What age do you leave the kids in the house till you nip up the shop thats 5 mins away?

[charliecat]

?

8

wel oen kid maybe
id send the kid

DD1 is 8, ive just asked her and she shook her head looking a bit worried.

Ds is 10 (11 next week) and I have only started leaving him on his own this summer. And that was because he had to fly to his Dgp's by himself so I thought he need to get used to being on his own.
His friend - same age has a sister age 7 and she gets left on her own for 15 mins. However she does have two older brothers so is used to the routine IYSWIM. seems to work well for them.

i've just started leaving my 2 and they are 10 and 7. i only nip to the shop at the end of our lane and acxross the road - am away no longer than 10 mins. the road is too busy/fast for even 10 year old to go alone.

hmm, I've left all mine lots of times. Babies in their cots, and older two watching tv. The oldest is 5. but the last place we lived in as a flat on the third floor over a shop, so it was literally 10 secs from checking my post box to nip to the shop. Now, it is down the end of my road, only a minutes away. I'm gone far less time than it takes to hang my washing out.

oldest is 6 now not 5. duh!

ds2 (9) goes to the 'shop-at-the-top' (one v quiet road to cross) for me for bread/milk etc. And sometimes he even remembers to bring change and not spend it on sweets!

I don't trust dd to go to the shop, she is too scatty! She has been to the post box tho next to it. There are no roads to cross, but I still watched her all the way, I couldn't help myslef.

The first time he went, he came back, solemnly handed me the change, showed me hislolly. I asked him where the butter was and he went scarlet - he'd left it on the counter. Bless.

I wouldn't leave a child alone until they are aboout 10. and then it owuld be simply for a quick trip to the local shop where i was out for no longer than 15 minutes.

I would allow the child to go to the local shops alone at around 8 so long as there are no major roads to cross.
I guess it would depend on how they get to school. if they can mange the trip to school alone then they can get to the shop.

Nice name fattie. Not.

no way would i allow a 6 year old be at home alone and certainly not if there were younger children.

that really isn't funny

roudn here, ten year olds walk to school with friends. it would be a hell of a leap to go from constant supervision to walking half a mile to school at 10.

Probably more like 11 in my house

fm ~ not funny at all!

Not sure when (secondary school age or maybe year below?) but not for a long time yet I should think. DD is only 4 though.

We lived in an apartment complex until last year and I wouldn't even go down the lift 5 floors to get my mail.

Awful name fm, but I do have to agree that I would never leave a 6 year old at home for any amount of time and certainly not with smaller children too. Anything can happen in a flash and I just couldn't take that risk. I have 3 boys aged 12, 3 and 20 months and won't even leave the very responsible 12 year old with his younger brothers. Maybe I will in a year or two, when they are asleep, but if something happened while I was out he would feel so responsible and I don't want that.

But each to their own, I am sure no-one here leaves any child unless they feel it is totally sfae to do so.

Had to add I do leave DS1 here alone now sometimes, but not longer than an hour or two. I totally trust him to behave so have no worries about it and he gets public transport to school and meet ups with his freinds so it's daft to say he can't be alone now.

fattie, why on earth are you using such a horrible name?

Bad day?

www.nspcc.org.uk/home/needadvice/childrenathomealone.htm

The above link issues guidance about this topic. Personally, I would not leave young kids alone in the house - accidents can happen in very short spaces of time !