At what age would you leave a child alone for ten minutes?

[evilharpy]

Say you wanted to pop out to the corner shop for milk and it would take about ten minutes. What age would people leave a child home alone for a short time?

My daughter is only 4 and there’s no way I’d leave her any time soon (maybe not for years!), I’m purely pondering what’s normal/usual.

I occasionally leave my 8 year old for 5 mins but it depends more on the trust of a child then age.

Depends on the child but school always says double figures for waiting at the gates etc.

I’ll leave my 10 year old for half an hour now and on a couple of rare occasions I’ve left my 7 year old for 10 minutes max.
But it depends on the children.

Depends on child but for me I would not have any concerns leaving sensible, mature dd1 for short periods, she is almost 9.

Have left her for very short periods since 7 eg when she was off school with minor illness letting her stay home and watch tv when I do school run for younger DD.

Have this level of confidence in her based on past behaviour eg when there was a school bus breakdown and driver had safeguarding failure in letting children just go off by themselves when she was in reception (!) she calmly walked herself and a friend back to our house.

Dd2 now 5.5 however is much less mature and much more unpredictable, so not sure I would do the same for her anytime soon!

I would happily leave my 8yo. She however prefers to come with me unless I was next door

My 6yo I can't imagine leaving soon as you never know what she will do next. Her personality is completely different.

I know some who left their 4 year old for half an hour to shop etc

I left DD for 10 mins at 6, but DS was older. As pp said, personality and request cane from them.

If it is a literal, not a figurative 10 minutes, then 8ish (I used to live v close to a corner shop, and a DC well ensconced with a DVD wouldn't even stir in that amount of time).

They started coming home from school alone ocasdiobally in yr 5 (age 10) and frequently in yr 6

I have once or twice left my nearly 8 year old that long, but she is very sensible and we've talked through using the phone or which neighbours to go to. It depends a lot on personality.

I'm trying to think back to when my parents would have first left me but I can't remember. I do remember them leaving me for an hour or two when I was about ten and really didn't want to be dragged around a furniture shop or tile warehouse

ThereWere10 My nearly 5 year old is far more sensible than many much older children I know but even so I can't imagine leaving her for half an hour in the house on her own!

10

About eight years old, which is the age I was left for five minutes or so while my mum went to get milk or similar. I think it's important to start these things fairly young and build up so they're happy to be left for a few hours once they reach secondary age.

I think around 7-8 but it was really the odd occasion. When she was 9 it got a bit longer or more often and from 10 onwards she was alone for around an hour as she started disliking the supermarket.

I have left my 9 year old with his 11 year old brother while I popped to the shop. And would probably leave him alone for 10 mins if his older brother was out.

10 mins I'd say 10/11