We'd never done it before. Through nearly 20 years of child-rearing, we'd never left the kids home alone for the weekend.

 

It was a pretty tough call. For several weeks, I asked every parent I came into contact with - preferably those with children in their late teens to extract the most fresh and up-to-date experience - what their thoughts were on leaving a 17-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl at home by themselves for approximately 36 hours.