What age is reasonable for a child to be home alone after school?

[Fortheloveofpizza]

Another price increase email from after school today. As of next year I will only have one child left needing childcare thankfully.
I have always kept them in until P7 which is 11/12 . My youngest will be 8 next year and I will only need OSc one day for an hour. He’s a short walk home. What age do you think a child can let themselves in and be alone for an hour?
Appreciate not 8 but interested on what ages.

I agree with you completely but I still think 8 is too young in most cases. They are still little. My niece won’t even use the toilet in a restaurant by herself she is too worried

That's really not normal for 8 years old.

9/10 but they need access to a phone, we had a landline when mine were that age

It completely depends on the child. I’m currently going through this with my middle girls aged 11 & 12 (almost 13). My 12 year old I trust wholeheartedly, she makes sensible decisions and sometimes acts as if she’s my parent, I could’ve trusted her alone from aged 9 for a few hours, and all day now at 12. However, my 11 year old 😱 she has aged me a thousand years and I don’t think my anxiety would allow me to leave her alone for 20 minutes, she has a huge quirky personality, I’m sure her motto is “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission”.

So it totally depends, you know your child best❤️

I think the NSPCC age 12 guidance is silly as there generally isn’t provision for afterschool care once they’ve started secondary school, even the government stops you paying for childcare through the tax free childcare scheme the September after their 11th birthday. My 10 year old will be going to a childminder afterschool until she finishes year 6 (primary school) and also to a paid for holiday club while I work in the summer holidays. I will probably send her there next year also during the holidays even though we will no longer be eligible for the government subsidy. Just as don’t think it’s ideal for her to leave her 8-6pm on her own but or any 11 year old but I wouldn’t judge any other parent doing so given lack of provision (this club unusual on that it takes older kids) and government policy which clearly indicates they feel there is no need for children over 11 to be in childcare unless they are disabled. A bit silly as the policy seems to forget some parents are shift workers who work evenings/nights. You would no doubt have social services knocking on your door if you left your 11 year old on their own at 11pm at night yet the government indicates they don’t need childcare 🤷🏻‍♀️

High school at the earliest and, even then, only if they are very sensible/mature. They need to actually stand a chance of handling a situation should it arise.

At one time, so was sending children down mines and into dangerous factories. Not all lost life or limb, so it must be ok really!

Depends on the child of course, they need to be comfortable being left alone, and you need to trust them to be reasonably sensible. At 8 for an hour, if the child is happy with it, then sounds fine to me.
Where I live there's limited spaces in after school club and no other childcare options at all so inevitably some children will have to be home alone from 1st grade onwards, when they are 6/7 years old. My oldest was from 6 years old and she loved it, usually brought a friend home or went to her friends who was also a latch key kid. My youngest is 8 and only recently has shown signs he would be comfortable being home alone but thankfully he got a space in afterschool club this year and has one for next year (after that he will have to be on his own as there's no afterschool club after 2nd grade for anyone except those with fairly significant additional needs)

I was 7, but that was in the dark ages of the 60s when we had a lot more freedom in general!

Why though? So an 11yo who is not “very sensible and mature” should not be left at home for an hour after school? What exactly are this child's parents supposed to do? There is basically no childcare for any DC past primary age and many people work outside the home.

I don't know if you have children or how old they are, but I urge you if they are young to support them to be able to handle being in their own home for a short while – preferably before they are at secondary – which for many DC involves getting themselves home, by bus, train, bike or on foot. Probably more dangerous than sitting in their house watching TV at 4pm.

I first left at just 12 and nearly 14 (respectively) as it’s when I went back to work 4 full days a week.
It was half hour max.
DS (younger one) wasn’t keen on being in his own so if DD wasn’t around I had to be at home.

What age does your school let them walk home alone? At our school its yr 5 so 9 to 10 yos. My son is 10.5 and walks home from school alone. There is currently always an adult home when he gets in but we are just starting to occasionally leave home home alone for up to an hour. He would be fine to let himself in and be home alone if needed (has a phone / can use the keysafe sucessfully / fair amount of common sense).

Oh give over! Sentenced to prison for leaving a 8yr old child alone for an hour?! I can’t believe you wouldn’t leave a child alone until they’re a teenager?! Do you have children?

My daughter is yr 6 but still only 10yrs old. She’s been left alone for short periods during the day since about 8 or 9 - by this I mean an hour max. She’s started coming home to an empty house sometimes for an hour or so this year. Come September though she’ll be in senior school and have to do it a lot more!

She’s sensible and has a phone. I would get them a phone if you’re going to do it

edited to add. What kind of emergencies are you concerned about for a 8-12 year old? Fire? Vanishingly unlikely but get out. Don’t answer door to anyone. Don’t cook alone. Don’t eat alone. Children are not idiots!

I think a lot of these posters don’t have kids. Before I did I always estimated things much differently to the reality!

Many parents have no choice. There are some very poor families in my children’s school and those families work shifts and unpredictable times. I’ve been shocked that many of them have been left alone extensively from a very young age. But then they don’t have any other options if they want to work and live, so…if it helps, their kids are very sensible and self sufficient now!

Thanks all. I hadn’t realised so many people replied. Lots of good perspectives. He gets the school bus home so no issue with school releasing him.

Someone on here was asking about a babysitter for an NT 15 yo a few weeks ago

Mine didn’t come home alone until age 10 or 11. Started leaving them for short periods from age 9. Youngest was a bit anxious so we talked through his anxieties and how to handle anything that might come up. He got comfortable with being home alone very quickly.

I consider teaching my children resilience and independence to be my greatest responsibility as a parent. Parents who won’t leave their children alone until they are in their teens are not doing their children any favours (unless the child has additional needs obviously.) It’s lazy parenting, easier to watch them all the time than it is to put the time in to supporting their independence.

I used to be home alone from the age of 8 from 3:15 until 5pm one day a week. There were a few in my class that were alone for a few hours every/most days, but that was over 30 years ago, different times!

As others have said, depends on the child. My eldest is in P7 age 11 and I’ve only started leaving him for short periods since the end of last year. He starts secondary school in September and I’ll be waking him up at 7am on a Monday, and making sure he’s up and dressed before I leave for work at 7:30. So he’ll be on his own for an hour, then at the end of the day he’ll be on his own for two hours until I get home from work. This is only Mondays as I WFH the rest of the week.

The NSPCC has a handy checklist on their website of things to check off to satisfy yourself that your child is mature enough to be left alone. I feel your pain with the ever rising cost of childcare 😩

No, 8 is too young. I would say 11 going on 12.

I wouldn’t leave an eight year old alone regardless of maturity personally. It’s not just about how sensible a child is but also whether they have the knowledge to deal with various situations and Id say most 8 year olds aren’t there yet. Have however tried to encourage more personal responsibility as they get older so that by the time I start allowing more independence they’ll be better at making decisions. My 10 year old has been left whilst we nip to the shops and we also send her on errands to the local shop.

I think most people can agree that there’s no clear starting age for any of this and a gradual approach probably works best.

That seems very late given that children can walk home alone from primary at age 10 and there’s no childcare available in most areas for secondary students, many of whom are only 11.

In Ireland they recommend 13 for this so we’ve always gone with that (/12 at a push when we had to). I think in general as a regular thing it’s not great as they are kids, they should have the solidness of having an adult there if you know what I mean, due to work we had a while where we had to leave one of our teens home and he did say at times he found it a bit strange to be home alone (like you it was only got an hour a day) but has to be done unfortunately

Haven’t RTFT so it may have been pointed out, but reminding people that brick phones are a thing, and increasingly so. For those who quite rightly don’t want to get child a smartphone. We have a family brick phones, cost £30, my 10yr old can be left with that when I leave her, so far have done for 30-60min max. She doesn’t yet walk to and from school alone though as I walk with a sibling, and she isn’t mega confident on the busy roads yet.

11-12 out 11 year old will stay home for 30 mins while I collect her older sibling. She has her iPad to contact me it’s better than her sitting in the car for an hour (by the time we pick up-drop off etc). So I drop her home get her settled then head out again for eldest pick up. She is also autistic but a stickler for rules! So she will listen to me - especially in a situation like this where she is trusted. We also have good neighbours.