Home Alone

How quick we are to criticise and sagely shake our heads. How quick we are to assume the role of judge, jury and executioner.The muttering is almost audible: that mother in Wyong, who lost all those kids in a house fire last week – how could she? Leaving her kids with a teenager in charge, going out and having a good time: what is the world coming to? It's a dreadful, avoidable waste. Don't give to that relief fund. You never know where the donations will go. Bad mother. Bad family. Bad situation.
But the tragedy in New South Wales last week, in which four small children died in a house fire while in the care of a 13-year-old girl, could have happened in any number of households.
Granted, many parents would not leave their children to spend a night at the pub and many would not leave their offspring alone for an open-ended amount of time.
But we should not be so quick to judge. Plenty of families leave their children in the care of an older sibling. Many more, every week, leave their children home alone. There's work, there's sports commitments, there's other kids who need transporting. Life is busy. Personally, i am as guilty as the next person to point the finger at situations where kids are left alone or with an older sibling, but i also understand why some parents feel the need to do it. I had a nieghbor, a single mum, who'd leave her boys at home all day if they missed the school bus and she'd have to work. We live in a very closed community, crime rate...well touch wood is near 0%. However i used to worry about electrical probs if she wasn't there, fires etc. What would her alternative been then? No one would look after the kids, she has to work, she's condemed if she doesn't work....viscious cycle.
With school holidays on the doorstep, the quandary for parents and the duration of kids' aloneness is magnified. Working parents and holidaying children are puzzle pieces that do not fit together. It's hard and it causes great stress, but for about 12 school holiday weeks a year, it is unavoidable.
Every family with kids home alone knows there are risks; they just pray it isn't their turn for a disaster. But these same people are quick to judge others when the unthinkable happens, such as the tragedy in Wyong.
The problem is that for all the blue cards and amber alerts, many areas relating to children and their care are shadowed in a distressing shade of grey.
In the place of policy and legislation relating to kids, Chinese whispers abound. Some say 15 is the magic age for flying solo at home. Other say it's 14, or 12 or 18. The truth is, often there are no rules, no regulations and no legislation when it comes to kids. There is no legal age for being at home alone. There is no minimum age for earning a wage in Queensland. In many cases, there are not even any sanctioned guidelines and no one seems to know where to get advice.
Early this year, the CCYPG held a review of the child labour situation in Queensland and made a series of recommendations. What was revealed was startling: along with no legislated minimum working age there are no specific bans on children working in adult industries such as topless waitressing, no laid-down penalty for employing a child in a genre of work that is likely to harm their safety or wellbeing.
Because of the CCYPG's review and subsequent recommendations, the Government has now vowed to correct this situation and introduce Queensland's first child labour laws specifically geared towards their safety and wellbeing. Among these, it will set down the minimum working age for children as the ripe old age of 13. Wouldn't it be magnificent if, just once, such a dreadful thing could be anticipated and the Government could build this safety measure into the legislation, which is set to be introduced into Parliament later in the year.
Lives would remain unshattered. We would have one less reason to feel fearful and sad.

till next time, Michelle.