To leave ten year old home alone for ten minutes.

[PilgorTheGoat]

My DS is ten and in year 5. Today he has been off school poorly but by this afternoon was pretty much back to his normal self. Was I unreasonable to leave him for ten minutes to get his siblings from school (I left home at 15.26 and was home by 15.35 - walking the whole way so minimal distance too)?

He was fine about it, had my number and knew not to open the door, etc. he didn’t move from the sofa where he was watching cartoons. It’s the first time I’ve done it and I don’t intend to make a habit of it I was just wondering what people’s views are.

AIBU - you shouldn’t leave a ten year old at home for ten minutes.
YANBU - it was fine to leave a ten year old for ten minutes.

I wouldn’t. I try to avoid judging other parents, I just wanted to know what the general consensus was over this.

Year 5 is the perfect time to start doing this.

I live a few miles from the primary school, and this year we introduced parking round the corner (as opposed to me waiting outside his classroom) and my son walks to the car. I still drop him off at the gates in the mornings though because it's a nice routine to wave him off.

For year 6, I'll park round the corner and he will walk himself to and from the car.

In year 7, he will walk from home to the secondary school just like his sister does.

We are also building him up to leaving him home alone for up to an hour. On occasion, we'll leave him for up to 20 mins but expect to extend this.

Absolutely fine to leave your 10 year old, op, if you yourself, and he, are comfortable with it. There is no minimum age prescribed by law but you have to be happy they can cope and are safe. And you are. So YANBU.

Re to and from school, I o"frequently see comments on MN and offline of "school doesn't allow them to walk to school until year x" etc. School has a duty of care in terms of releasing children at the end of the day, however how they get to school is not their concern and is a parental decision.

We started leaving dd1 alone in Y5 in exactly that scenario, a 10 minute pick-up walk.

She's Y6 now (still 10yo) and I left her for 90 minutes yesterday while I took dd2 swimming (a drive away).

Of course it's fine. I'd happily leave a 10yo home alone for an hour or so.

Beginning of Year 5 was exactly when we started doing this. I would now feel comfortable leaving my sensible Year 6 child for up to an hour, maybe an hour and a half. She walks to school independently a couple of days a week and will do so every day when she moves to secondary in September. Many parents leave it too late to start building independence and then wonder why their child can't cope with the expectations of secondary. You have nothing to worry about and there's absolutely no reason why you can't 'make a habit of it' - in fact, I would encourage you to start actively looking for opportunities for your DC to have increasing independence.

It's fine, I leave my 10 year old for 20-30 minutes and she's ok!

It depends on the child but I think that is borderline ok.
At that age they can start walking themselves to school, I wouldn't leave a 10 year old alone overnight personally but for a short period when they have your phone number sure.

It's fine.

I have even left my 9yo (year 4) in similar circumstances for about 20 minutes to drop / pick up youngest sibling.

it's not about age, but maturity!
I would have been fine at 10. My cousin however would probably have burned the house down at 13!