We are home most of the time with our daughter so we didn’t have to explore this topic until she was about 12 years old. We felt that she had to learn how to be home at some point. Plus, the fact that we have a medium-sized dog and live in a secured building helped ease all of us a bit.<\/p>\n
![\"10](\"https:\/\/www.cookiesandclogs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/child-home-alone-list-01.jpg\")
Product provided for review purposes. All opinions are my own.<\/small><\/p>\n
Even then, we started off by only leaving\u00a0to do a couple of errands that were only a few blocks away. When we walked in the door and she was armed to protect herself (picture Rapuzel with the frying pan in Tangled), then we knew she was not quite up for the task of being home alone yet. It’s so important to talk a lot about this with your kids and gauge their comfort\/responsibility level as you go.<\/p>\n
Safety Vs Spying<\/h3>\n
We\u00a0also set some guidelines, though these are tweaked as needed. She knows to not use the stove or oven, her phone must be near her at all times, no opening or even answering the door, and that it’s a no-no to take a shower when we’re gone. We also use home video monitoring<\/a> cameras\u00a0to visually keep an eye on her. She rather likes it and realizes it’s for her safety and not because we’re spying on her.<\/p>\n About those cameras, we’ve had some fun with them too. As a NetGear Ambassador, I received the NetGear VueZone system with two cameras\u00a0to review. With these on, we had real-time video of what was going on in different sections of our home. We have a really, really small place so the two cameras are plenty to cover the majority of our living space. There is an option of adding more though. The VueZone base connects via wire to your internet modem. How that sends the signal wirelessly to the cams? We have no idea but it does it somehow.<\/p>\n One time, while Frans and I were away at a business meeting, Frans decided to peek at his smartphone to see how Munchkin was doing. She was doing more than fine as we caught her on camera dancing and singing her heart out to some Teen Beach Movie songs. There was no audio but we knew exactly what song she was acting out, Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’, by her over-the-top movements.<\/p>\n![\"NetGear](\"https:\/\/www.cookiesandclogs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/netgear-vuezone-01.jpg\")
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