Question re:leaving sleeping kids alone in cabin?

[musicmansmom]

4. jeans

 

5.smuggling booze

6.formal night

[fairydustca]

OK:

 

So now everyone will be locking their kids in their cabin while they get drunk on their smuggled booze up on the topless funnel deck, then throwing on a pair of jeans and a tank top to attend formal night all the while tipping poorly!!! LOL :eek:

[evy123]

Evy,

 

I am officially signing off on this thread. No resolve possible. Glad to hear

you're moving on. Before you go (if you are still out there) where are you

cruising to next?

 

Mel,

 

Stay Happy:)

 

I am sailing off to the Western Caribbean!!!:D

[GoodAsGold]

That would be Heimlich. Sorry, I just couldn't resist. :p I'm amazed you ended up having a large family after having to grow up so fast taking care of your siblings! Two thumbs up to you for raising such responsible kids.

 

I was taking care of my handicap brother and baby sister after school until 10 pm everyday at 9 years of age because my mom had to work a second job to pay for "his treatment expenses"...

 

I really think it depends on the kids!

 

At 9 years old....I had everyone fed and in bed by 8pm...I did my homework and was in bed by nine...and I left a plate of dinner in the fridge for my mom to eat when she came home! I also could clean a house and budget our check book for her....

 

Sorry...It really depends on the kids....

 

My children start making their own lunches at 6 and are proud of it!

Children rise up to your level of expectation...and like to!

 

I have six children and my oldest is better prepared to equip with the demands of a child.....better then half the adults I know....

 

By the time my kids are 11....they can do anything to help in the house including cook! When my kids turn 11 they are doing their own laundry!

 

NEWS FLASH!

Most 11 year old girls have started their period already!!!!

You better have taught them how to be wise and aware of danger!

 

How many parents even know CPR...or the Hymlic...my kids are taught that when they turn 11...because they are old enough to babysit in most states at that age and you can enroll them into a week long course at the fire department...who train them!!! SEND YOUR CHILD TO THIS FREE PROGRAM IN YOUR COMMUNITY....If it helps you to feel better...

 

That 11 year old will be in Driver's Ed in less than 4 years!!!! A ship with a walkie talkie is a perfect place to go on a date for an hour if you have a responsible 11 or 12 year old babysitter....a 5 minute walk back to the room if they call with a problem....is better than a 30 minute drive home!

 

CARNIVAL ALLOWS KIDS 11 YEARS OLD AND UP to check themselves in and out of CAMP CARNIVAL ON THEIR OWN!

 

ON OUR CRUISE:

When my daughter was almost 12....she watched her 10 year old brother and 9 year old sister in a deadbolted room for one hour every night so we could go dance in the disco between 11 and midnight....they were tucked in with their HOT COCOA and watching a Disney movie on our portable DVD player....It was our only time alone the entire cruise and the kids loved it!

 

...They felt grown up and safe in a deadbolted room with a walkie talkie.....and us 5 minutes away! They never once left the room!

 

My daughter is a 4.0 student...who skipped two grades and is starting highschool this fall.....SHE WILL ENTER COLLEGE at a time when most kids are just barely getting their driver's license.....YOU GOT TO KNOW YOUR KIDS!!!

 

MY daughter is also the first one everyone calls when they need a babysitter for their "one little brat~they need a break from!"....She has 5 brothers and sisters...and she has less breakdowns than most grown women with PMS!

 

YOU ALL are way too harsh....most of America NOW has latch key kids coming home to an empty house at around 9 years old in this country!!!!! Give me a break!

 

PS

I agree...I never have a balcony room when and if I bring my children on a cruise! Too much risk...ocean view is fun and just as roomy of a cabin w/o taking risks!

[GoodAsGold]

We must live fairly close! I don't live too far from the epicenter at Loma Prieta either. Oct. 17, 1989 was a scary day. You know something funny? I was with one of my twin girls on a local high school track timing her cross country practice when the earthquake struck. She and her sister were 13. When we got home, her sis had been home alone. She knew to dive under the dining room table and had to do several times with the aftershocks. Now to the funny part. It was my 13 year old kids who went in and swept up the glass and straightened things up a bit while their "chicken mom" stood outside close to a nervous breakdown. :o So in this case, it was the children who were able to keep calm.

 

 

It may sound silly but perhaps the main reason I wouldn't leave my kids home alone is because we live in earthquake country, only a few miles from the epicenter of the big 7.1 during the world series "many" years ago. I saw adults that couldn't cope so naturally that weighs heavily on my mind. Unlike a hurricane, you never get a warning for an earthquake!

[GoodAsGold]

One of my grown twin girls starting babysitting a 9 week old baby when she was 12 every Thursday night while her mom took a night class. The mother had no problems with it at all. She said she had started babysitting early, herself. I also used to babysit when I was around 12 or 13. I will say,, though, that my mom used to have this old neighbor gal babysit my brother and me every Saturday night. She spent the night as a matter of fact. All for a total of $1.50!!! Can you believe that?! This was 1962-63. I was 11 and 12. My brother was around 8 and 9. Oh how we used to play some choice tricks on her! (She was a special ed student years before.) She loved to watch Lawrence Welk on tv. when she came over.

 

A 15 y/o is certainly mature enough to babysit, whether on a ship or elsewhere!

 

For that matter, leaving an 11 year old and a 6 y.o. alone for an hour with walkie talkies (and no balcony) is in my opinion OK. But not for hours on end. And of course, depends on the maturity of both kids and how well they get along.

 

When I was 11 I babysat numerous times while parents left to go out to dinner etc.

 

I think many are far too over protective of their kids. Yes, that CAN be a bad thing. They need to start learning to exercise judgment and responsibility over time - or else how will they learn? That 11 year old is in Middle School - talk about needing coping skills!

 

PS I have a 14 yo and a 12 yo so I'm pretty in touch with this discussion.

[flashdog_1]

Okay, I've read every post and contributed a question once.Since we are way off topic, I'll add a couple of stories.

 

A friend of mine who is now 59 said that when she was 7 she was responsible for taking the house payment to the other side of town in a NY suburb, transfering buses, because she was the only family member who was free during business hours (I didn't ask her why they didn't mail a check!). Okay, so she was responsible and was not molested, but did say she was nervous the entire time & that it was too much responsibility even for a mature 7 year old.

 

But my own daughter, now 29 and gorgeous, owns her own home, would not go anywhere alone or stay in the cabin alone on a ship (but will travel in a locked car on interstates to get to a destination of her choice). She knows the dangers and still chooses to behave as if she's 10 as far as being with her mother during a cruise! Go figure.