What age would you let DC answer the door?

[Toddleoo]

How old should DC be before they're 'allowed', or expected, to answer the door (ie to strangers not family etc) if they're home alone? An NT child who is slightly young for their age but no special needs etc? I know there's no hard and fast rule and it depends on the child but just roughly? Settling a debate with DH.

Secondary school age. About 11?

Oh I just saw you said while home alone! 16. Wouldn’t be left home alone before that.

16. Wouldn’t be left home alone before that

Wouldn’t be left home alone before 16?!

To pre-arranged visitors such as family - as soon as they were ready to be left alone (eg granny will pop around at 4pm)

Unarranged visitors - do you have an intercom or chain on the door? Perhaps one of those fancy Ring doorbells would be a good compromise between you and DH? What's the area like - generally safe? Too many factors to decide really, though around 14 if it's a generally safe area.

@Spiky Really, you wouldn't leave them home alone before 16? And then you expect them to be moving away, going to university and running their own affairs two short years after that? If NT then 16 is frankly mollycoddling and it won't do them any good long term. A bit of benign neglect does teenagers the world of good when they are working towards fending for themselves. I've worked in universities and can always tell which students have been mollycoddled - and not for good reasons.

Year 7 if home alone so 11ish

Dying at the thought of a 15/16 year old never alone

Thanks for all the answers, DD is just 15 and has been left alone since she was about 12, obviously not for huge periods at first but I've always said don't answer the door (unless it's someone who's expected) and DH has earlier blithely told her it's fine to answer door, to a total stranger while neither of us is there. Was really annoyed but wondering if I was being overprotective, sounds like I'm not or at least not horrendously so.

And we don't have an intercom or anything but have a chain so will make sure DD is in habit of using it.

I personally wouldn’t want my DC opening the door to anyone (unless prearranged friends or family) before they are an adult, eg.18, if they are home alone.
You hear so many scam stories in the news and I don’t think it’s fair to expect a child to have to judge a situation like that.
It can be very hard to know if a person/situation is genuine or not.
Sometimes even I am wary of answering the door if I’m alone in the house after dark, unless I know who it is.