Would you allow 11 year old to...

[growingupdilemmas]

Basically, leave his tutoring session on his own at 6pm, go to the shop along the same small road and buy himself a snack whilst he waits for me.

He has tutoring there twice a week, I'm always on time but this week I may struggle due to a new boss and things being tense at work.

I won't be later than 15 minutes late and only if absolutely unavoidable so I'm stuck with the choice of either just risking being 15 minutes delayed which is rude to staff or giving him permission to leave on his own and spend those 15 minutes getting himself a snack.

The tutoring company do let children his age leave alone if they have parental permission.

He is sensible and quite risk averse so I can trust him not to wander off.

The tutoring centre has an open reception so if he got scared he could go back inside there and ask for help.

Would you be comfortable with this? I'm running out of options 😬

I'd make him wait in reception in this instance, it's starting to get dark at 6pm, even with lamp posts

In theory yes, my 11 year old is allowed to go into town and go to shops etc on her own as long as she has her phone with her. I wouldn't be comfortable with her doing it if it's getting dark though unless it's a busy well lit street.

I'd rather he read a book in the reception area, or played a game on his phone. The clocks change in a couple of weeks, 6pm will be really dark.

I'd reconsider in March when it is starting to get light again. And that's plenty time to get used to the new level of independence.

Definitely

What kind of reception?

A reception area like a “waiting room” with chairs etc is surely for circumstances like these - I was sitting in my dentist’s waiting area after my appointment for a while as my taxi was running late, it’s perfectly normal. I wouldn’t call that babysitting.

If you just mean a reception desk and you expect him to actually sit with the person working there then yes, that’s unreasonable.

He's said he'd rather wait in reception so just let him do that.

you're not asking them to keep an eye on him, so they're not 'babysitting' him anymore than if you waited in reception while he was doing his tutoring.

no need to push the independence if he's not wanting it, he'll be older (obviously!!) by the time he goes to secondary next year, they change a lot in year 6. Plus his mates will be doing the same thing.

I assume its a reception / waiting area with chairs for people to use prior to their lessons.
Waiting there would be a reasonable thing to do. And I wouldn't consider it babysitting either.

And actually should something go wrong, burst tyre, you get caught in traffic caused by an accident and you do end up being really late I'd rather he was in the waiting area that is warm and dry, where an adult can help out if needed.

There's a really wide range of answers here. Thank you everybody for taking the time to reply.
He's not mad keen on the idea so I've said I'll send him with some money and a permission letter but leave it up to him whether he actually goes out or not.

After all our deliberations I probably won't end up late anyway 😆

Yes

Why does he need a letter to wait in a reception area, that's the whole point of a reception.

I think she means a permission letter to leave the tutors place.

Ahhhh, I wondered what I was missing!

No I wouldn't; book & snack in reception would be fine though