Would you allow a 9 and a half year old to stay home alone while you went to a school appointment

[Tryingtomakethebestofmylife]

It would be around 5 pm for maybe an hour

he is very sensible and wouldn’t move from the Xbox

Well the majority of kids are flying under the radar and no-one will know they’re home alone. I’ll guarantee if there was an incident like a fire and the firefighter discovered your kid home alone you’d be likely arrested and interviewed. You can then tell the nice police officer all about building independence. It doesn’t have to be a scary incident… I’ve had kids found by postmen, council workers, etc. Of course you want to build independence but you still maintain responsibility and may need to formally justify your actions. An hour in the day is also less scary than an hour when it’s dark.

What? No!

My eldest - no chance!

My youngest - yes, she's mature beyond her years and knows how to access help. Plus I'd purposefully drive to reduce time from the home and could be back in less than 5 minutes if needed.

Not in the dark, but in the day I would.

In lockdown the choices were stay home, come to the supermarket with me (strongly discouraged), or come to the supermarket but stay in the car (uncontactable, as I had the only mobile)

So they got used to being left alone while I was popping to the shops, we'd stay on a facetime throughout (although now he's fine, and I just message him, but that's more for me than him!)

Yes I would (did) with my sensible ds. He had a phone that he could ring me on and we know our neighbours a bit and live in a village. He knew not to use any appliances (kettle, toaster etc).

Would depend on the kid. My dd was home alone for a couple of hours a day when she was ten until I got home from work. She is very responsible so I didn’t worry she would get into something. If she had a personality like my sister I wouldn’t dare 😂

Yes, if my nine-year-old was happy to be left. Sometimes she is, sometimes she isn't, so I'm confident she would say no if she wasn't ok about it. The times she's said no, I've made other arrangements for her.