Originally Posted by apick:
This is slightly unrelated, but brought up something I have been wondering about. I'm about to start caring for a 3 month old and she had a 9 year old sister. I think the mom is trying to save money and told me she is going to leave the 9 year old home alone and only have me watch the baby. She will be home alone for about 5 hours each day the baby is here. Technically, I know this is illegal because in our state you can't leave children home alone until they are 12. Do I have any responsibility to report this under being a mandatory reporter? I don't think this would fall under child abuse, but I also don't feel it's very safe. The mom said she might have the 9 year old start coming here as well, depending on how things go leaving her home alone, but wanted to see how that went first. How would you handle this situation?
I would keep out of it, too. I know in my state (Illinois) there is a minimum age, but the law is ambiguous enough that it would have to be proven that they were in some jeopardy or endangered in some way for it to be enforceable. I would imagine that a lot of states are that way.