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Nope no way..he may be responsible but word gets out..and it may not even be his friends but the PARTY CRASHERS who show up.trust me been there and that was just for overnight.
Not worth the potentail liability and poor wife, if like me, will not be able to relax those first 3 days..
Speak with a friend of his parents and see if he can stay with them for the 3 days..
I was a kid like your son. Except without any wild friends. All of my friends were honors students, highly involved in sports or music or both, many of them straight A students, most of them are doctors or lawyers or accountants now. Still. STILL - no one lost an opportunity when someone's parent left them alone, even just overnight. I'm not talking wild parties, but even if there were only 4 kids sitting around with a couple of bottles of champagne someone had found, bad things happened. Kids are going to find ways to party with their friends, but I say 16 is a little young. Someone said "I trust my kid that, even if he does have a party, he won't let strangers in and will keep control over things". That's hard for even the most responsible, mature 16 year old to do. Few kids that age really have the savvy to be able to say "No, you're not allowed in" if some older kids from the next neighborhood over show up, or to keep control of things when one of the guests decides to feed alcohol to the dog, or another decides to set a fire in the garage.
I would have let my son stay home alone at that age but not my daughter. You have to know your own child and not be in denial about them or assume anything. 3 day's in your own home (probably with neighbors you know) is actually a nice introduction to independence. It's not like people can suddenly handle it at age 18 (or 17 if at college) if they haven't gone through the steps before that.
When my son was home alone he had his guy friends over and they had a LAN party. The same guys who have been coming to my house to game for 7 years so it was fine with me. They didn't have gf's and no girls would have came and "word" doesn't just get out about this stuff unless the kids is putting it out there and even then it's not like the movies, your place is not suddenly going to be the party house for every teen in town unless it's a regular thing with your kid anyway (partying with strangers and whatnot). Which is exactly why I wouldn't have let my daughter stay home alone....lol
No worries my friend, we can certainly agree to disagree! And thanks for recognizing that my arguments do have merit
I'm wondering if in your situation (and what a nightmare story that was!) the real problem was that you left the 15 year old home alone too? Sometimes one kid alone wouldn't do what two kids together might egg each other on to do.
And hey, I bet your kids learned some very valuable lessons by that experience didn't they? Maybe what they learned actually allowed them to make BETTER choices in far riskier situations later down the line
I'd be more inclined to leave two kids home. For one even if friends were trying to rope one kid into having a party or allowing one, he/she would have that "out" that they can't because the other would tattle.
And the companionship would be there. I wouldn't leave a 17 and 15 year old home, but I would leave a 20 year and 17 year old home together.
I really don't think it's that. I know a 16 year isn't a 6 year old, likely he or she has a drivers license --- which is even more reason not to leave them alone for so many days. A 16 year old is just starting to have some freedom, but for me it's not so much about not trusting my kids because I actually trust them, but I don't want them going night after night all alone in my house. Yes if there is an older sibling there, then I might leave them home with each other but they would not be all alone. The driving part is probably the biggest reason, when my 16 year old is out, I have to know he or she made it home in one piece and the car is also okay. I'm going to be available even if it's to help with a flat tire or fender-bender.
I don't really expect that my kids are going to move out and be all on their own at age 18 either, I pretty much expect that isn't really going to happen until 20 or 21 or even 23.
I don't have the sense the kid will be home all day and all night by himself. I'm certain he'll have things to do (that aren't necessarily dangerous and illegal). And three days is a weekend. Weekends fly by fast. It's not a couple weeks or a month.
And I don't see why you think leaving a teen with a 20-year-old would be better. Certainly a 20-year-old will more than likely have 21-year-old peers with easy access to hard drinks, more readily than a 16-year-old's high school peers.
Remembering my teen years I would have considered that to be a very good time to invite some girls over and have a great time.
Exactly this... we all had those occasions... they're rarely fatal... let the kid have his fun just set a "person limit (6 kids probably won't wreck your place)," a no drinking and driving rule, a zero tolerance for drugs and explain the importance of condoms... They'll probably try to keep it quiet so they DONT alert the neighbors/cops that they're having a good time. But a little fun while the parents are out of town is a rights of passage... God Bless that girl whose parents had a pool and hot tub... *end nostalgia*
Update: My wife and I are now on the same page and we are going to let him stay. This was important as we wanted to discuss this with him as a united front. We believe he'll do fine. He's working at his internship full days and he'll be home three nights - the next day he will meet us for the rest of the vacation. We have friends checking in with him every night he's at home (including parents of his friends) and they are supporting our decision as they find our son to be responsible enough. Our son was relieved and thanked us for trusting him to do this. It was a great conversation!
Anyhow, thanks to everyone for your opinion. Vacation is next week and I'll let you know if we made the right decision.
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Maybe what they learned actually allowed them to make BETTER choices in far riskier situations later down the line 
