At what age would you consider leaving child home alone in these circumstances?

[Hullabaloo9]

I work at a small local veterinary practice at the bottom of my road. It is 5 mins walk max at a slow pace. I have to work 1 in 6 Saturday mornings, 8am till 12pm. My street is on a quiet estate of terraced family homes with neighbours we know well on both sides. There is a house phone and also alexa can be asked to call my phone. My daughter is sensible and I already leave her confidently while I pop to a shop or on short errands. She usually just sits and games with friends so chatting and not lonely.

What age would you consider leaving her home alone on the Saturday morning in these circumstances?

I would be contactable at all times and able to get home in under 5 mins. Neighbours would be aware and "listening out". She would probably sleep in and then just game or watch TV till I got home (she would love this)

My nearly 10 year old would find 4 hours long and wouldn’t be happy to be alone for so long tbh. Maybe try one Saturday and see how it goes.

Dd1 would have been fine around 12 she likes her own company, she keeps herself busy fairly happily. Dd2 is 12 and I wouldn't leave her that long. I think she's been home alone for 1.5-2hours and she was starting to worry where we were. (We are working on this). Depends on the child.

Secondary school age -11/12. Especially if I thought they’d sleep until 9am ish anyway.

could they walk down to meet you half way through your shift to pop in and say hi? Or would you be allowed to check your phone to see a message they were up and okay?

Can they sensibly sort themselves food out and be trusted not to be over confident and start faffing with the cooker etc?

12. My independent and sensible 11yo would not be ok for 4 hours.

11

10, maybe slightly earlier. This would assume though they had spent time alone before (at least a couple of hours). My DC would all be fine, especially on a Saturday morning.

Thanks all for your input. I think most of you are saying that year 6 wouldn't be wildly young to start thinking about this. Dd is currently 10 but in yr 5 so it feels a bit off at the moment although realistically I know she would be fine.

I will re think it once she is in year 6. I will have to continue to wake her up and drive her across town to my sisters for now, it's just a massive faff and she hates it.

Waiting for the OP to either tell us the daughter is 5 or 25

I’d say age 10 if they are happy with it and can be trusted not to open the door, wander off, try and fry eggs…

Probably after Christmas in Y6

Same, I feel your pain with these experiments 😂

9 or 10

Also cracking up at 15, mine left me to go to work on a paper round at that age and would frequently do a double on Saturday so be gone 3 hours

Just to answer a couple of questions... She could walk down to me without even crossing a road, but i always tell her to not even open the front door if im out so i wouldnt encourage it. I can have my phone on me at all times and respond to messages. I would leave a tray of breakfast out so she wouldn't need to prepare food.... I really feel she would be fine but it just feels a bit off.

i have a July baby and would have done this probably last January time, where she would have been 10 but she was in Yr 6. She’s very smart and often sleeps til 10 on a weekend anyway. Plus I have smart fire alarms, an alert if the dog barks and a dog that would never let anyone in the house

I’d have left my daughter once she was at secondary school. Presumably no self respecting 12 year old would be up before midday anyway.

Thanks everyone. I'm glad I'm not way off with thinking about this. I am reassured now that I'm not terrible and neglectful for considering this. Will wait till yr 6 though.

Our 15 year old goes out for the day in the nearest city with mates for longer than 4 hours!

OP I’d say from Yr6 if they’re sensible, from Yr7 it’s pretty normal for them to be home alone for some of the school holidays/inset days etc

Maybe you could see if your sister would go and collect her at 10ish sometimes for it's only a couple of hours she's alone?

13

Yr 5/6 depending on the child.

My 11yr old would be fine. She can cook for herself etc.. watch tv, play ps5. Can call if needed and would ask if she needed to go to the shop etc. She has her own house key, gets herself to and from school etc.

Couldn't imagine having a 15yr old that couldn't be left in usual circumstances

As it’s only every 6 weeks could your DD sleepover at your sisters or a friend’s house. Or would your sister pick her up mid morning?

I’d agree with about 10/11 although I’ve learnt from experience even very sensible teens need a list of dos and donts, I once came back from an hour at my local to find my normally very sensible then 15 year old experimenting with deep frying something while I was out. She had no idea why I was concerned! The house survived, all was well, but I was clearer on rules after that.

DS would have been absolutely fine with that scenario when he was about 10. In fact, I doubt he would have noticed I’d gone out.

I’m pretty sure my parents had absolutely no idea where I was most of the time when I was 15. And there were no mobile phones back then.

Around 10/11 (year 6)