In the essay, "Next Door", the author writes about the story of an eight year old boy who is not at all matured for his age to make decisions but when his parents leave him alone at the house he was able to make mature decisions which shows that he was growing up.
Paul, an eight year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard was left alone in the house. His parents and Paul live in a house which has a thin wall and so the voice of them as well as their neighbors could be heard easily. Even if there is a little noise or any activity going on in both of their houses. We can see from the very starting that Paul has been very supportive to his parents even though he is not that matured according to his age. when his parents wanted to go for a movie and does not want to take Paul with them because of the movie was not for his age group children and upon asking whether he would be able to stay alone in the house, Paul answered "I'll be all right", which is kind of a matured statement compared to his age.
Sam Mitchell (EastEnders)
Paul Stang
Radio (2003 film)Mrs. Leonard has a very kind heart and she still thinks Paul a baby and she is not comfortable in leaving her son alone and also prefers that they should keep a baby sitter for Paul who can take care of him. On the contrary, Mr. Leonard does not agree with Mrs. Leonard and says that she should stop calling his son a baby which would give Paul a chance to grow up. In the entire story we can see that Paul is growing up and his decisions are really matured.
In addition, when Paul's parents were fighting...