We have a back door lock that is keyless and has numbers you enter. Very handy if you forget your keys and safer than leaving an extra key outside somewhere. That key can be stolen, or more likely, used and not put back or buried by a squirrel.
My almost 13yo daughter has more freedoms than a lot of kids her age, but there are still safety guidelines such as texting me when she’s going somewhere and when she gets there. Sometimes I tell her she can’t go for whatever reason and she gets mad, but she gets over it. She is very responsible and has been staying by herself when school is out for a few years. I think most parents don’t know how to get their child to the point of being by themselves all day. It can’t happen all at once. It starts with 10 minutes while you go to the store or just drive around the block, then move up to 30 minutes to an hour, then a few hours. After that, all day doesn’t seem so bad. I know young teens that have never been alone for 5 minutes and still have to have a babysitter because parents don’t think they’re mature enough to be by themselves. It’s really because the parents haven’t allowed them the opportunity to mature. I worry about these kids when they do finally get freedom. Our job as parents is to prepare our children to become independent and be able to take care of themselves when they leave home. They have to be able to deal with mistakes on their own and be responsible for their actions. If the parent is constantly hovering and making sure everything is just right, they won’t learn to be productive on their own.
Different parents’ rules for staying home alone used to drive me crazy.
I remember one time when my son, then in 8th grade, was scheduled to work on a school project at our house with 3 partners. Kid X needed to be dropped at our house early for some reason. Kid Y needed to be picked up at his home because his parents were out and couldn’t drive him to our house. I had to take Kid X with me to pick up Kid Y because Kid X was not allowed to be at our house without an adult being present. Meanwhile, Kid Z’s parents came to our house with the intention of dropping him off but instead were keeping him in the car and fuming because I was out picking up Kid Y and nobody was home except my own kid, and how did I dare not provide adult supervision for their child!
And these kids were all 13.