How old must my children be to leave them for a night?

[LakeDistrict]

I have a very sensible mature daughter of 16 (17 in September) who is happy to babysit and already does in the evenings and a quiet boy of 9 yrs. Sometime when we feel we can, my husband and I would like to go away for a night as a treat. What is your opinion on how old the children must be? Obviously we can wait until our daughter is 18 if necessary- we have waited 16 yrs already!

What do people think?

Well, considering they can get married at 16, I'd say that was old enough to stay in the house alone.

That said, it comes down to how much you trust her, and whether you think she'll get all her friends round for a party as soon as your back is turned.

There is no legal age for leaving children alone.
This scenario sounds perfectly fine to me. You kmow your children best.

No legal age, but official "advice" is that no child under 16 should be left alone for a whole night, and that you are responsible for anything that does happen whilst away until they are 16.

Your 9 year old will not be alone, he will have his sister, so if you are happy, and both kids are happy, then leave them and enjoy yourselves.

When we started leaving ours, I made sure a neighbour was in stand by in case of any emergency as well (which there never was).

I think if the 9 year old doesn't play up and become a nightmare for his sister, then you could go ahead.

But they must both be very happy with the idea, and i wouldn't go to far away, incase you needed to get back home.

if you think your ds will behave for your dd (and that she is happy with it and can contact you easily) then yeah why not! If it's only one night then you are probably only talking about tes time one night to lunch time the next day, so they would be asleep for the majority of the time wouldn't they.