Eh, I'm not of the mind that it merits criminal neglect charges either. That being said, I've never met a 14 year old I'd trust that long to keep things on track, and I'm dubious that they should have that level of stress placed on them even if I had. Overnight, absolutely. Maybe a weekend at the most, but once you start into having to manage multiple meals and such, plus safety of multiple kids, the ability to balance things is hard enough for adults.

Yeah assuming they had accessible food and drink I don't really blame the parent unless more was going on I don't know about... It reminds me of that observational comedy bit: "how old is 13... really"

Not for 5 straight 24-hour days. Child labor laws, if you want to go that way, allow for a 14 year old to work a maximum of 3 hours per school day and 18 hours per school week, and only between the hours of 7am and 7pm.

Last I looked, 12 was the minimum age in Florida to leave your kid home alone. Not that that's tightly enforced. Depends on the kid. I'd trust my nearly-14 year old daughter, would not have when she was 11. My son's 11 now and I'm not so sure about him.

Yeah, it's a borderline thing. But there is a difference in an overnight, or night off kind of babysitting and a week with the responsible adult in another town or state.