"Graphista - it really does depend on the child though" to a degree maybe but not massively so!
Assuming the child is healthy, NT and doesn't suffer anxiety issues relating to such a situation, then I would say most 13 year olds SHOULD be capable of being left at home for a few hours without doing anything completely stupid/irresponsible/dangerous.
Yes some of us had more relaxed parenting in the past but quite honestly I think we have in many cases gone too far the other way and are infantilising our offspring.
I've raised dd (on that score) similarly to how I was raised.
As I said she's 18 now, had her moans over the years that I was too tough on her compared to how many of (but by no means all) her friends were being raised, but since she started working, became an adult and mixing with people older than her and naturally discussing how they were raised she's come to realise and actually said to me, that she's glad I did things how I did.
She feels it's made her a more capable, confident and self assured adult, plus she's now noticing how very infantilised the friends who she thought had it "better" are. Those friends are now struggling with suddenly with little preparation being expected to "adult" on some things, while on others they're being treated like they're much younger - eg being expected to manage finances, many household chores, finding and keeping a job while also still not being allowed to use kettles or sharp knives (in case they hurt themselves - not kidding! 18/19 year olds not trusted with sharp knives! - in one case this included the mother telling them they couldn't take a job as it involved using sharp knives!) and being subject to curfews as early as 9.30pm! It's utterly bonkers!!
Our job as parents is to prepare them so that when they reach adulthood they're confident, capable, practical, sensible adults.
Weirdly I found the mollycoddling parents were also quite lax on discipline.
My dd also hated that there were certain rules I had for her that were non-negotiable when she was younger, these included prioritising education over socialising, having a sensible curfew and bedtime (which was adjusted as she aged), rules on mobile phone & SM use and NO lying.
The friends that are now being treated as if they're not adults when they are, when younger got away with being very late home on school nights, not doing homework and their parents had NO idea what was going on with their SM/phone use!
There's definitely an element of panic in the parents I'm talking about too, because frankly their lax discipline and lack of preparing their children for the adult world means those now adult children as they know their parents can't really demand certain behaviour are "going off the rails" in many ways and the parents are understandably scared for their children's health and safety. One has already written off 2 cars with crazy driving! Lots of excessive drinking and drug taking and unsafe sexual behaviour (not just unprotected sex but getting themselves into very vulnerable situations).
Dd is no angel, she's certainly had her moments but nothing too mad. She also has friends that have been raised similarly to herself. A few are from school/her age, but several are older in their late 20's/early 30's who she has met either at or through work.
A few times she has mentioned that they too are shocked at how some her age have been raised.
In addition to raising dd I've also quite a bit of experience with teens in voluntary roles (guides, scouts and similar youth organisations) and even as a 20-something adult working with them, this being around 20 years ago, the infantilising of teens was STARTING to creep in. It was particularly noticeable on camps when children being raised this way clearly needed far more prompting than they should have needed to cope with self care and who were genuinely shocked and even nervous about doing simple tasks like peeling veg, washing dishes or cleaning a loo! We had one who wasn't allowed to even use a veg peeler - not even a sharp knife! And the kid wasn't trying it on his mother had taken the scoutmaster to one side to insist her child not be expected to use anything sharp! 14 year old perfectly healthy, NT, capable boy. Absolutely no good reason for this. But at this time it was still relatively rare and most of the kids had parents who were perfectly ok with them being expected to pull their weight on camp.
I noticed it at uni too, both times I was a mature student, the first time again it was only a few students, but that was years ago and as the course was nursing it probably naturally attracted (and compounded by the recruitment process) more practical "can do" types anyway.
The 2nd time was a BA course and almost 20 years later, but I definitely noticed a significant increase in the number of students who were almost completely unprepared for adult life! Couldn't cook beyond putting something frozen in the oven, couldn't budget, couldn't do laundry, couldn't manage their time...
Myself and another mature student on one occasion on a social/group work prep visit to one of the halls ended up writing out simple, cheap recipes for them to try after witnessing 2 of them making a very odd attempt at making spag Bol in which they almost forgot the pasta needed water and hadn't defrosted the mince properly but had started cooking with it.
That and another incident where a younger student turned up to a seminar near tears due to a mixed wash accident in an oddly coloured t-shirt led to discussions about how much/little prep their parents had given them.
I was shocked that at least half had never cooked a meal from scratch or done a load of laundry until they got to uni!