To leave 3 dc at home for an hour

[Tryingandfailing39]

I am happy to leave dc13 and dc12 either together or alone and have left dc13 to look after dc7 before for short periods. I’ve never left all 3 before - what are MN thoughts?
The risk of arguing goes up with 3 but generally they are well behaved and I was thinking of putting a movie on. I’ll be about an hour but if I take dc7 it’ll take me twice as long!

Would the 13 and 12 year old feel ok about it? Do they know what to do in an emergency/which neighbour could help/who to call if you aren't answering? If you think they'll be sensible I think it should be ok.

Yanbu

If you trust the 12 and 13yos together and you trust the 13 and 7yos together I don’t see what the problem could be - only you know your kids though

Ooh OP, I hope you’ve got your hard hat on - people get flamed on MN for leaving a 16 year old for five minutes while putting the bins out!
Of course it will be ok unless your DC are utter idiots.
I was widowed when mine were babies. They were alone at home for an hour or two after school every day from the ages of 8 and 9. They knew which neighbour to contact in an emergency and had the phone number of my hospital if they wanted to speak to me.
That was 20 years ago. I think modern DC get wrapped in cotton wool and infantilised, which does them no favours later.

I have 3

1 ok on their own
1 and 3 together ok
2 and 3 ok together
1 and 2 - not ok

It’s a minefield

This is MN you cannot leave a 16yo in a car to go pay for petrol!

When I was 13 I was babysitting looking after babies on my own, now a generation later it’s call SS.

Can you trust that the 7yr old will not aggravate the older two, and if they do how frustrated will the older two be? Will the 7 yr old actually listen? Only you know that.

My dd is 13 and took my friends 8 yr old over the main road to the playing fields. I know my dd will cross at the lights ect but she came back very frustrated that the 8yr old thought it would be funny to run across the main road. I felt bad for allowing her the responsibility and wouldn't do it again. Another friends dd who is also 8 would be fine to go with her and would listen to my dd. I don't think it's a hard yes or no as we don't know your children.

I just read another thread and condemed a mother leaving her 12 and 9yo (9yo had special needs) at home 8-6 mon-fri!

However, your 13yo and 12yo are both old enough to be left alone for a couple of hours. IF they are both relatively sensible (as they sound) and your 7yo has no additional needs I would leave all 3 for up to an hour to start with and then maybe increase that each time there is no issue!

You know you children so it’s a judgment call but 7 is still quite young! 12 is still a bit young to be caring for a 7yo. So take your 12 yo out of the equation (they can just look after themselves) are you happy with 13yo watching the 7yo?

I still would start with 1 hour max...but YANBU to be considering it x

I wouldn’t. But that’s because my dc7 would probably not listen to dc12 or dc13 and they’d argue. I would, however, trust dc12 in particular to babysit for other 7 year olds as she’s very sensible and good with younger children. It depends on the dynamic I think.

I'd do this without a second thought, assuming they can be trusted to get on.

I’m going to do it! Dc7 can wind the others up but normally it’s to get a reaction out of me. They all want me to leave them as think it would make them all feel grown up! Same rules as usual apply to not answering the door etc and I’ve told them to not play in the garden as that tends to be where they argue the most!
I’ll let you know how it goes and thanks for the opinions

Dc13 is particularly sensible for his age which is why I’ve left him with dc7 before.

Yes I would. My two are 10 & 8 and I will leave them for an hour if needed. They are both sensible xx

Sounds fine to me.

It was fine they all behaved (apparently!)