Legal Age for Kids Home Alone

1) Yep. MO is an At-Will state... So dad can be fired

2) Unless the son is special needs (and needs that require supervision / care)... States follow the babysitting age, typically. There are extreme examples, but generally at 15 or 16 a child is considered old enough to take care of themselves (with a home, bills paid, food, etc.) for 90 days without there needing to be emancipation or other orders.

((15/16yos taking care of themselves (while in a paid for home, bills, etc.) is especially common in Oil Rig & Long Haul Trucking families... Where parents are gone 1-3 months, home 1 month, gone 1-3 months. As well as reservest families, with single parent being gone for short periods of time (few weeks to a few months). Becomes an issue during deployments of 6+ months. ))

Know its not what you asked... But if it makes you feel better... I was serving in the USMC @ 17.

I'm fairly certain a 17 year old can be left at home for an indiscriminate amount of time. They can emancipate themselves at that age, or even younger.

If something did happen, God forbid, I'm sure he will handle it in the same matter a 21 or 24 year old might. Just make sure he knows what to do in case of common emergencies.

I doubt that there is a legal age, so to speak,when a teen can be left home alone for 3 days. What determines whether or not they can stay alone is whether or not they can be safe. How mature is your teen? Are they able to stay alone for hours at a time without a problem? Can you trust them to not have friends over and to make responsible decisions? Do they feel comfortable being alone?

In reality, the police are not going to know your teen is home alone unless there's a problem and if there's a problem it depends on what the problem is whether or not it's a legal issue.

You're asking about a situation in a state different than yours. Perhaps if you gave more specific information, I could be more specific in my answer.

I don't remember how old our daughter was... maybe 17, turning 18 in a couple of months? I was just re-figuring my math.... if I remember correctly, she just finished her Junior year in HS, which would have put it at the year 2000... (and she was born August 1982, so she would have been 17, almost 18... her birthday is in August.)

We couldn't post-pone the trip, as it was a scheduled event in another state. She stayed behind because she had qualified for a State Music Festival.

Anyway, we left her for 2 weeks.... yes, 2 weeks! She was incredibly responsible, and had state music festival one of the weekends we would be gone. She knew what was allowed... she had well-earned our trust.

I don't know about your State.
But I can understand your concern.

When I was 17, I was on my own, in college in a whole other State, living in an apartment.

Or contact whatever department in your State, and ask them.
The police department etc.
Or maybe they can, if told, occasionally drive by that house and monitor things?
Or a TRUSTED neighbor, asked to watch the house/kid?
Or you can too????
As they say, it sometimes takes a village.

Also, the other side of the coin is: even if the kid is responsible... what if he has TONS of friends over and there is some party going on???
Is this kid still in high school or not?
What will the school, say????
They should be told, since he would still be in high school.

And yes, the Dad can be fired.

So far as I have read there is no legal age in Missouri except for babysitting and even that is not enforced.

You may want to google it to make sure nothing has changed but my now 22 year old stayed home alone when she was 17.

I just did a quick google search and it looks like 17 is plenty old enough in most states.
I mean, they can work and drive a car, right?
Now if the father is worried about his kid being irresponsible then that's a separate question.
We have gone on a few weekend trips where we had to (or wanted to!) leave the teen home so what we did was just arrange for them to stay at a friend's house. Not because we didn't trust our kids, but you know, word gets out that the parents are gone, random kids may show up looking to party or whatever, we just didn't want our kids having to deal with that.
So why doesn't he just stay with a friend?
I'm sure the boss will be thinking the same thing...

I don't know about your area.

My daughter ( almost 18) has stayed home alone for 2 nights to manage our home and petsit at least twice.

We never had issues. She's responsible and mature for her age. Our neighbors were aware we were away just in case of emergency.

We never had issues. We have a conference each spring and she's managed well to get to/from school safely ( she drives) plus we have a pet sitter check on the dogs while she's at school just to make sure everything is covered. We pay her the same rate we'd pay our house sitter as if our family was away for a couple of nights.

Can the child stay with you while Dad's gone? He can get his school work and stay current. I would not feel comfortable leaving my 17 year old home alone for 3 days. Maybe one overnight, but not 3 days.

The father probably could be fired for not going. Unless he has an employment contract or is in a union, he's an at-will employee which means he can be fired "at will."

I went to college in US at 16 and for a month long vacation back to my home country at 17. But when I called the police department with a similar question some years ago about leaving my 7 and 10 year old kids home alone for an hour while I went grocery shopping they told me there is no legal age. The police said that the child would have to know what to do in case of an emergency - what if they fell and were bleeding, what if the heat went out, what if there was a fire, etc. Plus in your question, does the child mind being home alone at night, or will they be inviting lots of friends to come party? It all depends on the child.