caring for other children has an alternative number to reach,” Penas said.

Be sure to post any rules where all the children can see them. Go over the rules periodically and be sure to let your children know that you will be checking on them throughout their time at home without you.

If your older child has stayed at home alone for periods of time, you may want to consider a transition time for him to begin care of his siblings. Have him care for them while you go to the grocery store. Ask them if they felt comfortable while you were away. With practice, you will all be comfortable with the schedule you work out between out of school time activities and staying at home alone.

For help in determining if indeed your child siblings are ready to stay at home together without you, see the article “Siblings: Are they ready to stay home together without you?”at the University of Minnesota Extension Parenting website http://www.parenting.umn.edu.

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http://www.extension.umn.edu/extensionnews/2008/preparesiblingstostayhome.html

Contacts: Ellie McCann, (218)236-2009; mccan023@umn.edu

Catherine Dehdashti, (612) 625-0237, ced@umn.edu