Is 12 too young to be home alone

[Moana10]

Hi all,
My son is 12 and very sensible. I work 6 hour shifts. My sister used to look after him until recently but she is now severely disabled and unable to care for him. I have no one else available to help.
Would you leave your 12 year old for 6 hours?
I cant help feel uneasy about it but I know I can mummy him too much (so I'm told) some people I know leave their 12 year olds.
My shift is 8 am till 2 pm. It takes me 10 mins in travel one way.
Opinions please?
Thanks for reading 😊

I’d leave mine home alone at that age. What would he do in that time? Would he have to let himself out for school? Would he be awake when you left?

More detail needed.
What times are you talking about eg evening and has to put himself to bed.

Do you think he would be happy?

Is he normally sensible?

Is there a neighbour he can trust?

He'd be at school most of that time
What time he leaves home?
Do you work weekends?
Is he 12 or almost 13 can make a big difference
Do you live in a house/flat
will he have friends around?
etc/etc

He wouldn't likely wake till 10 ish and he'd probably be on his pc for the whole time. He never attempts to cook etc. Only eats cereal and fruit and snacks in that time frame if I wasn't around.

Definitely at 12 at those hours. He will prob be asleep for most of it.

Yes

I leave my 11yo for 3-4hrs. The only issue is she gets a bit lonely sometimes.

Is he a sensible child that you can trust not to do anything too stupid?

It was in the message. Its 8am till 2pm. He would be happy and yes, he's a sensible lad. Neighbours will likely be at work too. He does have a phone and I could leave work in an emergency.

I think that’s a long time. But I don’t have very trustworthy children.

Yes, but in the summer holidays I would maybe book in for some holiday camps as it is a lot everyday for 5 or 6 weeks.

I’d probably go and say goodbye when I left for work, even if he turned over and went back to sleep. Has he been left on his own before at all? He'd need to know what to do if the door /phone rings, what to do in an emergency, what to eat, if he can have friends round etc but if he’s fairly sensible I’d go for it.
My kids have stayed at home together for a few hours since they were a very sensible 10&12.

No. Too long for my DS.

8am to 2pm is fine as you haven't left him overnight.

How often? My son would be fine with this, but it's not something I would want to do often, he would just sit on his console. So I wouldn't want to do it every weekend for example, but if it happened occasionally in the school holidays it would be fine.

Its fine I work the same shift with a similar length commute and he has stayed home alone during school hols since starting secondary school. He has his phone and I am allowed mine on my desk at work. I make his sandwiches for lunch and leave them in the fridge because even though he is completely capable I know he just won't bother so I do it so I know he has eaten something.

Make sure he knows how to deal with various emergencies eg electricity being tripped.

No, not too young. That's fine.
As you say he will probably be asleep for the first couple of hours or more.

(I am presuming he has been left alone for shorter periods and is happy with it).

He turned 12 beginning of December so just turned 12

Mine stay at home I leave a pack lunch because my kids are Molly coddled and have no idea how to do toast . He be fine x

Thanks OP
I would not risk it as I'm sure he is a good boy but children are children and we all were once. With mobile phones and internets, there is so much temptation to go out and meet or call someone over

Have you considered a cctv in the house so you can check? Some will shoot me down for that but you will not be doing this covertly so imo ok - Ring indoor cam a few quid and no other costs unless you want to keep/review recording you can watch live any time

I would, with the disclaimer my kids are not that age yet. But, I think it's a good age for just that level of responsibility.

Yes definitely. My 12 year old regularly choices to stay home alone. She’s more than capable of fending for herself and I leave a list of a few jobs for her to do to make sure she doesn’t lie in bed for the whole day!

My 9 and 10yo play out locally for 4-5 hours at a time (with phones) so being home alone in a safe environment would be fine.
By 12 my older 2 were walking 30 minutes home from school and it wasn’t unusual for DD to call into town for a few hours first so I’d have had no problem with her being at home and awake for a similar period.

I guess 12 sounds quite young until you’ve got a mature/sensible 12 year old that can walk to and from school, do housework, laundry, bake, cook meals etc.
Definitely capable of looking after themselves for the day as long as they don’t get lonely. Although my daughter much prefers to be alone and gets annoyed when around people too much.

Yes