How much do you leave your 12 year old alone?

[bodgersmash]

I think that what I'm doing is fine but would like other opinions!

DS is home alone for about an hour after school.

If I ever need to go to the shops etc (5-10 minutes) then I'll go alone.

I'm also trying to exercise a bit more, so for example tomorrow morning I will go out at 7ish and then come home about 40 minutes later. Saturday mornings I go running from 6.45-8am roughly.

At the weekend he doesn't usually want to come on dog walks so I'll leave him home for an hour or so whilst I go.

Is this too much? Or is this the sort of thing where you can be led by the child and what they're comfortable with and safe to be doing?

I think at 12 they were alone for up to about 4-5hours

I don't think I'd want to leave them all day every day when I went to work etc at that age, but I likely would have for a one off - especially if part of the time they were sleeping

After school - around 2 hours

On a weekend - 1-2 hours. DD hates grocery shopping so DH and I often go on our own, 1 hour is the normal supermarket, 2 hours would include a farmers market.

I don't see a problem, she is old enough. We are reachable, she has neighbours and friends she can reach if there really is a disaster. We have rules about the door and landline phone.

If one of us is out in the evening we may leave her for around 30 minutes if the other one drops off but that is always when she is still awake, most times she is in bed reading.

In the holidays she may be on her own all day if DH is working away. It can't be helped, there is no provision around for secondary school children around us, not even workshops for 1/2 day or so.