When do you first remember being left home alone

[WomenHour]

I think it was around 9 , my mum had to go to work so she left me and my brother for a few hours.

Left home alone when off school poorly from 11.... single parent was a teacher and couldn’t stay home with me. Would ring at morning and afternoon break and pop home at dinner time.

Evenings at home alone if parent had a night out from about 13, which is the age I started babysitting other people’s kids.

Alone overnight from about 16 ish I think.

My dB is 2 years older so would sometimes be home with me but would often go out with his mates. He wasn’t expected to stay in with me.

My parent was caring for younger sibling, cooking family meals etc from age 7 when their single parent worked.... community midwife, so all over the place and all hours. In 1950s so not many phones either.... they found it really hard growing up doing that.

Do you mean overnight or just a few hours? Overnight, I think I was 16. I very proudly did 2 loads of wash, before realising I didnt add any detergent to either wash!!!

During the day for an hour or two maybe 8 or 9? Though Dad would have been out on the farm somewhere if we'd really needed him, I suppose. We spent a lot of time outside on our own from much younger than that too, even if there was an adult at home.

When I was 7 my mum went out to work. My dad would bring me tea and toast in bed and they would both go out to work at about 7.30. I got myself up and out to school and was given my own front door key. They would be home by 5.00 so I would watch television or play outside when I got home from school.
Grandparents lived around the corner if needed though. This was in the 60s.

Age 7 or 8 I got my first door key - 8 I think. My mum went to work, and we were left over the summer. I was the eldest and in charge (in theory!). 80s. It does make me laugh when I see these threads asking worriedly if a 13 year old could be left alone for 5 mins!

My mum admitted she often left us from babyhood to nip out and walk the dogs (about 15 mins) leaving us in cot/playpen. She said it was more hassle to haul a baby and a toddler out in the wind and rain. This was the 70s.

When we were a bit older sometimes we'd go with her, sometimes we wouldn't.

One time when I was about 7 mum went to collect my sister from a birthday party. I said I didn't want to come as I was watching a programme on TV. While she was out the TV caught fire!

We didn't get left alone for long periods but in the school holidays we'd have to go to get home calls with her (podiatrist) and wait in the car with a comic book. Nothing bad happened but it was sooo boring!

I'm sorry for the unhappy memories this has brought up for some. You deserved better childhoods.

I was left home alone for the first time at age 11, in charge of my brother who would have been rising 9. From that age I was sometimes home alone for half an hour or an hour after school, and by the time I was 13 my parents would leave us to go out for the evening. Actually by 14 I had several regular babysitting clients so it must have been seen as the norm. That was late 90s/early 00s.

DPs went out to a party at the neighbours house literally next door, and left me and DSIs aged 8 and 6 for the evening - but they came back and checked on us at regular intervals and at 8 I was old enough to come and get them if there had been a problem.

11, after school and in holidays while my mum was at work. But I walked home from school alone at 9 (1.3 miles away).

I leave my 9 year old at home while I go down the road to the shop, but not longer than that yet. Though she wouldn't do anything stupid, and knows what to do in an emergency, so would be capable of being left for longer, as long as there were sufficient snacks available :p

9 or10
On mumsnet 17

10 I think. I was probably closer to 11 though.
I'd forgotten some of it - but essentially my mum and her new partner were teachers. I had to get the bus to my new primary school as my mum had to move out the family home, causing me to have to move schools from my mums school (she also had to move jobs to a new school) as my dad shagged another teacher there to "get one over on my mum" for leaving him.
My mum said my nan came to stay for a while until she was happy I could get the bus myself and be home for 2 or 3 hours after school.
Mum tells me she hated every bit of the arrangement. I don't blame her, I wouldn't have wanted my kids going to and from primary in yr 5 on a public bus. But I also recognise she needed to work and provide. One memorable moment was slipping on ice crossing the main road from bus stop to school. Car skidded to a halt in front of me, and out jumps one of the teachers who picked me up and set me to the pavement safely. I remember just wanting to not be on my own from that day.

My eldest son was 10 when I'd leave him for maybe 30 mins or so to nip to local shops. By the time he was in yr 8 I would leave him for a few hours and venture further afield if required. By the end of year 8 I'd leave him full days. He was walking to the very local high school from yr7, but that was really the first time he had been out unsupervised other than practice runs over summer. We live on a main road, so playing out wasn't a thing. Nor did he have friends around here as he went to school in another town (following in my footsteps by going to my mums school!). So it wasn't really until the summer of yr 7 that he would go out anywhere with friends.

My younger two and 7 and 5. Can't ever envisage leaving them. They'd kill each other.

When I was 4 and my mum deadbolted me in to our top floor flat. I called the police.

About 3. Mum used to work in a pub and late night he would walk to pick her up leaving one of us in charge. My brother was 5.

I remember watching a horror movie about a girl killing her family with a pizza cutter.

I have 3 older brothers and sisters, so I don't remember being alone before about 14.

Probably about 6/7 for a couple of hours. I was quite mature for my age and absolutely loved staying home alone.

I was a latchkey kid in the 80s from age 8. My parents split up when I was 5 and Mum needed to work. I don’t have any unhappy memories about it, but I quite like my own company, perhaps that’s why.

About 5. I don't think it was for long but I remember lying under the kitchen table, terrified, because I didn't know when my mum and dad were coming back. I remember getting into trouble when my mum saw what a state I was in.

Just over 8. It was Christmas Day and we had elderly relatives staying and one of them had an accident that required hospital treatment. The hospital was in the next town and for some reason both my parents and the two elderly relatives all went to hospital leaving me in charge of my six year old brother. I remember them telling me not to touch any of the plug sockets. They were gone for at least a couple of hours and I remember sitting in my room playing with my new etch-a-sketch. I quite liked the experience and wasn’t worried.

I don't remember, there was never really any need to leave me or my brothers home alone as mum worked nights and dad was a vicar so apart from pastoral visits he worked at home/next door in the church and I had 4 older brothers - the house was always busy. I got a house key when we moved when I was 13, as mum was out more often in the day then.

From age 5, in charge of a younger sibling (and by age seven, 2 younger siblings). It was bloody awful. This was in the late 70s/early 80s.

Probably about 8 or 9 but with my older sister (12/13) to supervise.

By myself probably about 11 or 12.

We were always told not to answer the phone/door or look out any windows.

Although the one day we had been left whilst my parents did the food shop and a drunk driver crashed into the house opposite to us. They came home to the police questioning us about what we had seen.

I'd say from around 8, my mum would leave us to go to the shops or to drop one of us off somewhere. I think that's fine, but we were very sensible and boring children, definitely not the type to suddenly decide to start cooking or something.

One of my colleagues leaves her one year old baby asleep while she goes to the cinema. She has a monitor though, so it's fine (not UK, no social services here and it's seen as a totally normal thing to do they laugh at me for being so fussy about my child never being alone)

I think about 9 for short periods during the day. Then 11 with younger sibling as my parents felt leaving alone was one thing but leaving alone with a younger sibling needed to be older.

I can’t remember m. My first memory is age 14 for an evening.
I find some of these stories really shocking. To leave a child aged 6 is just child abuse.

About 7, I had tonsillitis and my mum went to work. She said it would be ok because the cleaner was coming that day.