What age for cinema 'alone'?

[BusWankers]

If you had 2 sensible 11 year old friends (Y6 right now) would you think it reasonable to take them to cinema, send them in and wait in café/mooch round the shops in the shopping centre and have them meet you outside the cinema at film end?

They both have a brick phone. But I can't imagine they would actually need to use it.

My brother seems to think they're too young? I think it's fine. I'm just wondering if I expect too much of them? But I'm sure I was being dropped off at places like the swimming pool at that age!

I'm sure your kids will understand cinema etiquette, but not all do. Sat behind two lads, maybe 13 ish, in the latest Mission Impossible film recently, who talked or were on their phones the whole way through, squirted juice all over the seats in front a couple of times, before walking out 30 mins before the end of the film, leaving piles of spilt food and empty packets around their seats.
I asked them politely to be quiet and turn off their phones twice, and the third time asked the manager to intervene. They weren't bothered, no respect at all.

Yes definitely discuss cinema etiquette!

Yes this is also an important point.

Your brother is bonkers.

I was going to say about 9.
As with all of these, it depends on the individual dc, and on things like whether they are used to going to the cinema fairly regularly.

Absolutely fine.

I would have serious concerns if my 13 year old wasn't able to manage that @Bengenderson.

Agreed, I would expect a 13 year old to manage that perfectly well.

DD went with a friend (who I know since both were 2) a couple of times and from 10 onwards DD took a bus, met her friend, watched a film and I either picked her up or she took a bus back.

She started secondary 2 months after turning 11 and from Y6 onwards she ventured out alone more and more. We have a 10 minutes bus from our house to the town center with all the shops, coffee shops and cinema.

Of course it's fine

I went to the cinema aged 11, I walked there, watched the film and walked back. This was 1990.

It is normal, most kids do this from year 6 so aged 10/11.

I don’t know. I had an incident with a creepy man at that age. And cinemas do somehow seem to attract oddballs. Plus it’s dark, quite empty? Don’t know. I’d be more comfortable with 11yo going somewhere else independently with a friend, pizza express or something where there are people around.
It isn’t that I wouldn’t trust the child, it’s men.

Absolutely fine. My 10 (also finishing y6) does this all the time and has been since last summer.

I think it's fine if you trust them to behave themselves, not be rowdy, spill sweets everywhere etc.

Perfectly normal. My same aged DD did exactly this today and has been doing similar since mid Year 7. In Year 6 I was more likely to drop them off, wait somewhere and pick them up.

Just be sure, if they haven't done it before, that they know which bus to get back and where it leaves from. My DD got herself in a bit of a pickle in town once when she couldn't work out which bus she needed from which stop, it's easier on the way in as fewer options. They figured it out in the end.

DS, now 13, was certainly going to the cinema with his friends and no adults at that age.

Thank you, I was just a bit thrown by one of the first replies saying she would still go in and sit separately from her teens if they wanted to go. He is my eldest so it’s all new territory and working out what is the ‘norm’ nowadays. I was certainly going to the cinema and into town alone from about 12ish.

Totally fine.

Completely fine.