9-Year-Old Boy Was Living Alone for 2 Years and Nobody Suspected Anything

The world was shaken by recent news of a courageous 9-year-old boy left alone in a house by his mother. Many people are outraged by the mother’s apparent negligence, but there is one detail that adds an optimistic note to this tear-jerking story. The maturity of the 9-year-old, who was able to care for himself and excel at school, is truly admirable.

From 9 years old to 11, a boy survived alone.

A young French boy survived all by himself from when he was 9 to when he turned 11, and a single adult didn’t notice his terrible situation. According to the major news outlets, “nobody noticed anything,” even the staff at boy’s school, where the brave kid was known as a very good pupil.

The neighbors of the abandoned child didn’t notice that he had been left home alone, for a big period of time. They were sure that the boy’s mom was around him, even though they did bring him food sometimes.

In an interview, a next-door neighbor said, “For me, it was normal, his mother was waiting for him at home. I had no idea that he was alone at home.” The news also reported that the lonesome boy mostly fed himself with cake and cold canned food.

The resilient child would also reportedly get tomatoes from the neighbor’s balcony. The boy would also spend a lot of time without heat or electricity and slept under three duvets. Sometimes, he would even wash himself with cold water.

The boy looked after himself so well that people weren’t disturbed when it all started.

The boy continued to attend school and consistently achieved commendable grades, despite his difficult circumstances. His classmates have just assumed him as a lonely person and they were not aware of his situation. One of them commented: “He told friends that he ate alone and took the bus alone. He didn’t go out, he stayed at home.”

“I think it was also a kind of protection that he put around himself to say, ‘everything is fine’,” the mayor shared in the interview.

After a period of time, concerned neighbors eventually contacted the police, prompting official intervention. Mayor Barbara Couturier shared in an interview, “I met his mom in May 2022. She came to tell us that she had financial problems, and we gave her four vouchers for food, but she took some processed food products instead, so that got me suspicious. Some residents told me that there was a child living alone, so I connected the two things and I called the local police and the national police.”

The boy is now progressing “favorably”, and is known for his “maturity and resilience.”

All this time his mother has lived nearby.

The boy’s mother lived with her boyfriend a few kilometers away and would visit her child on occasion. She used her food stamps, given to her by their local social welfare agency, to buy her son cakes and biscuits from the grocers. But the woman, 39, never stayed the night.

The boy’s father was absent from the family, having separated from his mother when he was young. Even the phone data showed that the mother rarely visited the flat and didn’t accompany her son to and from school, which was a few kilometers away.

After the boy was taken into social services and placed in a foster home, his mom was granted visitation rights, but she has only seen her son twice. Her son, however, has no interest in seeing his mother anymore.

We believe that encouraging independence in children is crucial, but it’s important to strike a balance. Parenting should be in moderation, with a mix of guidance and autonomy. Assigning age-appropriate responsibilities and allowing choices fosters self-reliance. Praise and positive reinforcement boost their confidence.