At what age did you/would you leave your child home alone?

[marthamoo]

Ds1 is 9 in March - he's quite, no, very, sensible. He's been off school this week with an awful cough and I've been leaving him in the house on his own while I take ds2 to nursery and pick him up. I'm only out of the house for 10 minutes each time. I've only ever left him alone before when I've gone to the post-box (which is literaly just across the road - if he looks out of the living room window he can see it).

I'm quite happy with this (so is he) but I don't think I would leave him for any longer. That's illogical really because a disaster could occur in 10 minutes just as easily as three hours. Am I being over-cautious? I have got serious cabin fever after three days in the house and I'm going to keep him off the rest of the week too - but I still wouldn't leave him while I took ds2 to the park, or went to the shops etc. So...what age?

I think 9yo is too young to leave alone for anything more than a quick dash that you have to do. My 9yo would have a hissy fit if I left her for 10 seconds, she's the original Velcro Child! I didn't leave any of mine alone until they were 13 or so, I don't think they are mature enough and the temptation to get into mischief is too great.

My eldest is 9 in Jan and has never been left without supervision.

I don't know te answer to this one, I suppose it depends on the child and the time?

At 11 I was on my own for an hour each day at the end of school until my father came home from work. In that Time I would start to cook tea! Imagine an 11 year old alone with a chip pan

Once DD went to secondary school, she had to have inset days home alone if they differed from DS's - not enough holiday to cover both! If she was ill I would stay home with her until she got to about 13.

I can now leave DD looking after DS (10) and have just started to leave DS for a few mins at a time if dashing to collect DD from somewhere & he is in middle of homework or something.

Ironicaly I used to baby sit with a friend when I was 11. When her sister was 11 (the baby that we 'sat' with) we were still baby sitter her!

I was a 'latckey' kid from the age of 9. I used to hate it and feel scared from the time I got in from school till the time my dad got home at about half five.

I think it's ok to leave a 9 year old for short periods of time but my parents used to leave me to let my self in and be on my own for over 2 hours a day.

The only thing that my dad made me do as soon as I got in was turn on the CB radio that we had and contact him in his van so he knew I was ok and then he would keep up the contact until he got home.

I'm glad it's not just me then - I've uhmmed about leaving him for the ten minutes it takes me to take ds2 to nursery and get back but I really didn't want to take him out in the snow with such a bad cough.

It never came up for me as a child - my Mum's brother lived with us so my brother and I were never home alone. A friend I met at University had been left home alone all day from the age of about 4 - while her Mum was out at work And dh used to go to school on the bus alone from the age of 4 (ordinary bus, not a school bus).

I used to cycle to school on my own (2 miles) from age 9, and had key on piece of string round my neck to let myself in when I got home from school until my Mum came home (about 1 1/2 hours). I quite liked being on my own, though was never very happy about coming into the house (we lived in the middle of nowhere- no-one would have heard if you screamed) on my own in the dark (it was quite a creepy house as well). I just used to drop my bike on the doorstep, rush in, get lights on and shut the door. But I was fine after that - used to sneak around the house and read my Mum's hidden sex manual . It was called "Sexual Responsbility in Marriage" and was as dull as it sounds...!

No-one thought this was particularly odd then (in the 70s), but I don't think I'd be very happy for the DDs to do it now. I also remember being locked in the house (!) with my cousins at a very young age (we were about 5 & 7) while our parents went to the pub. We were instructed not to open the door to anyone or answer the phone. Pub was about 10 minutes drive away - so not exactly next door.

Were our parents more relaxed then, or more negligent?

I am similar to you martha, ds has always been sensible and he is 11, he has been ill this week, so I@ve ti=ucked im in and toddled out with dd to do my daily tescos paper and milk run.
He has he phone I have the mobile, he is not allowed to open the door to anyone.
If I went to work now (I am SAHM for most of forseeable future but..)
I would have no hesitation in giving ds a front door key and spending an hour on his own, cracking on with his homework - a lot of his friends already do this.
At 9 I was alone after school with my little bro who was 8, we were fine, neighbours were close by.