To leave a ten yr old home alone for an hour

Definitely. I would think the majority of 10 yo should / could be capable of having an hour at home by themselves without causing major mayhem

I think as a parent you know if your child is sensible enough and wouldn't get scared being left alone for short periods. I agree children need to have a degree of independence based on their competency. I am also a child protection social worker, and for me personally I would not leave my nearly 10year old alone, despite her being sensible, she would get scared. And tbh, I personally would not feel comfortable currently.

At 14 I was being paid to look after other people's kids while they worked during school holidays

A childminder at 14?! You can't get any childcare for children after 9 year olds where I live, no fucking way would someone agree to look after a 14 year old unless they were family or friend. I'd expect a 14 year old to be able to stay home, travel across the country on train/bus, look after younger children - if mine couldn't do that by that age I'd be wondering where I went wrong as a parent.

My 11 year old gets home by 5. No-one else is back until 6 or 7. He makes himself a simple meal and clears up.He seems to like having the house to himself for a bit.
I've not given it much thought as just gets in with it. His school has a common room open until 6 but he prefers to come home and blast away on the Xbox.
Maybe I'm a terrible mother.

Blimey - I was confidently babysitting other children at 14. And a teenager could legally have a child of their own at 16. Which might be a reason not to leave the 14 year olds unsupervised, I suppose.

A childminder at 14? Crazy.

Of course. How else will a child learn independence if you don't start with little age appropriate steps like this?

I would not risk it. If anything happened to her you would never forgive yourself. 14 can be left home alone but not overnight. I made my child go to childminder after school until he was 14.

No!!! NEVER!!! I have a 10 yo and I would never leave her home alone. Yes she is sensible and would probably be ok, but what if something happened when you were out and you were longer than expected. What if here was s house fire! Unlikely but definitely possible. So NO!!

Depends on the 10 year old.

You will be told that you can't leave any child under 12 (or 13) on their home, which is absolute bollocks. Provided they had your telephone number, or could pop round to a neighbour if there was an issue, no-one - less of all the Social Services Department of the local Council - would bat an eyelid.

also you know your child.are they capable. I have a sister who 30 this year and I wouldn't leave her alone haha

go through the boring rules.dont answer door and id say phone because this is how people see whos in...dont cook and leave anything on.no candles burning.youll be surprised what you things (because you find obvious)they don't know or realise.
you also know what area you live in so ajust accordingly.

Mine stays home for drop offs and pick ups.

AQuietMind surely if you had an accident and didn't come home when agreed, 11 year old DC would call a local adult? I leave my 11 year old regularly but she always knows who to ring in an emergency (assuming she can't reach me)

Definitely depends on the child. My son isn't quite 8 yet but I can't see him being sensible enough to be left alone at 10 even for a short time. He would take it as an opportunity to do things he's not allowed to do. My daughter on the other hand is already much more sensible at just 4 years old so I'll probably be able leave her alone at a younger age.

I leave my 8.5 year old in the house alone if I have to go out locally for short periods (up to 30 mins) and I'm planning to start leaving him to go to an exercise class (again local, out for an hour) in 2 months when my lodger moves out.
I'm a child protection social worker which makes me view risk in a more robust way. I mean that I don't take the 'better safe than sorry' attitude as that would mean putting half the kids in the city into care. I consider what is likely to happen, how likely is it, what can be put in place to mitigate such an eventuality, can my child tell me what to do in an emergency etc. I have a sensible child who doesn't get freaked out so I'm happy that it's safe. Children in other cultures have far less adult supervision from young ages and on the whole they cope fine.

My 6 year old tried to tell me that she was OK to stay in bed (that fluey cold before Xmas) while I took her sister to school.

hahhahahaaa. Good try junior, but you don't manage sensible for 10 mins straight. It'll be 25 before I'd trust her (not really)

Our school allows children to make their own way from Y5. That'll probably be my cue to relax rules a little. However there's 2 busy roads to cross and it's about a mile so we'll take it slowly. A neighbours Y5 knocks on our door most days to walk with us, so I think he's still a little uneasy about it. I've spoken with his Mum and she's happy for me to take him by car if I'm not walking.

My 11 year old is left at home, has done since he was 10. Hes a sensible la, and very mature for his age. we leave him while we do the food shop, activities etc... he stays on his computer and does not move from it , the 7 year however thinks this is incredibly unfair

Yes, so long as he knows not to open the front door and how/when to contact emergency services if need arose.

Yes in theory- but depending on the maturity of the individual child.

Like pp's, mine have a drill: don't answer phone or door, have to know how to call me, know what to do if god forbid the fire alarms went off (get out of house, go to neighbour) etc.

Lots, not list.

No. I wouldn't and I didn't. My son is 14 and I've only just started leaving him at home alone.

But that's for list of different reasons. You know your own child so only you can decide.

Yes, definitely. So long as they know what to do in emergencies etc.

Lot of mollycoddling going on in this thread. They'll be at secondary school next year, time to start letting them experience a bit of independence. If your DS is sensible then I can't see why not. I left my 10 year old at home alone for short periods of time. She's now 12 and still here.