The answer to both of your questions is yes, says Martha Raidl, University of Idaho extension nutrition specialist. In the 1970s, teenagers drank twice as much milk as soda. Today, they're drinking twice as much pop as milk. My husband and I both work full-time and have very mixed feelings about leaving them to their own devices all day. Minors of any age shouldn't be left alone all summer.
Kids needs to know that adults care about what they're doing.
As alternatives, they can sign up for summer school or for classes and activities at youth centers. Sure, your child might make it through the summer just being creative and structuring his or her own time, but I think it's too much of gamble.