I started staying home alone after school at 12; I don't know that I would do this with my own kid with what I know now.Glock 23 wrote:i have no children....is it the norm to leave them home alone as young as 11?
As for the doggie door, the past owners could have installed it, and the current owners could have simply left it in. Also, if the kid had one of those dogs that seem to perpetually bark, then he would not have been alerted.
This could have been much worse.
ETA: Many people in nicer suburban communities get a false sense of security from their vanilla surroundings. My sister is one of them. You can't convince her that she needs to be vigilant about her safety, because "the area where [she] lives is nice." There is no convincing some people.