Mojo In The Morning
How Young is Too Young to Stay Home Alone?
This is the Mojo in the Morning podcast, powered by Michigan Auto Law, auto accident attorneys. Visit autolaw.com. That's autolaw.com. Mojo in the morning, phone number eight for a four mojo live, Texas 95500, if you call us, know that we want you on the radio, tell us if you're a first time, long time, we'd love to be able to get you on the air with us and shout you out. Kevin has a little bit of, I don't know, we'd say a little, a little disagreement going on between you and Shirel. Yeah, but it is one of those things where I guess I'm at a point now where, and you've all told me before, choose your battles. So I don't want to say disagreement because I've already bowed out gracefully and I'm no longer having the kind of wave to white flag, all right. White flag is wave that tells between my legs, I surrender. Shirel does not believe that Josiah is at a point in his life where he can stay home alone and I believe that he can. Really? Okay. And Josiah is your son. Josiah is my son and he is how old he is 11 years old and he can stay at home alone. That's what you say. That's what I say. And what does Shirel say? So literally today, Shirel has some errands to run. I'm like, she's like, either I can take Josiah to your mom's or I can bring him to the station at like nine o'clock. I'm like, bro, just leave him at home. It'll be fine for how long? It don't even matter. It does. But why? Because I think it does. Okay. Why? Because is he going to be home alone all day or is he going to be home alone for an hour from, you know, so she's going to be gone all day. Okay. So let's say she leaves at nine o'clock. Uh-huh. I'll go home whenever we wrap things up here. Let's just say one o'clock at the lake. Let's just say that. Sorry, Megan. I'll leave earlier than you. One o'clock at the latest. Uh-huh. Is that, is that doable? Nine to one? That's still. Well, so I'm a nervous, I'm a nervous Nellie and I, I probably wouldn't, but why I agree with Shirel. See, here's my thing. Like the reason I say how long is like sometimes I'll tell Lucy, hey, when you get off the bus, mom's going to be like 10 or 15 minutes behind you, just let yourself in through the garage. I will be right there. And even that makes me a little nervous. I'll be honest. She's 10. Here's my thing. If we're all in the house together, it's not like Josiah's up under her arm. He's going to be in his room on a computer on Roblox anyway. So it's quote unquote, not like anybody's watching him. Right. He knows how to heat up pop tarts and grab pizza rolls like, wait a minute, you're going to let him heat up pop tarts and, and, and pizza rolls, put pizza rolls in the oven. No, we put, I put my pizza rolls in a microwave. Okay. and blah, blah, blah, 90 seconds, you good to go. - Buh, buh, buh, buh, buh. - That's insane. - Buh, boom, buh, buh. - He can do that. He can feed himself. He's gonna be on the tablet or watching TV. - What if he chokes? - The cooking makes me nervous. Cooking makes me nervous only because I was like 23 and still setting my oven on fire, so like, that I get, but I was left home alone, like, pretty frequently, when I was at age. - At what age, did you guys start getting left home alone? - They're, well, I mean, oh, I don't think he'd get upset by this. I've talked about my dad traveled for a living when I was growing up, and then when he was a single dad, my brother moved back home, but my brother also had, like, a full-time job. So, like, my brother was living at the house, so I was never home alone at night, but I would come home from school or whatever, probably at the age of 13, 14, 15, and then be home alone until my brother got home. - See, that to me is okay. I don't know, like, the nine, 10, 11, 12 is where I'm like, are, like, I don't know. - Oh. - I was babysitting the neighbor kids at, like, 12. - See? - Mm-hmm. - So, I was in charge of younger kids. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, a year older. - Yeah, a year older. - Close to your house and your mom, or your dad, was there with you. - You're acting like he's not close by. Like, if Josiah called and said, I need you here right now, how long would it take you to get there? - Seven minutes. 'Cause I'm flooring. - 17, 'cause you'd go through Chipotle's drive back. - Yeah! - That's true. - Heather, what are your thoughts on Kev leaving Josiah alone? - Well, I was just saying that I think it's completely acceptable. You know your child, and you know how they behave. And if you call the police and ask them, they will tell you what that parent's discretion. - Wait, what's the age though? - I love the age. - What's the age at parent's discretion? - There is no minimum age in the state of Michigan. - There's no way that you can parent discretion at a five-year-old, I guarantee you there's gotta be a house. - There's gotta be some fun. - I mean, I obviously that wouldn't work, obviously. But if you think that your kid is able to stay home alone because they're self-sufficient, or they're pretty responsible, or they're rather mature, it's okay. - We hear these stories all the time of people who leave their kids in their car, with the windows cracked, and their kids are in the car, and they go into the casinos and stuff. I get it, you're leaving them in your car compared to in your house, but you're still leaving them alone. I don't think that is right. - By the way, she is right. There is, for whatever reason, in the state of Michigan, there is no law that-- - Age limits? - The Michigan law does not specify a minimum age for leaving a child home alone. The decision is ultimately up to the parents. However, a child protective services report could be filed for leaving a child 10 or younger, a home alone. - 10 or younger, I'm safe. What's up Amanda? Hi. - Good morning, guys. - Good morning. - Hi, my son's alive, and we don't want him to stay home by himself. Even though he is more mature than my 19 and 17-year-old. (laughing) - So-- - Yeah, we don't. - What's your reasoning? - I'm thinking nervous. - Wait, why do you not leave him home alone just to play devil's advocate? 'Cause I agree with you. I wouldn't do it either. - But it just makes me nervous. - Yeah. - Like, Mojo, what are you worried about? - A fire, somebody breaking in. - All it takes is one-- - So you're exactly, yeah. - Yeah, all it takes is one thing to happen, and you'll never be able to live with yourself if that happens. - Yep. - You know what I'm saying, the fire is just gonna break out. - Well, you never, I mean, when does a fire break out? It doesn't get timed, right? - What I'm saying, typically-- - There's an action that creates a fire-- - In most cases, I would say. - But you live in a community where you got attached places, bedding downstairs or whatever it was-- - Beverly. - Beverly downstairs, you know? Here's the thing, I think Josiah's more mature than I am. Like, I would trust Josiah more than I would trust me, but all it takes is one thing bad to happen. And what's the, Cheryl gave you the option. Bring him here to the station. He can hang out with us for a little bit. - He don't need to. - He's more entertaining than you sometimes, you know? - I don't, I don't need to. - Actually, I love having him on the air. We haven't had it in a while. What's up, April? What do you think? - Hey guys, first time on time. - Hey! - Thank you for calling. - That's a serious turn, but I just had a funny comment. I was just gonna say Kev wrong, because he put the pizza rolls in the microwave. - That is true. - How is that wrong? - That is true. - I can't be the only one that operates that way. - I do as well, but I will say they are better if I'm patient and I put them in the oven. - What about, what about the air fryer? - Air fryer is the best, actually. - Air fryer. - By the way, Josiah should not be working any of these things. What's going on, Linda? - Oh, crazy. - Hi. - Hi. - I leave my son home. He is 11. Well, I go to work. I'm a single mom. I move to Ohio and I have no family here. And I do, we don't have a whole lot of friends. I usually base it off of how mature he is. He does have a phone. He does know how to call me. I know that he usually just sits at home and plays on video games. He knows not to open the door for anybody. And I do check on him through my Google Nest, that kind of a thing. So I do believe that it can be based off of how mature they are. Ohio is also a state that does not have an age limit. So they base it off of maturity. So I do leave him there, but more is more of because I can't afford a babysitter and I kind of don't have other options. - And that is so awful that we have to worry about this because of childcare, 'cause childcare is so bad in our country. What's going on, Laura? Hi. Hi, Laura. How are you? Good morning. Scared me there for a second. What's going on? I told you that I was ordering breakfast. Oh, no. I was just gonna say, I agree with Kev. My son is nine, he's about to be 10. He's home alone, quite frequently. I mean, I'm Canadian, so I live across the border. And last weekend, I had to go across to get something for my uncle and he stayed home. Wait, you crossed the border and left him home alone? Yeah, I did. What happens if you got held up, you know, by immigration and they wouldn't let you cross? We have tons of neighbors in the neighborhood. It's a very like city, I mean, a very child friendly neighborhood. So he knows who our safe neighbors are. He knows where to go. He's known all of this because similar to the caller before, I'm a single parent. So for many years, like he's had to come home and I was at work and he had to let himself in the house for the last few years, especially with COVID. And it's just got, sometimes it's what you got to do. That's a file. We have somebody from Child Protective Services, Casey from CPS on the phone with us right now. You there? Would you like to have me arrest him for you? Citizens arrest? Would you like us? Should we take away his parental rights? No, I actually, I actually agree with Kev. There we go. I work for Child Protective Services and this is something we deal with a lot, but I think just based on what Kev says, maturity of what he says about Josiah, try giving that a couple of hours and see how he does and check in. Like Shannon said too, there's not a law in the state of Michigan, it's based on the maturity of your child and most parents know their child better than a stranger or public opinion. So here's a question, you agree with Kevin, but if something happens at that house in a fire or, you know, and he hurts himself, he falls out of bed and cracks his head open, whatever. If he is hurt and taken to the hospital, CPS is one of the first that will be called, right? To investigate what's going on? Yeah, the end all. But if he has, if he's left without some form of proper care and custody or a connect with somebody, what is proper care and custody then? That he has access to a phone or an adult in the case of an emergency, somebody that could come, if he was hurt, say, I mean, accidents happen all the time, right? We can't live in a, we're a very reactive world. So as long as he has those tools and somebody knows he's home alone or can have access and like him said, if need be, you could be there in seven minutes. Does that work for you to take the mojo? Because you interrogate me. I am interrogating her. Yes, I am. I am interrogating her because Josiah is like my nephew. And if anything happens to, anything happens to a hair on a frickin head, I will come and get you. Would he feel comfortable being alone? Because, okay, because Lucy absolutely refuses. Like even when I know that I'm not going to be there when it's school time, that I'm not going to be there to meet the bus for whatever reason, I have to have somebody make sure to meet her. But she will not be in my house without me. A piece of the dilemma or the dichotomy between the two households because we do have split and share a parenting with his biological mothers that she is a quote unquote single mother. She doesn't have, you know, she doesn't live with anyone else. So he's, he stays at home sometimes alone. Okay, so he's used to it. He's used to it. Do you think Lucy's just scared of not doing it before? Because I remember being terrified the first time I always left home alone and being like, something's gonna happen. And then like the second time you're like, yeah, it's fine. Being home alone was so late. I got the evidence that's going to push this case over to the top. It's called CPS lady. It's just got a call or just got a text message from an anonymous texture that said that Josiah does not have a cell phone. You don't, he has a, he has literally two iPads. He does not have a cell phone. He has two iPads. You know how to face, we face them all it's on. Whatever is if the Wi-Fi goes down. Here you go. If it was case closed, I agree with Cheryl. Thank you for the time. - I just agree with you. - Thank you.