The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Home alone debate ignites
As Tory MP Michael Gove is criticised for leaving his son ‘home alone’ while he went off partying, father of two Michael Alexander asks when – if at all – is such action acceptable?
Abandoned by his family, eight-yearold Kevin McCallister, played by actor Macauley Culkin, defends his home from two hapless psychos who want to pull his nails out – and murder him.
From blow torching a man’s head to making another walk through broken glass barefoot, the atrocities featured in the plot of the 1990 comedy film Home Alone and its festive sequel – the imaginatively named Home Alone II – have become the stuff of movie legend.
But the debate took a serious twist at the weekend after it emerged former justice secretary Michael Gove and his wife Sarah Vine had reportedly left their son in a bed and breakfast for six hours in order to go to a party.
The Tory MP and Brexit campaigner recently attended an event to mark the end of the Cheltenham Literary Festival.
The couple allowed their 11-year-old son to stay behind after B&B staff agreed to keep an eye on him.
However, according to a Sunday newspaper, having reportedly signalled they would be back around 9.30pm, the pair ended up partying until 1.30am, missing a series of calls from a night porter who had found the boy walking around and asking when they would be back.
Celebrities tweeted about the event, with reports of Mr Gove “busting moves” on the dance floor as he gyrated to the so-called “rape song” – Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke.
A friend of the Goves said: “(Their son) wanted to watch TV rather than go to a dinner with his parents. He’s a mature and confident secondary school pupil so they were happy to leave him at the hotel under the supervision of staff. He was totally fine and there were no problems.”
Fife author Ian Rankin also stood up for Michael Gove.
He said: “If I left my 11-year-old in a room, a) he wouldn’t have left it as he would have been on his computer or watching DVDs, and b) he would have had a mobile phone and phoned his parents asking what time are you coming home.”
So when, if at all, is it OK to leave a child home alone?
The law in the UK does not stop a parent from leaving their child but states youngsters must not be neglected or abandoned “in a manner likely to cause (them) unnecessary suffering or injury to health”.
No figures were available for Scotland but more than 500 people were arrested in England and Wales in 2014-15 for leaving children unattended.
The majority of arrests related to children aged 10 or younger but the ages involved ranged from six weeks to 15 years.
No one from Scotland’s children’s charity Children 1st was available yesterday but an NSPCC spokesman said: “It can be a difficult decision to decide when children are old enough to be left alone and there are a whole host of things to think about.
“Parents need to consider whether a child would know what to do if something went wrong, and talk to their child and see if they are comfortable and confident about being left by themselves.”
The charity’s advice is that children under 12 should not be left at home alone for a long period of time because they are “rarely mature enough to cope in an emergency” and that children under the age of 16 are not left alone overnight.
Mumsnet chief executive Justine Roberts told The Courier: “Knowing when it’s OK to leave your child alone is an issue that crops up regularly on Mumsnet, and the conclusion is usually that (very young children aside) it’s really down to the individual child – and parents are in a better place to make that decision than anyone else.”
It can be a difficult decision to decide when children are old enough to be left