Share:
Education When can children stay home alone for the first time?
Who does not know that? A short shopping is pending, but the children are currently playing in their room and do not want to go with them. "Can the children stay home alone for a few minutes?" Many are wondering - and are unsure whether the time is ripe for this step. However, this can not be fixed overall in age, because the right moment depends on the personal development of the child.
First hours alone often possible in the late kindergarten age
It's just before closing time and Caroline M. would have to go to the grocery store to buy a few things for dinner. "But what about the children? Take home or leave alone at home? "A situation that probably all parents know whose children have reached a certain age. But when is the right time for this step? With 12 years? In primary school? Or earlier? Here, many adults are in great uncertainty.
Whether children can already stay home alone depends on the state of their personal development. (Image: Sunny studio / fotolia.com) Parents should set clear rules
For the right moment, however, there is no blanket age limit. Instead, it is quite different when parents could leave a child alone. Because not the age, but the personal development is crucial, says Maria Große Perdekamp in conversation with the news agency "dpa". As the head of online counseling at the Federal Conference on Educational Counseling further explains, it is often possible even in the late kindergarten age for the children to stay home alone in one afternoon. But "then it is important to impart rules like: do not open the door and do not turn on the stove," says the expert. In addition, it is advisable that mother or father at the beginning not too far away from the apartment and reachable.
On the other hand, using older siblings as "babysitters" does not always make sense. Twins or children who are almost the same age should therefore not stay together alone at home. The same applies if the children had a tendency to make each other nonsense. "Good is usually with an age gap of at least five years," says Grosse Perdekamp.
Good preparation of the child ensures safety
In order to stay alone in the evening, however, the children should be older, because the last hour of the day are "emotional for many children," says Grosse Perdekamp. Accordingly, she recommends to wait until the late elementary school age and organize the first time very small steps. This means that the child is informed where the parents go and how they can reach them when needed. "It's also good to play through the situation in advance and ask," What do you think, how are you doing then? "", So the expert's tip.
Be sensitive and sensitive to separation anxiety
By no means should parents "secretly" leave the apartment when the child is already asleep. Because it is awake and does not find the parents, panic could arise. If the child does not want to stay alone, Great Perdekamp advises to think about the possible reasons. For in some cases worries are the trigger, which could then lead to fear of separation. Likewise, it should be looked at carefully and listened in difficult situations, because "after the separation of the parents or when grandma or grandpa have died, the child may not be so stable," says the expert. In this case, they advise the parents "not to be too strict or demanding", because "this will normalize over time." (No)