--- description: An Indiana mom was arrested after her two young sons were discovered staying home alone — while watching the movie 'Home Alone.' title: Mom Arrested For Leaving Kids Alone Watching 'Home Alone' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Mom Arrested For Leaving Her Kids Found Home Alone Watching the Movie _Home Alone_  by [Raisa Bruner](/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 20, 2018 7:09 PM CUT  by [Raisa Bruner](/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 20, 2018 7:09 PM CUT Sometimes, life is better off _not_ imitating art. In an interesting twist, an Indiana mother was arrested this week after police in the town of Muncie, Indiana discovered she had allegedly left her two young sons home alone — while watching _Home Alone_. (_Home Alone_, the 1990 holiday classic film [starring Macalauy Culkin](http://time.com/5484256/home-alone-google/ "undefined"), is about the perils of leaving a kid unattended in a house, of course.) In the _Home Alone_ movie, [Kevin McAllister](http://time.com/5470173/home-alone-viral/ "undefined") is a precocious eight-year-old who is able to more or less adequately care for himself after his parents accidentally leave him behind on a trip, and he even manages to outsmart a team of thieves who attempt to burgle his house, serving them up some inventive justice. The Indiana boys, meanwhile, were just four and seven years old. According to police, the mother — who was at work — had difficulty finding a babysitter, so asked her elder son to skip school to watch the younger one. A concerned neighbor had called in to report the unattended minors, at which point the police arrived to find the boys watching the movie, unraveled the story, arrested the mom and charged her with two counts of neglect of a dependent, [according to local news](https://kfor.com/2018/12/20/%5F%5Ftrashed-2/?fbclid=IwAR3pryhj43o%5FMI1X2gFuWQraZHl%5Fs5trJU3JybcxyuCaB1aBnRvMCULQ87E "undefined"). As for the boys, they’ve been placed in the care of a relative. A reminder: adequate childcare can be challenging to find, and _Home Alone_ is a great movie, but the law [advises parents against](https://www.in.gov/dcs/files/Home%5FAlone%5FBrochure.pdf "undefined") leaving kids unsupervised before they’re mature enough to care for themselves. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5485740/mom-arrested-home-alone/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5485740/mom-arrested-home-alone/"},"headline":"Mom Arrested For Leaving Her Kids Found Home Alone Watching the Movie Home Alone","datePublished":"2018-12-20T19:09:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:34.849Z","description":"When life imitates art a little too much","url":"https://time.com/5485740/mom-arrested-home-alone/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Crime","movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5485740/mom-arrested-home-alone/","name":"Mom Arrested For Leaving Her Kids Found Home Alone Watching the Movie Home Alone"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Home Alone Trailer","description":"Home Alone Trailer","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aVnkXl3b/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-11-16T21:56:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aVnkXl3b.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5485740/mom-arrested-home-alone/","duration":"PT2M10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5485740/mom-arrested-home-alone/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```