What age is it ok to leave children alone in the house while I pop to the shop?

[Imaginosity]

Inspired by another thread...many people seem happy to let children play out unsupervised from the ages of 4/5/6/7 years - so when is it ok to leave children home alone for short times.

There is a shop just across the road from my house - about half a minute's walk. Is it ok for me to pop over and leave my children -age 5 and 7 home alone for a few minutes while I buy something. Previously on mumsnet people seemed to think this was really neglectful.

I never mentioned a 4 year old. And no, they wouldn't care if I went the equivalent of a long garden for 2 mins
Yes, but I did mention 4-5 year olds, and you part quoted me We're talking about popping to the shops (as in the OP), not going into the garden for two mintes where you can dash in if you hear anything is amiss.

Ds (now 13) is very sensible. We have a nursery literally across the road, when he was 5 I used to leave him watching TV in the front room (visible from the nursery door) to drop his sister off. Total of maybe 3 minutes out of the house with maximum of 1 out of site (but usually none as she would trot in quite happily). I left Ds aged 9 with add aged 7 and neighbours child aged 10 (neighbour was home and knew I was going) to pick some one up from the station -time gone 10-20 minutes. They are now 13 and 11 I leave the big one for up to 8 hours (he is normally asleep for the first 3-4) and the little one for up to 2.

I'm happy for my 6/7 year old to play out unsupervised for 30 minutes at a time as it is fairly safe and I am available/near by.

Not sure I'd leave him alone in the house for 30 minutes as there are more dangers - the oven, hot water, falling down the stairs etc.

However, we used to live opposite a shop and it did literally take 2 minutes to go and buy milk, so I probably would leave him in the house if we still lived there.

I wouldn't leave a 5 year and 7 year old together, and I'm an 80's parent who did let my son play out very young.
I would probably leave the 7 year old if they were sensible, but I don't think a 7 year old should be responsible for a 5 year old. Even though the shop is only over the road you could well be gone for longer than 5 minutes.
I think probably 9 or 10 is when I would expect them to look after a 5 year old for a few minutes.