At what age did you let your children get up alone?

[Illbebythesea]

Make a bowl of cereal and watch tv for an hour…? Is 6 & 4 to young? Because I’m knackered.

My dc were 4&5. There were never any problems.

Not done so yet, DS is 6 but loves his sleep. Usually wakes up between 7 and 8

Breakfast of champions 😂I'd have had a good chuckle walking in on that, bless em.

Our 8 and 6 year old make their own breakfast every morning (cereal) other than making sure their clothes are on the right way around both can be trusted to get up, dressed and feed themselves. We are awake but on the weekends we don't follow them downstairs straight away.
They tend to go down eat whilst watching their tablets and come back up to their rooms to play. On school mornings we are all up together getting ready.

This only started when our eldest asked to make both and then the youngest wanted to do their own.

Around 4. But we live in a very small house and I was never asleep (more just dozing and relaxing) so I always knew exactly what DC1 was up to.

My 2 are 3 and 5. I get them a drink and they watch TV In bed on the weekends. We usually go for breakfast together at 9.30 is. I don't let them eat alone.

My 7 and 5 yr olds do it. We have a tv room on the same floor as their bedrooms, only kids tv available and they have water left out. I don't allow food unsupervised though. Try it, see how it goes, get some rest!

Almost 8, I’m awake anyway but she likes to feel grown up and come downstairs, and sneak some tv. We have a dog so she has company.

My 5yo hollers for us when he wakes up. I'm quite keen for him not to do that any more, as this morning it was 0559

Mine (5,8 and 10) do this and I've just started letting my 4th (3 yrs) do this too as long as he's with the others. I'm not really sleeping at this point though, but certainly relaxing in bed. They usually wait for me for breakfast though, but are allowed to help themselves if they want to.

4, but I used to leave cereal and milk etc out on the coffee table in the Tv room so they didn’t attempt to tango with the kettle

They loved it, it was like their cafe society in front of cartoons. They weren’t allowed to eat in front of the telly very often.

OP newsflash 90% of posters will be knackered, this is not a unique occurrence. Being a parent is generally exhausting.

I personally wouldn't leave a 4 year old unattended on a regular basis with a 6 year old to supervise but you know your children best.

My kids have been doing this for a while 10, 6 and 4. I don’t get up much later and tbh they ask me first if they can go downstairs so I’m kind of awake and can hear what’s going on.

Sounds like the perfect time to start leaving stuff out for the Cartoon Cafe

My 4 year old won’t go downstairs without one of us yet but I also wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving her to eat alone without us there (choking etc). No idea when that will change!

My 3 year old coloured our carpet in pink pen. My 5 year old watched TV.

My three year old comes down and pours out his cereal (I leave it ready for him) and watches a cartoon. He’s very independent though.

@Moonshine5

OP newsflash 90% of posters will be knackered, this is not a unique occurrence. Being a parent is generally exhausting.

I wasn’t claiming to be the only knackered person in existence.

Ok general consensus is this she is fine for an hour with tv but wait for breakfast until i’m up. Noted, thanks!!

1. I would leave some breakfast in a specific place in the fridge (very small chopped up fruit salad, yoghurt, smoothie etc that he couldn't choke on) and he'd watch some downloaded bits on his ipad. He loved the responsibility. And now he is 6 he can feed himself breakfast and get dressed for school while I'm showering and getting dressed for work.

I just couldn't with DS it would make me feel sad to think of him sitting and eating his breakfast on his own at five while I stayed in bed. We eat together. Yes I'm tired, I work full time and have a young child. Have an early night.

@SgtJuneAckland but they’re not alone they’d have each other! My 4 year old wouldn’t go downstairs alone but she will with her sister.

I have from about 3.5 and 5.5. only because there was two of them, wouldn't have let oldest alone at 3. I tell them to put the TV on, else they fight, and I come down within the hour, usually half an hour later.

@Illbebythesea it's just not something I would feel comfortable doing