How old when...

[carolthatcher2003]

You should leave the kids alone?

Our neighbour came over this afternoon to return a saucepan, and we were talking for about 45 minutes, when she said "oh, i must gat back, John's on his own".

John is 4!!!!!!

I'm not leaving mine alone until they are about 20. What does the law say, what does common sense say? I can remember being left alone in the house when i was about 10 or so, I think.

I live in afirst floor flat and won't even leave my kids alone in the flat to put the rubbish out.

I think the law is quite vague about giving an actual age, because there are so many variables i.e. how sensible and mature the child is (one 10 year old might be mature enough to be left alone, whild another 13 year old might not be); what arrangements are in place if an emergency happens, such as trusted next door neighbour whom they could go to for help; how long the child is left alone; whether the child is happy/unhappy about being left alone etc, etc. It's all a bit of a grey area. In saying that, I still don't think it's acceptable to leave a 4 year old alone for 45 minutes!

My grandparents live in the flat upstairs from me, we're on the ground floor. I will nip upstairs to get something or give them something but I only go up there then come straight back. I don't stay for ages and chat. I also nip out to the wheelie bin. And I go round to the back garden and hang out the washing but I look into the kitchen window to check dd is ok, can see through to the living room from that window.

My dd is 6. I wouldn't go across the road to the shop and leave her alone though.

Noooo, not a 4 year old!

The law doesn't specify an age at which a child can be left alone - only says reasonableness. So it may be reasonable to leave a 12 year old alone at home whilst you nip to Tescos, but not whilst you go away for the weekend. If however, that 12 year old is going to be responsible for your 2 year old whilst you are at Tesco's, that is a different matter!

I thought it was 14.....

The law doesn't specify, just that if children are endangered when alone , then the "responsible" adult will bear any possible legal consequences.

I wouldn't leave a 4 yr old that long, but I'll admit to leaving 3 yr old and sleeping baby in car for a couple of minutes whilst I run in and grab 6 yr old from school ( it was raining!).

Sometimes you have too, unloading the car for example, you can't drag 3 kids in and out with you - I live in a flat so there is stairs and a couple of doors between my front door and the street.

I was thinking about this earlier because of that couple who are being charged with child abandonment in the USA for leaving 10 mth old in car for a couple of minutes.

On my childminding course the legal position was that anyone under 18 was not responsible for their own safety - ie couldn't be left alone. However this is not enforced - but if the house burnt down and your 16 or 17 year old were alone it would be your fault!!!

Ofsted registered my 16 year old dughter as my assistant and it states quite clearly on my certificate that she may be left in sole charge with the parents written permission, My network co ordinator saw it on Tuesday and said, Ofsted have not stated how many children your daughter is registered for, so theoretically she could look after any number!

NSPCC do a very good lealet called "Home alone". There is no legal age to leave children on their own, you could leave a baby on their own all day as long as there wasn't an open fire in the same room. You could however, be prosecuted for neglect, if anything happened to them.

Don't you just love it when you are handed advise down from 'on high' and it completely contradicts other peoples experiences....they used it on a course (ICP) to demonstrate that a 16 yo babysitter was the Mums responsibility!!
But this happens SO often (esp on my NVQ course)