Does anyone know the answer to this? In the state of Pa. at what age can a child be left alone overnight? Or for several hours during the night? I need to know this before I decide on a course of action. We are talking about a 16 1/2 year old here not a small child. I quit my day job 10 months ago so my husband (who is self employed during the day and drives truck in the evening)and I could spend more time together during the day to work on our marriage. Which has not happened. To be a contributing partner I then got a night time job working weekends making 2x the salary as before. This not being good enough for my husband he now wants me to work every night. Sometimes he doesn't get home till the early morning hours, sometimes not till later in the morning. This makes me extremely uncomfortable leaving our son home alone during the night. He is not a bad kid,thank God,so that is not my worry. IF we file for divorce can he use that as a means of keeping custody of our son? I know our son would not want to live with him. Should I just quit this job and find a dayshift job to avoid trouble? We had a BIG fight this morning and he told me he would make it nasty for me. I don't understand why he would want custody, he's never here any other time for us(workaholic). Thanks in advance for any answers!

In Colorado, a 14 year old can be left alone for a week as long as they have a responsible adult around (a neighbor or such) to call or go to if needed.<P>------------------<BR>Prayers & God Bless!<BR>Chris<BR>For relationship info check out <A HREF="http://www.pcisys.net/~chriscal1/resources.html" TARGET=_blank>Marriage & Relationship Resources</A>

Don't think it is in Pennsylvania Law. But you can look up all the laws in PA on the state site in the internet.<P>As far as child neglect is concerned, it depends a lot on each individual case. There are eighteen year olds who still cannot be trusted to be home alone and follow the rules of the house.<P>Maybe there are other things to be considered. Like what is in the house? Alcoholic Beverages? Spray solvents? Firearms? Matches? Candles? Pets?<P>Good friend just had his house destroyed by fire started in the basement rec room. Nineteen year old daughter lit a candle on a coffee table. She went upstairs to answer a very important and very long phone call from a twenty year old young man. Long story short, the cat knocked over the candle and by the time she figured out that something was going on besides her phone call, there was nothing left to do but get out of the house. And that, she had enough sense to do.<P>Prayers and stuff,<P>Bumper<P>

If I remember correctly from the responses to a letter I saw in Ann Landers or Dear Abby, PA does not have a law that states a specific age.<P>I can't imagine how it could be a problem legally. Many 16 year olds babysit till the wee hours of the morning. When one of my daughters was that age, she was attending college in another state.