A Child Alone in Ireland

ChronicSelfEditor

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How long can a child of say 10-12 expect to be left alone by adults and/or authorities before action is taken to find parents? Could they stay in a village without being bothered or would they have to hide out in the woods or something?
 

waylander

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If they took up with a bunch of travellers no-one would bother them
 

Jean

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It's depended. If they kept low profile it would take long time for someone to notice that their parents are missing. In 'The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane' MC lived alone for months after her father had died and planed to live like that for 3 more years till she reached legal age (even kill to conceal her secret). Although, if they didn't do anything to hide the fact that they're alone, their neighbor would call the cop in days if not hours.
 
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shaldna

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How long can a child of say 10-12 expect to be left alone by adults and/or authorities before action is taken to find parents? Could they stay in a village without being bothered or would they have to hide out in the woods or something?

If the authorities know about them then someone would be around to collect them in a matter of hours.
 

proofofromance

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These days a self-reliant youngster could probably hide out for quite a while in one of the many half-built houses left unfinished all over the country :(

I think the travellers idea has a lot of potential. Some travellers still use their own language, Shelta, or as they call it, the Cant. I'm a language nerd, so that automatically makes me interested.
 

mtrenteseau

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If you're going to have them living in their own home, I'd make a list of everything they'd need to do to keep up the facade and decide how good they'll be at each of them.

After a few weeks, the kid would either have to do laundry or start wearing seasonally-inappropriate or dirty clothes to go to school. The food would run out in the house, requiring trips to the grocery store, foraging, or stealing. Someone would notice a kid coming to McDonald's by himself.
 

dirtsider

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Also, does the kid have access to cash or the PIN number for his parents' debit cards? People are going to notice a kid forging their parents' name on a credit card receipt. But they're less likely to think twice about a kid with a wallet. I recall a young girl (around 8-ish) who went to buy a book who had her father's wallet. When asked for payment, she handed over the money still half in the wallet. If nothing else, the kid could say that his/her parent was in "that" direction or "over there".
 

shaldna

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Don't kid yourselves - social services pay just as much attention to the travellers as they do to everyone else, if not more so.
 

dirtsider

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The food would run out in the house, requiring trips to the grocery store, foraging, or stealing.
Not necessarily.
The kid could order online, pay by credit card and have Tesco deliver to the house.

The downside of this is paying off the credit card. If the balance is too high and shows no sign of being paid, then the creditors will take an interest.

Which leads to another thing to think about - how is this kid getting money to support himself in the first place? Once the parents' bank account runs dry, what then?
 

waylander

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The downside of this is paying off the credit card. If the balance is too high and shows no sign of being paid, then the creditors will take an interest.

Yes true, but that could take a good long time if the credit card has a high limit on it.
 

mtrenteseau

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Yes true, but that could take a good long time if the credit card has a high limit on it.

If an entire billing cycle goes by without a payment, most cards cut you off until you send them money. So if the card were current at the start of the process, this might give them a month and a half.

Paying with a direct draft from a checking account would only require funds sitting there, which would be one less level of complication than using a credit card.
 

mtrenteseau

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Not necessarily. The kid could order online, pay by credit card and have Tesco deliver to the house.

I hadn't considered that - we had several companies offering that service here ten years ago, but they've all given up due to lack of profitability.

Mainly because traffic is so awful here a delivery could take twice as long as the business model would consider suitable.