i feel like i was left home alone a lot starting at like 15 maybe. my maternal grandfather was sick/dying (heart disease) for what seemed like a couple years, so my parents pretty regularly traveled from Houston to Palestine during that time. they would take my sister, as she is 9 years younger and was thus still very much a young child. but at some point they determined forcing their teenage daughter to miss school and spend every spare moment around death and dying wasn't great.
however... leaving their teenage daughter home alone regularly probably also wasn't great. it didn't help that during this same time period their marriage was literally disintegrating. they had a lot of adult stuff on their minds and were just not particularly...attentive π
let's just say...there were a lot of shenanigans. but to be fair, there were a lot of shenanigans when they were home as well. did i mention they weren't very attentive?
gawd, it's honestly amazing i didn't end up (fill in the blank). π