Mom Says Her 8-Year-Old Was Left Home Alone During A Sleepover While Her Friend's Mom Went To The Store
She was not happy to hear that a fellow mom had left her daughter home alone.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock Entrusting your child to someone else’s care is a big deal. Perhaps that is why many parents say they choose to opt out of sleepovers altogether.
For one mom who decided to let her daughter attend a sleepover, she realized after the fact that it may have been a bad idea.
One mom found out that a fellow mom left her 8-year-old daughter and her friend home alone during a sleepover.
An anonymous mother posted on Reddit to share her experience with a sleepover her daughter had and get some advice.
“My daughter slept over at a friend’s house for the first time yesterday,” she said. “She’s eight, in the second grade.”
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Unfortunately, the sleepover did not go as well as hoped. The mom stated, “When she got home, she told my husband and I that her friend’s mom (the only adult watching the girls) left them home alone a few times. She said a couple times she left them alone to walk the dog.”
This mom was able to rationalize and even understand the other mom leaving the house to walk the dog. She noted that their townhouse is very close to their neighborhood’s green space, so it probably wasn’t that big of a deal.
However, that wasn’t the only time the girls were left by themselves. “One time my daughter said she left them home alone to run to the store,” the mom said. “I guess she had tried to call her mom to come watch them but couldn’t reach her so she left anyway.”
This was particularly hard on the daughter of the mom who left them home alone. “My daughter’s friend got scared at one point and tried to call her but her mom didn’t answer,” she said. “My daughter said her friend was scared and crying.”
The mom was confused and wondered if she was “missing something.”
“I’m at a loss,” she said. “I host sleepovers often and would never do this. I don’t leave my daughter home alone at this age and would never leave her and a friend I’m responsible [for] home alone.”
Is it safe to participate in sleepovers?
Whether or not sleepovers are actually safe has become a hotly debated topic in recent years.
Child safety advocate Pattie Fitzgerald told Motherly, “It’s not so much about whether the sleepover is safe. It’s more about whether the environment is safe … My philosophy is that sleepovers can be a slippery slope.”
According to Motherly, “The main issue is that there’s minimal parental supervision over a long period of time, which opens kids up to more risk.” It certainly sounds like this was the case for this mom’s daughter and her friend, who were left by themselves by the friend’s mom.
Motherly also recommends trying an alternative to sleepovers — sleepunders. A sleepunder is basically a “nighttime play date,” complete with pajamas, movies, and dinner, but the child is picked up from their friend’s house before it’s time to go to bed.
Fitzgerald claimed that “the later it gets, the riskier it gets,” so sleepunders can be a good option. However, it’s very possible that even if the girls were just having a sleepunder or nighttime play date, the friend’s mom still would have left them alone.
Commenters agreed with the mom who posted.
Reddit users who took time to comment on the post were wholly on the side of the mother whose child was left home alone by another mother.
“Don’t let her go over there anymore,” said one person. “Walking the dog one minute from the house while bringing her phone, okay. But going to the store and not answering your phone: not okay,” another pointed out.
It’s unfortunate that something like this would happen, especially at a trusted friend’s house. It certainly lends credence to the idea that sleepovers are a bad idea.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.