Staff Writer

Parents may not be as excited as their children about local schools' holiday vacations.

Although almost two weeks of free time may seem like heaven for children, it's often a struggle for working parents who have to find a baby sitter.

"It's real hard for the parents," said Jim Voy of Cobleskill, who watches his three elementary-school-age grandchildren after school.

"I can't watch them the whole Christmas break, though, so they go to a neighbor's," Voy said, noting that the children, ages 5, 7 and 8, are too young to stay home alone.

Other parents are deciding whether to leave their older children home alone.

"I don't know what I am going to do yet," said Joan Smith of Sidney. "My son's 11, and he's all gung-ho about being home alone, but I don't know yet."

Parents of children too old for day care may have the biggest struggle, said Lynn Gluecker, child-care services director for Catholic Charities of Delaware and Otsego Counties.

"Most day-care centers stay open (over Christmas break), and will take children all day," she said, adding that parents who rely on after-school programs for child care might have problems.

"I think they deal with it in a variety of ways," she said. "Relatives watch them, or the parents are off for Christmas too."

Sharon Bolivar of Walton leaves her teenagers home alone.

"They're ready," Bolivar said of her 13- and 16-year-old sons. "They're involved in sports and what-not, so they're hardly ever home anyway."

But with an increasingly scary world, more and more parents are reluctant to leave their children home alone.

Twenty percent of 10- to 12-year-olds are left home alone, according to 1999 data from an Urban Institute survey of 42,000 U.S. households. That's down from 24 percent in 1997.

Dr. Chris Kjolhede, a pediatrician with Bassett Healthcare, said middle-school-age children can be left home alone as long as they are properly prepared and respond appropriately to hypothetical situations.

"In some respects it's a very subjective decision," Kjolhede said. "There are no hard and fast rules."

Kjolhede recommended "testing" children by presenting them with possible scenarios, such as a fire on the stove, and asking what the child would do.

"It could be someone at the door or a phone call," he said. "Talk about what to do."

Bolivar said that's how she prepared her sons to stay home alone.

"I asked them what they would do in certain situations and knew by their responses they would be OK," she said, noting that she started letting the boys watch themselves about three years ago. "I asked them if they knew who to call if something happened."

Calling home often is a must when children and teenagers are left alone, Kjolhede said.

"I'm a firm believer in the phone call — the unexpected phone call," he said. "Even if you called five minutes ago, call again to surprise them."

Younger children can spend their Christmas break at the Oneonta YMCA's "School's Out" program, said Kevin Kern, senior program director.

"The kids play games in the gym," he said, noting that children in kindergarten through sixth-grade can participate. "We've had a good turnout for it."

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Carolyn Norton can be reached at cnorton@thedailystar.com or (607) 441-7218.