It boggles the mind that a Perth woman could allegedly leave two children aged six and four at home without care and supervision to travel overseas.
Mamamia reported previously that the woman claimed to have left her step-children unattended in her home because Australia Post had lost their passports.
“If you are really concerned about my children, can you please help me sort out this post office and locate passports,” she said via an interpreter, “because without passports my children will not be legal here.”
She said her decision to leave them alone at the property ought to be “between me and my children.”
Post continues after video.
In this, the decision to leave them alone at the property should be between her and her children, she’s both correct and incorrect.
Australian law is equivocal on how old a child needs to be before he or she is left unsupervised and for the most part it asks parents to make a judgement call based on each individual child.
There is no one law that places an age restriction on when parents can leave a child alone, according to parenting site Raising Children.
Most Australian States and Territories hold that parents are responsible for the provision of food, shelter, clothing, safety and supervision for their children but don’t specify an age at all.
Queensland is an exception. In Queensland, if you leave a child under the age of 12 alone without appropriate care or supervision for an ‘unreasonable’ length of time then you can be charged, but the question of what is an unreasonable length of time is open to interpretation and depends on the circumstances.
In other words, parents are asked to use their judgement about when a child is old enough to be left unsupervised. That means they need to consider whether or not a child is able to feed and clothe themselves, handle an emergency appropriately, use a telephone etc. But above all else, it means a parent must consider whether or not a child is confident enough to be left at home alone.
There are benefits to leaving children unsupervised at an appropriate age for an appropriate length of time. It can help build independence and encouraging children to care for themselves. But the question is what is an appropriate age?
My five-year-old openly displays his lack of comfort at the idea he might be left at home alone if I merely open the garage door without letting him know what's going on - by shouting and crying out for me not to leave him.
Like I said, it boggles the mind that someone, exercising their judgement, could allegedly consider a four-year-old and a six-year-old capable and confident enough to be left unsupervised.
Top Comments
This is disgusting!! A 4 and 6 year old never should be left alone for more then half an hour.. For anyone that thinks this is ok is not fit to look after any child.. This is neglect and she should never look after any other children.. Thats so bad.. Poor little children.. I can imagine how scared they would have been.. If there passports didnt come you just dont go.. how stupid, selfish and cruel is that to leave them..I cant believe some people how stupid they are.. there are no excuses for this behavior and what she did.. I am a mother of 3 and yes children are all different, but regardless of that, a 4 and 6 year old is just way too young to look after themselves even for a couple of hours.. thats just wrong.. anyone with commonsense would know that.. Depending on the child (i have a very curious 7 year old nephew and would never leave him alone for more then 30min ever.. Hes always hurting himself and hes very quick.. so just depends on the child.. but i still feel most children wouldnt be able to be left alone for long around this age, they just dont really understand what to do if something dangerous happened).. I think from about 6/7 years old and up you can start to introduce very small amounts at a time.. Not even half a day to a day.. 2 days though.. thats just crazy.. If anything went wrong.. would you be able to forgive yourself if anything went wrong.. I know i couldn't.. you have to be so careful!! For her to say its between me and my children.. when her step children are that age.. and this is clearly neglect.. there must be something wrong with her. Poor little kids.. This lady should be deported and the children need to be looked after by people that actually care about them and there safety.
I disagree, a 6 year old can be left alone at home for an hour or two. As long as the kid isn't an idiot. Your assertion that parents that leave a 6 year old alone for longer than 30 minutes are guilty of child neglect is extreme and in my opinion ridiculous.
And where did you get 30 minutes from? Why is 30 minutes ok, or in your opinion not child neglect, but 31 minutes or more is?
Do you have some evidence that if left alone for 60 minutes a 6 year old kid is more likely to stick his finger in the power outlet during the second 30 minutes than the first 30 minutes? If the parents are guilty of child neglect I take it the evidence you have must show a significantly higher likelihood of disaster befalling the kid after the 31 minute mark. Sounds very interesting, please leave a link to the source.
Unless of course you just pulled the: 30 minutes is ok but any longer is child neglect out of your backside. In which case your accusations of child neglect are just based on your own uninformed untested opinion. Go stick your head in a bucket.
Well I disagree with you on that too.. Not only that you sound like a very rude and aggressive person and very defensive.. I don't mind people having difference of opinion but you are seem very aggressive and defensive the way you come across
I said I would never leave my 7yr old nephew alone for more then 30 min.. Which I meant I couldn't take my eyes off him for more then 30 min.. Or even 10 min sometimes.. But still in the same house.. He's just a curious kid and that's fine but still I would always be in the same house incase they needed me or something went wrong.. My children weren't at all as curious as my nephew and I still wouldn't have left my children at home alone at this age by themselves ever.. I think it's important to learn independence but gradually and at a reasonable age.. And I feel that's way too young!!
I would never leave any child alone in a house by themselves under the age of 10 for more then 30min-1hr and not at all if I didn't feel they were ready.. But never more then this regardless what they are like..That's my opinion and what I would do.. And I always prefer to be more on the safe side then less.
This is my opinion and I'm not a professional child expert but I am a very experienced and loving mother of 3 children now young adults and I have many of very young nieces and nephews and I'm going off my caring nature motherly instinct and commonsense..
Yes everyone is different and every child and parent is different but you have to use your commonsense and there are ages children just shouldn't be left alone at home regardless and if you can't work that out and your a parent it's a worry and it is neglect.. I have spoken to friends and family that are parents about this as I was so disgusted with this and they feel the same way too.. I feel so sorry for those children.. It's just so wrong what she did..
I'm not saying I'm the perfect mother and everyone needs to do what I do and I haven't made mistakes as I have too but I am a responsible loving caring mother and know what's right and wrong..but what this lady did is extremely neglectful irresponsible cruel and just disgusting.. How those poor little kids must have felt is just too heartbreaking to imagine.
The tone your message comes across is that you are sounding like you are this negligent step mother.. As you are defensive and nasty.. Just curious are you even a parent? Regardless it doesn't sound like you are a very nice person to be calling any child an idiot child.. In my opinion I feel it's a bit of a worry if you think it's ok to leave a 6 year old at home alone.. If you are a parent.. I recommend you take a look at a few of these articles..
This is what I found so far from the little searching I did now.. It was just commonsense and motherly instinct and my experiences with mine and friends and families kids with what I said..
But here's some articles that you may find useful.. About children staying at home alone..Up the top of one article it says suitable for 9-15.. You should be able to find some information about children staying at home alone and recommended ages etc that you may find useful.. I'm sure there's other ones out there but I don't have time to find these for you..
Enjoy..
http://m.theage.com.au/vict...
http://m.raisingchildren.ne...
https://family.arlingtonva....
I can't understand where this family's support network is - extended family, family friends, kindly neighbours, maternal health nurse, kinder teacher etc. Clearly this mother did the wrong thing, but our community also appears to be failing her....