CHILDCARE during the school holidays is a headache for most parents. Back-to-back summer camps are often the survival strategy of choice, but the options are limited for children who are too old for camps and too young to get a summer job. For many parents who travel to work, leaving their young teenager home alone during the day is the only solution. But are they old enough to be left to their own devices?
As there is no “legal minimum age” a child can be left unsupervised, the debate on the age to leave a child at home varies from parent to parent. The only official guideline is in a recent Tusla document which states: “In Ireland, children under 14 years of age are not seen to be mature enough to be left alone or unsupervised.”
