I hate to think about my kids being in a dangerous situation, but I hope and hope and hope that if they ever were (god forbid!!), they'd know what to do. Like 11-year-old Luis Gutierrez, who did exactly what I'd want my kids to do if they were home alone and somebody broke into the house (god forbid!!). When the boy heard the sound of shattering glass, he didn't wait to find out who or what broke that window -- he ran straight to his room, hid under his bed, and called his dad.
Good thinking, kid! I mean, this is an 11-year-old boy we're talking about here. Faced with intruders, he could have just as easily set a bunch of elaborate booby traps or tried sneaking up behind the thieves with a snow shovel. (Get it? He was Home Alone?!) Anyway, he did the right thing. And so did his dad, who told Luis to call 911. (Can you imagine getting that call from your kid? Help, I'm hiding under the bed cause somebody broke into the house!)
But the best part of this story? Luis didn't just save his own neck by thinking fast ... he stopped the robbers from getting away! Thanks to that 911 call, police arrived just in time to nab the 3 suspects (all of whom are apparently 17 years of age) AND rescue Luis through his bedroom window.
I don't know about you, but I'm definitely planning on having a talk with my kids about what happened to Luis Gutierrez. Main things to remember: Hide. With a phone! The only thing I'd want my kids to do differently would be to call 911 first.
I'm also never leaving my 11-year-old daughter home alone. Maybe freshman year of high school? If she's lucky.
How do you think your kid would react in this situation?
Image via rabble/Flickr
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Comments 30
I believe you can get in trouble with Child Services for leaving children under the age of 12 (or is it 14?) unsupervised actually.
i think it's all about the maturity level of the child if they should be trusted to be left alone. I moved in with my dad when i was 12, and he or his live in girl friend usually got home about an hour after i got home from school. I knew the rules. no cooking on the stove, microwave or sandwiches if i was hungry. no going outside, stay in the house, and if anything happened to go to the neighbors house. That said, if someone broke into the house at that age i probably would have climbed out a window and ran for the neighbors or hid in the back yard with our dog in his dog house. lol.
Here in FL I think the legal age where you can leave your kid home alone is 7 (but only if its just them they cant babysit their younger sibling(s) until they're older) But idk what world some of you guys are living in because EVERYDAY you hear on the news bout teens being violent and having weapons.Like all the times teenagers have brought guns to school.Just because they were only 17 doesn't mean they don't have access to weapons or aren't gonna be violent.Anyone can be violent at ANY age.So when a child is home alone in this type of situation I think its best (and smarter) to think the worst and act accordingly because you never know how someone is or how they're gonna act until its too late.
I agree with MomtoDavid, it's really about the child's maturity. Check this story out about a 14 year old boy who was home babysitting his younger siblings when an intruder broke in. This just happened today.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/23/phoenix-boy-14-shoots-armed-intruder-while-watching-three-younger-siblings/?test=latestnews
Oh, and I'm sure we'll have some overly dramatic story from one of The Stir writers about this before the day is out...
Change the headline to "11yr old killed by home invaders while home alone." I bet all of you saying "great wow good job" would be screaming charge the parent!
I feel that this young boy did the right thing, however, fortunetly he was able to call 911 b/4 the intruders knew he was even in the house. After this, I wouldn't let him stay home on his own for awhile. My boys weren't left home alone for any reasonm until at least 14/15 yrs. old, especially since my oldest is handicapped, and I didn't want them to have the responsibility of worrying what to do if something like this happened.