Would you leave a 12 year old and a 10 year old at home for a couple of hours by themselves?

[Theromanempire]

Just checking the consensus on this - we currently leave them for an hour whilst we do the food shopping but for some reason, 2 hours seems different

I need to go to town for an appointment tomorrow morning (unavoidably moved from last week) and I don't really want to take DC2 with me. DC1 is generally sensible, I would make sure I could contact them at any point and ring them at least once and in reality, chances are they would just both play on their Xboxes and not even communicate with each other whilst I am gone!

Would you do it?

Yes. Also leave them home together while I work, although I call every hour and am only 10 mins away so tend to pop home for lunch.

Yes, I started leaving mine at home together around that age. It's fine as long as they are happy with it & they get on.

You asked in AIBU so you'll get a range of answers.

I'd take the 10 year old with me (yr 5 or year 6?) If their older sibling was only 12.
And I'd give 10 y.o. my phone or tablet to play with whilst sat in waiting room, when in appmt.

Mine are 12 and 9 and are home together after school every day until 5.30pm when I get back from work. They have a snack, do their homework, then play/read etc til I get home.

Yes I would but agree with one of the posters above rubusfruticosus - they both need to look after each other rather the 12 year old being responsible for the 10 year old.

I think it is fine, however I wouldn't leave my two (youngest just turned 11, oldest 13 next month) for too long, he has autism and can be, fiery, shall we say and whilst the oldest is very good, if something went awry it wouldn't be fair on her to have to deal with it.

(The reality is that he would be glued to the PS4 and her the laptop, but you just never know)

Yes, I would (did)

No, I wouldn't. I'd take them with me - they should be old enough to sit quietly in the waiting room.

Yes