Safety For Your Home Alone Kids
Is your kid home alone often? Can you entirely trust the nanny with the safety of your child? I am sure your mind is always at home with your kid, keeping you worried even while you are working or travelling?
Most nuclear families, especially those with both the parents working or with a single parent juggling all the responsibilities, face this situation in their day to day lives.
Summer vacations are just around the corner. Schools will be out and your child will be spending more time at home without having you around, which means more stress for you as a parent.
Sure, there are some good after-school cares, daycares, and crèches in the city, but you cannot depend on these forever.
Also, as kids grow up, they seek more independence. At that point, leaving children alone at home alone is not an easy one to make for sure. With the high crime rate in the city and the negative influence of the media on children, you wish to acquire some superpower to watch over the kids while managing everything else in your life.
To leave or not to leave? Making the decision.
Is your kid ready to take on some extra responsibility? Does she/he need a nanny? Or is it finally ok to leave your child alone at home?
There are many things that you need to consider before you make this decision. Age, maturity, and special needs, if any, of the child, are some crucial factors to consider while deciding whether the child needs a nanny or can be left completely alone. Though each child is different, generally speaking, children over 13 years of age should be able to stay alone, without a nanny.
Preparing your child, your home and yourself.
Counsel the child about the upcoming responsibilities and try leaving her/him alone for shorter durations to see if the child can cope up with that. Repeat and reinforce the safety instructions on a regular basis. Discuss various scenarios where the child is alone and needs to handle things smartly. Give your child a list of contact numbers including the numbers of emergency services, your mobile and office numbers, and numbers of a few trusted individuals like neighbours and relatives your child can reach out to in case some need arrives.
Design a routine to keep your child busy with their interest; this could include completing homework, watching TV, pursuing a hobby, etc. so that the child does not feel bored or lonely.
These are some things that you can help your child manage this alone time safely and productively. But when it comes to the safety of your baby, you just cannot leave things to chance. You need to cover all the bases.
You need a little more than CCTV cameras because you cannot monitor your child remotely all the time. You require smoke and fire detectors to keep any disasters from happening. Your home needs something that can help detect any unusual movements in the house.
Monitoring is not enough! What will you do when your child is the trouble?
You need a security system in place in case an emergency comes up, a backup when it matters the most.
Can you entirely depend on a nanny?
Your nanny might have brought up a dozen kids before being appointed to take care of yours. She might have been referred by somebody you know or verified by an agency of repute. But can she still be trusted with the safety of your baby? Can the nanny put up a fight in the face of intrusion?
You can never say for sure. You not only need to watch the nanny while she watches your child but also needs to be prepared to defend your home against intruders.
Since you cannot be physically present to take care of things, you need an alert based security solution, like VProtect, which is more than a helpless CCTV and provides 24/7 uninterrupted monitoring along with day and night patrolling, and mobile application for managing alarms.
Your child deserves a home security system that not only monitors your home but provides a quick response when required. An efficient home security system must notify in case of intrusion or any unusual activity inside and around the house.
How does alert based security solution function?
A security solution like VProtect sends an alert to the monitoring centre along with a visual grab and calls you on your phone to confirm before taking action. Trained response officers are sent to your house and the concerned civic authorities are informed.
‘Arming’ the alarm system for all entry and exit points and windows, while you are away, helps in more than one way. It helps detect any outside intrusion, aided by the nanny or otherwise. You can also track whether your nanny is leaving your child alone at home or taking your child outside without your knowledge.
The house can be selectively armed as well. Since the nanny should be able to manage with access to the child’s room, kitchen, and the living room, you can arm all other rooms of the house like the master bedroom where she is not supposed to and is not expected to enter.
Home alone, but not helpless.
Your child can be prepared and trained to stay alone and you double-check everything, but is that enough? The answer is always “no” when it comes to the safety of your baby.
Security guards are not foolproof. There is always some room for error. CCTV is not enough for your home security because it can only monitor the situation, but the response still depends on you.
This is where VProtect, a wireless intrusion alarm comes in play yet again. Not only does it monitor the situation, but also provides a quick response when it matters the most.
You can track all entries into and exits from the house, which includes the child’s movements as well as those of any other person(s).
It can also create an alert and response in case of potentially dangerous situations like a fire breakout. The SOS button on the VProtect mobile application can help your child call for help in case of emergency, say a medical one.
Hence, your child can be alone at home, but never helpless.