What age is considered appropriate before a child can do this...

[Poppymayday]

Get themselves home from a local school, let themselves in and stay home alone for an hour or so until adult gets back home?

@Poppymayday I would say 8 or 9 is old enough to walk home from school and stay at home alone.

I feel embarassed whenever I read posts from clueless Gen Xers who think children need to be driven everywhere in SUVs. No wonder why so many children have issues. Some mumsnetters really need to grow up.

Many at 9/10 but not all dc are sensible enough yet.

My 9 year old walks home with friends but there is always someone at home when she gets back.

11/12 depending on the maturity of the child .

I did that from about 11, I think. School was about 2 miles from home. Didn't do it every day because I had activities and other things going on, but I was fine with it being a regular thing.

Depends on the child but for most I’d say year 6.

I think 11 is the right age to leave them alone for an hour but it's a bit too old to start being independent (walking from school.)

They need to be doing this by age 10 not just when they get into year 7. But NOT if there are busy roads to cross and no school crossing patrol.

IME many parents do this gradually by meeting them half way on the route. If you're not working it is an option.

@2chocolateoranges 8 is just ridiculous. An 8 year old responsible enough to have a key to let themselves into the house and be alone until a parent comes home! Stupidity and neglectful

You must have a short memory, because you should be able to remember being 8 and you should therefore be aware that an 8 year old is not a toddler.

What is an 8 year old going to do at home that would cause problems? Trip over the PlayStation?

The only issue that would be caused by being home alone is if the house does not have a landline and the 8 year old also does not have access to a mobile phone (something that wasn't a problem when I was 8 because all houses had landlines). So long as the child has access to a phone, then everything is fine.

I'm one of the dreaded Boomers and I think 8 or 9 is too young. I would go with the majority of responses saying 10/11.
I wouldn't be giving a mobile phone to an 8 year old either.
I agree with the person who said that kids can have a difficult day emotionally and it feels too young to be letting themselves in to an empty house.

@shuggles

I'm gen x and I can assure you I didn't think like that, my dc walked home from 8/9 (I was home) and changed school at 10 using the normal public bus.

I was 8, almost 9. Would get an organised minibus home from primary school at 315, let myself in, call mum at work to say I was home, take the dogs for a run on my bike down a country lane then mum came back around 5. By the time I was in year 7 she'd be home in the middle of neighbours...so like 5.45. I'd even light our gas fire in the winter.

Appreciate it would appall people nowadays wouldn't be the done thing now compared to the early noughties. Our primary school won't let children out of school without an adult before year 6.__ Kids don't get nearly the same amount of freedom and responsibility. For good reason in many cases I'm sure. However in other cases I'd say kids are probably capable way before they're allowed to do such things.

11

It very much depends on the route and how busy it is, surely.

There's a vast difference between a ten minute walk in a village setting - round the corner, across the village green dotted with local people walking their dogs, then cross one quiet road then turn into your cul-de-sac and you're home.

Or a ten minute walk in town, along pavements full of bustling people, crossing roads with lots of traffic, turn the corner into your estate, past the 'play area' and up the concrete steps to your home, a flat on the 4th floor.

The village setting, 9 or 10 depending on the child and assuming no SEN, as long as they feel confident and ok with the arrangement, and know how to contact you, and what to do in an emergency.

The town setting, 12 or 13, or maybe never? I don't know, though people have to find a way.

@Anonymouseposter I'm one of the dreaded Boomers

I miss the boomer parenting style of leaving children alone to run around and explore.

I wouldn't be giving a mobile phone to an 8 year old either.

Why? Many of the claims about health effects caused by mobile phones are unfounded, and this would be especially true if a child was rarely making phone calls on one.

I agree with the person who said that kids can have a difficult day emotionally and it feels too young to be letting themselves in to an empty house.

I don't understand what is meant by being too young to enter an house.

We're talking about children here, not dogs. The overwhelming majority of them have hands and the dexterity required to turn a key in a lock.

How have you come to the conclusion. We live in one of the healthiest cities in the country, no SUVs as quite a lot of judgement about them as round here, people walk everywhere, my children regularly did a school run of 2 miles walking to school from reception year and the park afterwards. When we got home they played extensively with their toys and sometimes we would create characters from a book, sing and produce mini plays. All that stuff at 8, is far more important for their development and for producing an intelligent, confident young adult!

I'm not Gen X but what has that got to do with it! You are on the wind up.

@okayhescereal Our primary school won't let children out of school without an adult before year 6.

That's embarassing. We definitely need to teach some adults to grow up.

You were home though, that isn't what the OP is describing.

Embarrassing to who? Odd word to use.

I know what the OP was describing - I was just responding to your comment about nobody leaving 8yo's at home in the nineties

There isn't a rush - you have to do what's right for you - but I suggest you watch the programme to understand that you also need to do what's right for your children and how these early experiences can have a positive impact on their self-confidence and self-esteem (and how stifling them can have the opposite effect). And I'm not judging this by my feeling alone - I would have thought that was obvious from my post. I watched the reactions of a group of young children in the programme who had been trusted to take on this challenge and it was their reaction to their experience that told me my parents had been neither mad or crazy to trust me to get myself to and from school safely at a young age. The programme highlights the fact that Japanese children routinely travel to school from the age of 7 (walking and by metro). Why are British children any different? As I suggested, watch the series before closing your mind.

thinking it's OK to have a child walk home alone, let themselves into the house, and spend an hour or more alone, at 6 to 8 years of age, (as some have suggested,) is fucking batshit, and I hope these posters don't have children.

I have two children (not in the UK), my oldest was walking home alone and letting herself in at 6, for a few months until my maternity leave started. My youngest will be doing similar but the other end of the school day next school year, at 7, when he'll be home alone before school, let himself out and walk to school alone (or perhaps with friends as there are children the same age in the area). My DD was fine back then, and I expect my son will be fine too, although he'll need more preparation work to be ready. None of this is batshit, it's perfectly acceptable where I live and the norm for many many children as most parents work here.

You're not German or Dutch by any chance are you? My kids in Germany were coming home by themselves at age 7 - and they would stay home alone from about age 10, but plenty of their friends were home alone a year or two earlier.

You really thought that sentence was about manual dexterity?!

It's obviously about a young child having no one to come home to and having no choice but to sit alone with their feelings when they've had emotionally difficult school day.

The vast majority of people would see that as pretty inhumane. And it did happen to people like me and children I subsequently taught.

It definitely varies depending on culture (and area).

I personally find it fascinating that what's totally normal in some cultures is seen as outright neglect in others.

No chance!