Would you leave a sensible 10 year old DC home alone...

[Jorvik1978]

... for 30 mins early morning M-F for 3 weeks?

DH is away for 3 weeks early next year. I have horses so during the winter I am up early in the morning to turn out, and am usually home before either he or DC wake up.

But what to do whilst he's away?

a) Get DC up and out of the house early with me? We could walk to the yard, turn out, and then carry on too school, but we would still need to be up, breakfasted and out of the house by 7:45.
b) Leave DC at home asleep in bed whilst I nip out? I can be there and back again within 30 mins, DC is very sensible and will be left with a phone. We've talked about it and they're not particularly keen on being left at home and seems to think option a) will work. Given how much they love their bed and sleep, I remain unconvinced.

Option c) (ask someone else to turn out for me) is available, but I'd feel bad asking them to do it every day, so I suspect I'll end up using all of the above.

Weekends are easier as there isn't the getting-to-school-and-work-on-time pressure so it's just weekdays that are causing some head scratching.

Just wondering what you would do?

It's 2 km away, so I don't usually take the car as it feels like such a waste of fuel. I usually cycle. I could take the car so either he could come with me and sit in it, or he stays at home and I'm out of the house < 20 mins, but it still doesn't sit right.

Best approach I think is going to be a mix of a) and c) but we'll see how things pan out.

Thanks all!

I have no concerns about leaving a sensible, confident 10 year old at home for a bit. The issue for me would be leaving a child sleeping. Children tend to sleep through things so he wouldn't realise if there was an issue. I can leave DD at home as I know she knows how to behave or what to do, but I would worry that if she needed to respond to something, she couldn't if she was asleep. Also, DS was always very confident being left at home alone, but it's only in the last year or two (hes 14 now) that he has been okay being left sleeping if we go somewhere. He didn't like waking up and we weren't there.

I'd start with option A but take his breakfast with you and he can eat it while you do the horses.

My 10 year old is pretty responsible and confident and has been staying home independently for up to an hour for around 6 months.

I wouldn’t yet leave her alone in the house asleep, I’d worry that if she woke and was worried she’d feel anxious and not know what time I would be back.

Id wake ds at 7 each morning, and give them a daily choice between being left at home or getting ready quickly and coming. I’d go in the car each day (so you can get home quickly if he calls) and give him the option to sit in the car or help with the horse.

We have to leave the house by 7:45am for school and work so that doesn’t seem to me like it involves getting up and out particularly early, though I admit it’s no fun if it’s winter and dark. But I also think a ten year old will be fine alone for half an hour every morning as long as they know not to use the stove and know what to do if something goes wrong or you don’t get back on time.

If they don’t want to stay home alone do option A but make it clear you need to leave early enough so that you’re not going to be late for school. If they get fed up of the early mornings leave them alone, at 10 they should be fine and can either stay in bed or get up and start getting ready for school.
My DD is 10 too and would just let her choose between A & B or a combination of both